7,000 Americans Try Pot Each Day, Anti-Male Bias at University of Chicago?, Looking for Liberland: A.M. Links

• 

  Rene Fluger/ZUMA Press/Newscom

  A "patch of shrubby swampland" or an "anarcho-libertarian utopia"? Politico writer Tara Palmeri takes a journey to Liberland.

• Behind the undoing of Fox News boss Roger Ailes.
• The New York Times Editorial Board calls for repealing laws that require excessive doses of abortion drugs under the guise of women's safety.
• Some 7,000 Americans try marijuana for the first time every day.
• Melania Trump is suing The Daily Mail over the paper's report that she once worked for an escort service. "The point of the article was that these allegations could impact the U.S. presidential election even if they are untrue," said the Mail, which retracted the piece.
• The University of Chicago is being sued over alleged "anti-male bias" in its handling of sexual assault cases.
• News coverage of birth control is heavy on priests and politicians, light on doctors or other medical experts.
• The founder of Latinos for Trump warned that if Donald Trump isn't elected, the U.S. will see "taco trucks [on] every corner." (Yes, please?)
• No one is happy with how states are handling policies for high-school transgender athletes.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

A "patch of shrubby swampland" or an "anarcho-libertarian utopia"?

DC?

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Actually, it turns out to be a disputed piece of land between Serbia and Croatia. I'd never heard of it before. I might have to RTFA, it looks pretty interesting.

[Swiss Servator]

Reason covered it some time back....but it didn't seem to be going anywhere.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Didn't the Czech founder want to ban all drugs in this utopia, because drugs prevent your mind from being a flawless rational machine, or some such nonsense? Those Czechs have strange ideas about liberty.

[Swiss Servator]

I suspect he was just throwing up some BS to stop the place from becoming "Needle Park - Balkans Edition".

[Tommy_Grand]

"But he only wants to admit people who will give back to their country. "We want to make sure that it's a nice group of people who can trust each other," he says."

omigod like trumpkins! light the racist beacon

[Raven Nation]

It's in a bad neighborhood.

[commodious readies for the end]

Europe?

[Swiss Servator]

*applause*

[Raven Nation]

Seconded

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

Well, at least we know Hillary would never be accused of being a former escort.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

Paging sugerfree

[Swiss Servator]

NO! NO! NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

[Chipper Morning Wood]

But in the future, she would be happy to escort you to the crony room for a hefty donation. Or to the Hefty room for a crony allegation.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Ewwww/ teenage girl.

[Libertarian]

We're talking about the First Spouse here; it's Bill we need to worry about.

[Princess Trigger]

Another swampland where humans sought freedom:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/.....22/?no-ist

[Fist of Etiquette]

Some 7,000 Americans try marijuana for the first time every day.

It's the same 7,000, the reefer just makes them forget yesterday.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

"Man, this shit is good. I'm going to have to make a habit out of this."

[Just a thought not a sermon]

223) Last year I picked up the first season of WKRP on DVD. For some reason my daughter, age 7, loves it. We've watched all the first-season episodes and have now moved on to the second season. I don't know that it's quite appropriate for her but the more adult jokes are over her head.

It got me to thinking about sitcoms. Here are my Top 5 sitcoms of all time:

1) Seinfeld

2) WKRP

3) Simpsons

4) Cheers

5) Arrested Development

Alas, I don't have time for TV too much nowadays. 30 Rock was pretty funny, but I haven't really seen any of the newer shows.

My most overrated list:

1) Friends?I really hated this show

2) Growing Pains?the characters are so annoying

3) Gilligan's Island/Beverly Hillbillies/nearly any other 60s sitcom (but not Andy Griffith?that one was decent)

[UnCivilServant]

Many of your top five land on my "severely overrated" list, with your #1 on my "Embarassed by proxy" for the characters. It's just an unpleasant, unfunny show about people I'd prefer to introduce to a baseball bat.

[Citizen X]

UCS only watches nature programs on PBS.

[Zeb]

He never disappoints.

[UnCivilServant]

I'm not going to support the waste of my tax dollars like that!

[Citizen X]

Only certain nature programs. For instance, UCS finds meerkats to be "clownish and uninspiring."

He also likes Antiques Road Show, but wishes some of the people on there wouldn't get so excited when they find out they're sitting on a treasure. It's unseemly.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Heh. That show is perfect to mock and parody.

I especially like when people think they have something valuable they hunted in the deep forests of Central America only to find out it's worthless crap.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

I would love to fool one of those antique experts with some piece of shit from Target.

[Citizen X]

Only certain nature programs. For instance, UCS finds meerkats to be "clownish and uninspiring."

He also likes Antiques Road Show, but wishes some of the people on there wouldn't get so excited when they find out they're sitting on a treasure. It's unseemly.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

The meerkats are eating the squirrels.

[commodious readies for the end]

How indecorous.

[Zeb]

I know what you mean. The original British version of The Office is probably the tops for that sort of thing.

But I like it, and largely for that reason. Too many sitcoms try to add serious plots and character development. I like Seinfeld exactly because the characters are just these ridiculous people who never grow or learn anything or become better people.

[Citizen X]

Same with It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which is the Seinfeld of the current day.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

I hear Curb Your Enthusiasm is coming back for another season.

[lap83]

I think the UK Office did character development well, especially when you take the special into account. But it was realistic and subdued, not "I learned something today"

[Zeb]

I used too many ambiguous pronouns. Seinfeld is where no one grows, The Office is the tops for uncomfortable, embarrassing comedy.

[Mike Laursen]

Funny, that's how I feel about his #5. I don't get the appeal of Arrested Development at all. What's with the continual narration of what's going on; it's so annoying.

[Mike Laursen]

Funny, that's how I feel about his #5. I don't get the appeal of Arrested Development at all. What's with the continual narration of what's going on; it's so annoying.

[Crusty Juggler]

No Frasier? Racist.

[Fist of Etiquette]

NewsRadio

[Steve G]

This. I mean seriously, Joe Rogan, Phil Hartman, etc.

[Rich]

*Surely* you're not lumping Green Acres"in with "nearly any other 60s sitcom"!

[Swiss Servator]

+1 Arnold Ziffel

[Mike Laursen]

+1 Mr. Haney

[Rufus The Monocled]

I agree with your five (not necessarily the order) but would The Office and Taxi. And for me, I love King of the Hill and South Park.

[Rufus The Monocled]

And Newsradio - one of the all-time most under rated.

[Rufus The Monocled]

'Dave's Canadian?"

[straffinrun]

Malcolm in the Middle.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Yeh, that was hilarious.

[straffinrun]

This scene.

[Gene]

Yes!

[Hamster of Doom]

Gravity Falls.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Ooh, forgot about this one. Still don't think it would be in my top 5, but a good one. My wife and I still quote a couple of the episodes. The one where Malcolm and Stevie run away, and Stevie's parents drive down the street shouting "Stevie! Stevie! Stevie!" continuously out the window, has become my default view for every overprotective parent I encounter.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

* Referring to Malcolm in the Middle with this comment, of course

[straffinrun]

Reese was a comic genius.

[Citizen X]

The episode where he joined a pack of stray dogs and he wasn't even the alpha? Hilarious.

[straffinrun]

Beating up the clowns as a family outing was pretty good, too.

[commodious readies for the end]

Doubt Stevie was doing much running.

[Adans smith]

I agree,very funny.

[Adans smith]

And I like Hogan's Hero's and feel bad about it.

[UnCivilServant]

I don't feel bad, but I wish they'd had more than four plots.

[Swiss Servator]

NEEDZ MOAR SIGRID VALDIS!

[Elspeth Flashman]

Well you should feel bad about it. Just kidding, I watched that with my dad, and thought it was funny when I was 9.

[R C Dean]

Its amazing to think that Hogan's Heros was made, what, only 20 -25 years after WWII.

That would be like someone making a light-hearted comedy about Saddam Hussein's regime, well, now.

[lap83]

+1 I had no interest in watching Breaking Bad until I found out Bryan Cranston was in it

[Bee Tagger]

Scrubs

[Citizen X]

"You're just like that show Scrubs! You keep appearing and disappearing, and it's not funny!"

[Citizen X]

"You're just like that show Scrubs! You keep appearing and disappearing, and it's not funny!"

[Swiss Servator]

*narrows gaze*

[UnCivilServant]

You've pissed off the squirrels something awful today.

[Swiss Servator]

I think he did this one on purpose...

[Citizen X]

My thoughts and prayers are with me.

[Citizen X]

Community.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Oh, how I fucking hate Community. Don't get me started.

[Crusty Juggler]

Someone needs to listen to the smooth sounds of Daybreak.

[Citizen X]

My thoughts and prayers are with you.

[Agent Cooper]

"You're the AT&T of people."

My top 5

5. It's Your Move (ahead of its time)/Community
4. UK Office
3. Seinfeld
2. Arrested Development
1. All in the Family (yeah, I know ... but what O'Connor did with Bunker was amazing)

[SoCal Deathmarch]

It's Your Move was definitely ahead of its time and when I mention it to most people the have no fucking idea what I'm talking about. Jason Bateman was great, and the shots of breaking the fourth wall were a novelty at the time.

[SoCal Deathmarch]

Also, why has nobody mentioned Trailer Park Boys? Now that show is groundbreaking and fucking fantastic! Bubbles may be the greatest sitcom character in my lifetime.

[Krabappel]

Community is great. I'm currently rewatching it.

30 Rock
Seinfeld
Futurama (not a sitcom but it's one of the best tv shows ever made)
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

[invisible furry hand]

Which reminds me... Don't Trust The Bitch in Apartment 23

[Private Chipperbot]

Great show, but I may have my babe blinders on.

[You Sound Like a Prog (MJG)]

Ehh... kinda like The Simpsons, I don't know about praising a show when over half the episodes range from decent to bad. Both shows have tremendous highs, but they both became way too broad and dumb at some point (obviously, The Simpsons lasted a whole lot longer than Community in that sense).

[Krabappel]

I give you only 2 meow meow beanz for your opinion of Community.

[You Sound Like a Prog (MJG)]

What a waste of guest stars that was.

Though Mitch Hurwitz as Koogler was streets ahead.

[Crusty Juggler]

"The Koog approves!"

[Rufus The Monocled]

By the way....LOVE WKRP.

[Cyto]

That's just because you thought turkeys could fly.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

That was the funniest single episode of any show through-out my childhood.

I laughed until I almost threw-up.

[robc]

I assume thd dvds still dont have the original music?

[Just a thought not a sermon]

You assume wrongly. Shout Factory bought the rights to the show from CBS and went to some trouble to get the rights to as much of the music as they could. They allege over 90% of the music is original. Apparently omissions include Pink Floyd and Bob Marley, although in watching, I haven't noticed any major problems. I've definitely heard the real Bob Seger, EW&F, Foreigner, many others.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

You just have to get the Shout Factory DVDs that have come out in the past couple years, not the ones from about 10 years ago which don't have any of the original music.

[robc]

Time to get the DVDs then. Last time I checked (admittedly a long while back), they had very little of the original music.

[Rhywun]

Futurama

And no I Love Lucy? For shame.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Know what? I have to say, that and The Honeymooners still hold up rather well.

Hey, we forgot The Flintstones!

"I love my mother in law!"

[invisible furry hand]

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Brass (a very obscure but eye-wateringly funny UK sitcom)

Fawlty Towers

[Just a thought not a sermon]

I didn't think of British sit-coms. I might have to do a separate list for them, because they have such a different feel from the US shows. Fawlty Towers would definitely be on it, as well as Black Adder.

[UnCivilServant]

I was going to mention "Yes, Minister", but that was a documentary series. (I need to watch that again)

[Swiss Servator]

Second both those.

[Zeb]

I thought we were sticking to American. My biggest favorites are probably British. Yes, Minister, Fawlty Towers, Peep Show, Red Dwarf are high on my list. Then Monty Python, of course, but that's not a sitcom.

[Elspeth Flashman]

I can probably recite whole episodes of Red Dwarf.

[commodious readies for the end]

Black Books deserves a nod. And Dylan Moran, if you can stomach the insufferable cliches about Americans (seriously, I want to shake some English comedians who a) conflate a slice of middle-class American travelers for the entire country, and b) act as though some random slob from Brighton who travels the continent isn't just as obstreperous and obnoxious), is a pretty funny comedian.

Ditto Spaced. If you like Simon Pegg, it's the ur-Simon Pegg of Simon Pegg.

[commodious readies for the end]

some English British comedians

[Zeb]

Yeah, the Scottish and Welsh ones don't get a pass.

It is funny how the nation that gave the world Chavs makes fun of Americans for being uncouth hicks. It would be fine if it was just some good natured ribbing, but many seem to actually believe that Americans are all either a bunch of stupid hicks or just like the annoying tourists they run into.

[commodious readies for the end]

Made funnier still be the fact that an agglomeration of three hundred fifty million people barely qualifies as a governable country, much less a single people. So you've met a few boorish Americans, and now you know American culture from sea to shining sea? Los Angelistas and rural southwestern Hispanics and the French Quarter and Brooklyn hipsters and the Pennsylvanian Amish and Chicagan blacks and Appalachian whites are all one undifferentiated mass?

What they're really objecting to is the petit bourgeois, which is understandable whatever their country of origin. It's just lazy pandering on their part.

[Free Society]

Los Angelistas and rural southwestern Hispanics and the French Quarter and Brooklyn hipsters and the Pennsylvanian Amish and Chicagan blacks and Appalachian whites are all one undifferentiated mass?

As your point illustrates, despite the fact that it makes no sense, the "melting pot" theory of nationhood is still conventional wisdom.

[commodious readies for the end]

"Chunky stew" just doesn't have the same appeal.

[Free Society]

Marble cake is the best you can hope for, and even then that's just a euphemism for Balkanization.

[Zeb]

It's a really big pot. Takes a long time to melt and reach equilibrium.

I get your point, but I still like "melting pot". Yeah, there are tons of regional and cultural differences within the US. But they are all very dynamic and interact peacefully. I don't think that "melting pot" was ever intended to imply eventual homogeneity. Which I suppose you could argue makes it a bad metaphor.

[Rhywun]

Fawlty Towers

Oh god yes.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Fawlty Towers is gold. Speaking of British shows, how has no one mentioned Peep Show and Fresh Meat? Two of the funniest shows ever made.

[commodious readies for the end]

Peep Show vs. The Office for cringiest scenes.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Peep show is very cringe making.

[commodious readies for the end]

Mitchell standing at the alter with Olivia Coleman quietly sobbing beside him as the priest officiates their wedding.

[lap83]

Brass Eye*? I think there are episodes on youtube
Peep Show
Spaced

[invisible furry hand]

Oh God yes! Brass Eye was so savage...

OK let me also add:

The Thick of It
Black Books
Father Ted
League of Gentlemen
Dad's Army
Alan Partidge

[commodious readies for the end]

FUCKITY BYE

[Chipper Morning Wood]

"People? You can't trust people, mate. People voted for Hitler and like Coldplay."

[mojoe]

Fawlty Towers

Blackadder

The IT Crowd

[Mike Laursen]

No Taxi?

[Rufus The Monocled]

I mentioned it above.

[Elspeth Flashman]

What about Soap?

[You Sound Like a Prog (MJG)]

Keepin' it 'Merican:

Arrested Development (the FOX seasons, anyway)
Veep
Seinfeld
Curb Your Enthusiasm
It's Always Sunny

I don't know how to rank The Simpsons and Futurama, because they have some of the greatest episodes and seasons of anything, but there's also a lot of junk in both. I can watch any of the episodes of the above shows and laugh a lot, even when I know it's got problems. But there are episodes of The Simpsons and Futurama where almost nothing lands for me.

And as a young'un, it's hard for me to rate classics like Frasier, Cheers, Mary Tyler Moore, Taxi... I've seen a lot or a little of these shows, but not enough to judge.

Most overrated:

Parks & Recreation

[Derpmaster General]

Parks and Rec is unintentionally solid. Nick Offerman and Chris Pratt steal it.

Any list that doesn't include Frasier, Arrested Development, and Fawlty Towers is wrong. The IT Crowd is great too.

[Clich? Bandit]

You are all heathens and philistines.
How DARE you leave out Married With Children (Kelly Bundy...drool).
The only redeeming thing is someone included Blackadder. The best Rowan ever (I hate Bean).
And lets not forget the Drew Carey show (Kate...drool). No bullshit, a truly original and hilarious format and script as well as spectacular acting.
Home Improvement gets an honorable mention for the physical comedy and timing of Tim Allen.
As for the wittiest I would go with Fraser. DHP is one of the best straight (yet gay, ironically) men out there.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Drew Carey I agree. I remember an episode when David Cross was playing the part of a psycho salesman in a department store. Gold.

[You Sound Like a Prog (MJG)]

There's a soft spot in my heart for Home Improvement, but it's not deserving of such high honors.

[mad.casual]

Last year I picked up the first season of WKRP on DVD. For some reason my daughter, age 7, loves it.

Sledge Hammer! - I watched it as a Comedy, turns out it was all kinds of instructional. As long as slapstick human violence and obnoxious gunplay are acceptable it's pretty kid-friendly too. My boys love it and there's plenty of stuff I didn't catch or didn't remember from my childhood.

Chief of Police: "By the way sir, your home security guard is in critical condition."
Mayor: "Aw, the poor man, he was like an employee to me."

[Azathoth!!]

No one said Raising Hope? Or The Young Ones? Addams Family? Bob's Burgers? Archer?

[Bee Tagger]

The University of Chicago is being sued over alleged "anti-male bias" in its handling of sexual assault cases.

And its depictions of husbands on multi-cam sitcoms.

[commodious readies for the end]

No safe spaces for kangaroo courts either.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The point of the article was that these allegations could impact the U.S. presidential election even if they are untrue...

They're going for a self-fulfilling prophecy?

[invisible furry hand]

Russians are reportedly queuing up to be buried alive in Moscow
They pay 3000 roubles for the chance to solve their fears
Organiser claims sessions help reduce fear of death and claustrophobia

[Just a thought not a sermon]

I would only do this to practice my Kill Bill-style coffin-punching technique.

[Rufus The Monocled]

To re-enact that scene in The Twilight Zone was it?

Anyone remember that episode?

[Just a thought not a sermon]

You may be thinking of this Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0508387/synopsis

[Brett L]

Living in Soviet era block housing, I can see how that would be a primary fear.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

There were people doing this here in the 90s. It was only like $200. You stayed buried for 24 hours.

[SugarFree]

What about using the terlet?

[Libertarian]

People pay other people to bury them? I'M IN THE WRONG BUSINESS.

[Agent Cooper]

Don't bury me! I'm not dead!

[Fist of Etiquette]

No one is happy with how states are handling policies for high-school transgender athletes.

Then everyone is impacted equally. Call it a win.

[Certified Public Asshat]

This year, transgender teens may have a better shot at high school sports in Nebraska: The state's new policy allows trans girls and boys to compete on teams corresponding with their gender preference. But before they can do that, they'll have to prove to a four-member Gender Identity Eligibility Committee that they're "consistently" transgender. Trans girls, who are born male but identify as female, will have to undergo sex reassignment surgery or a year of hormone therapy to play.

Sounds like a lot of work to play spring softball.

[Adans smith]

Yeah,letting guys play women's sports will work just fine. And girls in a guy sport? I see lawsuits when one gets killed.

[kinnath]

Gets sexually assaulted on the field.

[BakedPenguin]

Yeah,letting guys play women's sports will work just fine.

Renee Richards sure thought so.

[John DeWitt]

Never realized Ladybugs was really a thought provoking documentary.

[Mike Laursen]

Pretty sure the set of completely transgender teens in Nebraska is null.

[Agent Cooper]

Four-member Gender Identity Eligibility Committee

Oh shit. (calls buddy) we got ourselves a new band name!

[Injun, as in from India]

What if we get rid gender divisions in sports.

Everyone can participate. No discrimination or segregation.

Of course, most medals will go to physically stronger males, but that's a small price to pay for full equality and participation.

[Certified Public Asshat]

And no more WNBA. I like it.

[Free Society]

Of course by equality they mean that female athletes should get all the rewards accrued to male athletes even if they don't produce the same value. And preferably they should be subsidized by the male athletes. And treated as their equals in the sport.

Like the Australian national women's soccer team that cries and goes on strike about the unfairness of being paid less than men, is the same team that ironically also goes on to lose to a local high school boys soccer team whose oldest players were 15 years old.

[Free Society]

I don't think 'lose' is the right word. 'Crushed' 7-0 is more apt.

[commodious readies for the end]

Your allusion to misogynistic violence is problematic.

[mad.casual]

I don't think 'lose' is the right word. 'Crushed' 7-0 is more apt.

Testosterone injections; the cause of and solution to all of our problems.

[perlchpr]

Jesus. Reading the article above, it'd be interesting to see how that same boys team stood up against the actual Rio gold team from Japan.

[Timon 19]

The only thing surprising in the Mail article is the complete and utter shock they reported on. This (ordinary U-15/16/17 boys teams beating full senior women's national teams, sometimes by huge margins) has been happening for approximately forever. The US WNT has known this for its entire existence and has a rough formula for what age to play to obtain a particular "feel", using it as a training tool.

That's right, the undisputed best women's program ever loses to schoolboys. It happens all the time, and they use it to learn. Unfortunately, the US WNT has its own problem learning different styles versus just using their physical superiority over most other womens' sides. They also have a problem due to their full-time employee contract structure which discourages competition and encourages "roster spots for life".

I do feel a bit for the Matildas if it is indeed true that they are expected to train full-time FOR THEIR Aussie National Team spots and are paid part-time. However, for at least a few of them, the Aussie National Team isn't a full-time gig, as they play for clubs, likely.

[Timon 19]

Part 2

The US Women have a weird arrangement (that completely undermines their SJW mewlings recently) whereby they are paid full-time wages (pretty good ones, too) by the USSF, even though the USWNT is not nearly a full-time job. Their full-time employer is a team in the NWSL, for which they ALSO get wages, but much lower - BUT IT'S STILL PAID FOR BY USSF!!

Furthermore, no non-national team player in NWSL may make more than the REDUCED wages a national team player pulls in NWSL. It's a total racket. If they actually got "equality" with the Men's National Team, they'd be severely reducing their own ultimate take-home pay.

[Timon 19]

The Matildas did this also?

We're currently going through some world-class derp with the US Women's team.

What no one seems to understand (or is opposed to understanding) is that the USWNT players actually draw a rather significant yearly salary from the US Soccer Federation - which complicates things like team selection and competition - while the men only get paid appearance fees and bonuses and are effectively independent contractors on a "gig" basis.

People are complaining about "wage inequity" when one side is a full-time employee with benefits and the other just shows up when called and gets some money sometimes. More than half of the top 25-paid players by the USSF were women.

[Free Society]

The lightyear span of the skill deficit alone invalidates the equal pay argument. Then with your points above, it becomes clear that they're overpaid if anything.

[ant1sthenes]

It will educate women about equality. Namely, it doesn't exist, and even legal/political equality was a gift from their natural masters which can just easily be taken away.

[perlchpr]

I don't think it would work, because then either you just field one team, and all of the slots go to boys, statistically speaking, or you field two notionally mixed gender teams, and call one the "good" team, and the other one the "lousy" team. And then what, have a division specifically for the lousy teams?

I think Title IX would have some objections to that, too.

[mad.casual]

I think Title IX would have some objections to that, too.

This in addition to what I was saying above. The 'good' team is made up entirely of genetic women who've been on regimented testosterone doses for years doesn't sound a better outcome (politically or sports-wise) than the 'good' team made up entirely of genetic men who've been on regimented hormone suppressants for years doesn't sound any better than...

It's lose, lose, lose.

[mad.casual]

The only really 'good' and/or decisive outcome is if a team full of roided out freaks (overhwelmingly male) pounds the shit out of everyone else. The only really good contest would be two roided out teams of freaks (overwhelmingly male) square off against each other.

(Trans)gender, hormones, and sports physiology are intrinsically linked (scientifically anyway). You can't extricate one from the others without making an event that no one would watch.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

"to compete on teams corresponding with their gender preference"

Doesn't that kinda... defeat the purpose of having gendered sports in the first place??

[commodious readies for the end]

Precisely. Unless you're a hermaphrodite, your "preference" shouldn't matter whatsoever: your biological makeup is what it is. So a trans "girl" will continue playing on boys' teams, and likewise trans boys. Off the field, wear whatever you like.

Also, isn't it a little sick that we're indulging the fantasies of schoolchildren and teenagers? Since when have we been content ascribing mature, rational self-identity to anyone under twenty?

[Libertarian]

"isn't it a little sick that we're indulging the fantasies of schoolchildren and teenagers?"

Yes, yes it is. I see a lot of families, though, where it seems that the kids run things. Mom will tell little Billy "no" 5 or 6 times, and then say, "he never listens to me."

[commodious readies for the end]

It's a little worse than merely indulging in a fad, though. My parents indulged some of my hobbies, even though they were nerdy and didn't help me academically or athletically (I was a sucker for collectibles...). In retrospect I kinda wish they hadn't, but at least I'm not scarred for life or dealing with the aftermath of a tremendous and horrendously bad decision.

What's going on with Tumblr teens these days appears to be nothing short of a cult revolving around what might indeed be a serious medical condition, but has become a bandwagon for all goodthinkful children to embrace. Worse still, it's gotten institutional and academic imprimatur, making what should be a harmless if silly bit of childhood roleplay into a potentially life-altering undertaking. Impressionable youngsters are being taught not only that identifying as their actual gender is immoral because it others those who don't, but also impractical because they can't know whether they really should identify as their actual gender. The transgender activists are working to short-circuit the natural, often confused intellectual and emotional development of children to advance their notion of non-binary gender identity. It really is sick stuff.

[John DeWitt]

Title IX basically just becomes a legal method for schools to maintain JV teams of "self identifying girls" who can "change their minds" when called up to the "boys" squad. Girls go back to not playing sports. Everyone wins.

[Bra Ket]

Next they can address fat shaming by letting boxers and wrestlers compete in the weight class of their preference.

[Drave Robber]

Having no weight classes ends up in sumo.

[mad.casual]

Then everyone is impacted equally. Call it a win.

The shortstop got a concussion from a pop fly early in the season...

Some impacted more than others.

[Bee Tagger]

Some 7,000 Americans try marijuana for the first time every day.

That's just how dangerous marijuana is. They don't even remember trying it for the first time yesterday.

[commodious readies for the end]

We also have a thousand illegals settling in the country every day. So the marijuana scourge trumps immigration by 7:1. Now, if only we could get some figures on ass-sex, we can rank them and focus on the really pressing issues...

[Citizen X]

The founder of Latinos for Trump warned that if Donald Trump isn't elected, the U.S. will see "taco trucks [on] every corner."

This is a threat? I mean, the deliciousness more than balances out the dysentery.

[Brett L]

Living in a taco desert (Cuban food is great, but I want fucking TACOS!), I would totally vote for El Trumpo if I thought this were possible.

[Juvenile Bluster]

No, this is what happens if he *isn't* elected. You'll have to vote for Hillary if you want your delicious taco trucks.

[RBS]

Tulpa hardest hit.

[commodious readies for the end]

This is a threat?

"Who wants to eat 'chimini-changas' next year? Not me."

[invisible furry hand]

Angler meets nudist - ouch!

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Not, not, not clicking.

[straffinrun]

Back at the lakeside, Fendt was unable to remove the hook ? but he cut the fishing line and cycled home before he drove to the hospital where a slightly amused doc was on hand to help.

Slightly amused at his obvious lie.

[Brett L]

The Top 1 Reason Men Don't Fish Nekkid!

[ant1sthenes]

"Angler" or Kiryuin assassin? I'm just asking questions.

[invisible furry hand]

A shopper got the shock of their life when a 50cm long snake slithered out of a plastic bag and into a supermarket check-out.

[UnCivilServant]

Oh, it's an australian snake. Better safe than sorry - nuke the store from orbit.

[Citizen X]

Store Visited By Australian Snake; No Survivors

[BigT]

After Hildog heard about Monica:

Bill: "There was smoke but no gun."

[Injun, as in from India]

Bill: "There was steam but no stank."

[Fist of Etiquette]

The founder of Latinos for Trump warned that if Donald Trump isn't elected, the U.S. will see "taco trucks [on] every corner." (Yes, please?)

I doubt President Hillary is going to do anything to ease food truck regs in our cities.

[Bee Tagger]

"The point of the article was that these allegations could impact the U.S. presidential election even if they are untrue," said the Mail

Hey, worry about overstating the impact you have on your own dumb elections and leave ours out of it.

[Domestic Dissident]

Vice President Joe Biden reaches a new personal low, as he silences a protestor by implying that his son's death had something to do with Iraq.

Wow, what a piece of garbage.

[Rich]

Don't forget that clown who said the "Angel Mothers *claim* their children were killed by illegal immigrants".

[Crusty Juggler]

Mike, we have similar taste. Think about that.

[Citizen X]

Both of you should feel pretty awful right about now.

[Swiss Servator]

*leaves two whisky bottles, two revolvers and two rounds of ammo*

[Citizen X]

[Crusty pours whiskey over own naked body, shoots Mike M. twice]

[Crusty Juggler]

Don't listen to them, Mike M. I say we hug like men: assses-out, no eye-contact, and fist-bangs on the back. Maybe a single friendship tear that will be quickly wiped away.

[bacon-magic]

You'll need to leave more ammo for the first responders who show up.

[John DeWitt]

Beau Biden served in Iraq as a major in the Judge Advocate General Corps from 2008 to 2009.

I see. All that trauma from being only a Major on BIAP meant he never had the opportunity to get an NTV ride to the DFAC. Walking in that heat likely led to his all too early death.

[Princess Trigger]

"News coverage of birth control is heavy on priests and politicians, light on doctors or other medical experts."

They know what women need.

[Hamster of Doom]

It says "control" right there in the name.

[Mickey Rat]

Of course politicians are involved with the coverage bow that it has moved to whether birth control should be a type of free shit.

[Bee Tagger]

The founder of Latinos for Trump warned that if Donald Trump isn't elected, the U.S. will see "taco trucks [on] every corner."

Where do the candidates stand on whether a taco is a sandwich? Why am I the only one asking the important questions?

[Rich]

There'll be a taco truck in front of every Walgreens?!

[Brett L]

It depends, do you eat the inferior wheat toritllas?

[Swiss Servator]

Corn or GTFO?

[Brett L]

I'm being a bit tongue in cheek. Fresh corn is awesome. And obviously, for hard shells, no question. But it is nice sometimes to have a taco that forgives you if you get a little zealous grabbing it. Corn does fall apart. Something about it being chemtrails or gluten free.

[Agent Cooper]

YES.

[straffinrun]

Taco Truck. Good name for Ms. Universe.

[commodious readies for the end]

A taco is a taco, just like gyros are Greek tacos.

[mojoe]

Don't worry, I'm sure this will be covered in one of the debates.

'Madam Secretary, I'd like to change the subject for a moment if I may (bows head, waiting for dispensation to continue)? If you were a delicious, magnificent, presidential sandwich, which kind of amazing, regal sandwich would you be? And please forgive my likening your eminence to such a pedestrian food item'.

[BigT]

"Fish taco. Rotten fish"

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

A tortas is a taco sandwich.

[Crusty Juggler]

'My friends died,' heckler shouts. 'So did my son,' Joe Biden shoots back

Faced with a determined heckler during a campaign rally for Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden reached for a very personal response in Cleveland on Thursday.

"My friends died, my American friends," the heckler was shouting, remonstrating with the vice-president over US policy in Syria.

"My friend died," he repeated, challenging Biden to explain his recent demand that Kurdish allies withdraw from captured Isis territory.

Interrupted again while trying to explain the complex Middle East policy, something snapped on stage after the third shout of "my friend died".

"Will you listen? So did my son, OK?" shot back the vice-president, instantly silencing both the heckler and those in the crowd who had been trying to drown out the disruption by shouting: "Hillary, Hillary."

[Crusty Juggler]

"Why did you tell the YPG to go back?" he shouted at Biden, who intervened during a recent visit to Turkey.

"Because the deal was to get them into Manbij ? and to work ? was that they would go back across the Euphrates so we could have [US] special forces move in. That's why," responded the vice-president.

The heckler, who calls himself Reinas or "Renas Isis-slayer" in a video explaining why he fought in Syria, said he was still waiting to speak to the vice-president after the incident.

"At first they toyed with the idea of my meeting Biden, but in the end I was told that he didn't have time for me," he told the Guardian on Friday. "So I offered my phone number, so that Joe Biden could contact me. I'm still waiting."

Joe didn't hesitate to play that card.

[Swiss Servator]

That is odd...I would have remembered Biden being KIA'd while I was there.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding and perhaps quibbling, but didn't one die in the service of his country and was taking its leaders to task for decisions undertaken and the other (Biden) pass away because of illness?

Two different emotional cases, no?

[Juvenile Bluster]

Beau Biden died of cancer. Tragic, but Joe bringing it up here makes no sense.

[tarran]

It's not supposed to make sense to rational people.

It's supposed to make sense to proggies.

[straffinrun]

Dad, I can't roll over with you standing on my head like it's a soapbox.

[Princess Trigger]

PEPE!

[Timon 19]

Creepy Uncle Joe was in Cleveland last night?

That explains my flight tracking setup picking up a 757 (VC-32) with the call-sign "AF2" on it. Flew only a couple miles from me.

[Crusty Juggler]

Cabbie Whips Passenger With Belt When She Says She Can't Pay, Police Say

A cab driver whipped a passenger with a belt on a desolate industrial street when the woman tried to leave the taxi without paying for a ride from Manhattan, according to police.

This never happened before Uber came around. Also, the woman was most likely a hipster, so I mean, obviously she should not have been whipped by a cab driver for not paying the fare from Manhattan, but she was a hipster, so...you know...not that it is good, it's just not that bad. Not that it's good, of course.

[$park? is totally a Swifty]

Pound of flesh successfully extracted.

[straffinrun]

Ouch. Just remember not a drop of blood must be spilt.

[Princess Trigger]

Tacos are the price we pay for Civilization.

[Swiss Servator]

Tulpa hardest hit?

[Hamster of Doom]

People up north don't have real Mexican food. They think they have real Mexican food, but they don't. This can only be an improvement.

[Swiss Servator]

My part of Northern Illinois has a direct pipeline o' people from three different places in Mexico - at least two of them make very tasty foods for low prices. When you walk into a place, and the game is on (Cruz Azul v Guadalajara) Univision, and you are the only English-as-a-primary-language speaker...tell me it isn't "real".

[Hamster of Doom]

Oh, I absolutely knew that someone was going to ignore both the joke and a thousand miles of pale "Mexican" rice and dehydrated bean product to bring out "I one time knew this one guy from Mexico, which means all Mexican food up north is awesome, QED!"

Never change, HyR.

[Swiss Servator]

Lighten up, Francis Timmy.

[Hamster of Doom]

So racist.

[bacon-magic]

+1 Beef tongue burrito and a Chicago style corn on the cob from a street vendor in Aurora.

[Caput Lupinum]

Oh Yeah, well, people down south don't have real Canadian food! So, take that, I guess? I'm depressed now.

[Swiss Servator]

Mmmm....peameal bacon sammich! Poutine... Timbits...

[tarran]

Do you have any Kraft dinner?

[Eternal Blue Sky]

Which is why we need open borders, damn it!!

[Eternal Blue Sky]

Or, how about we have "Open Borders" but you have to immigrate to the places with the least amount of authentic Mexican food?? The program open only to Mexicans, of course.

[robc]

Cant it be both?

[Crusty Juggler]

Reason favorite writes another article that will receive a lot of attention, probably resulting in instant state legislation that will hurt poors: Trapped in a Tollbooth, and Targeted for Harassment

Toll takers said they had been plied with pickup lines, phone numbers, and gifts like perfume, flowers and food while also being targets of stares and filthy gestures. The episodes involve male and female toll collectors, but predominate among women.

Some workers have developed coping mechanisms. Ms. Chisholm, who wears a hijab, wears headphones at all times, after determining that appearing to be preoccupied reduced comments about her lips, breasts and eyes. She also wears a loosefitting uniform and does not smile or look directly at male drivers. The 56-year-old Thruway worker said she had consciously decided to gain weight after realizing that being heavier would cut down on harassment.

[Crusty Juggler]

"You're in a little cage and you're exposed to whatever comes, whether it's good, bad or nasty," said a 56-year-old woman who works for the Thruway Authority and did not want to be identified because of agency rules that forbid speaking to the news media. She said that men had grabbed her hand, made comments about her body and, sometimes, flashed her. "You can always close the window," she said. "But they're still there. But you still kind of feel like somebody just kind of licked you."

Where I come from flashing is a sign of respect.

[Brett L]

Not to worry, baby. In FL, Robots have already taken over 95% of your job, and they're pretty much going to 100% toll by plate/RFID by 2020.

[Princess Trigger]

I wave my penis at them also.
Not as fun, but still a traditional gesture of respect for my people.

[invisible furry hand]

I misread that to be all jobs in Florida and thought bullshit, robots can't get nekkid on bath salts and eat your face during a car chase, so certain jobs in Florida are safe

[Brett L]

Those are more avocations than vocations.

[commodious readies for the end]

Take what you love and make a career of it, they said.

[$park? is totally a Swifty]

MA has already started tearing down toll plazas and putting up electronic plate readers. I'm not sure what their completion date goal is though.

[Libertarian]

Well, if one of them is at the entrance of the Big Dig, I'd say 2075 would be a good ballpark figure.

[Swiss Servator]

The 56-year-old Thruway worker said she had consciously decided to gain weight after realizing that being heavier would cut down on harassment.

Yeah, that is it....sure.

[Injun, as in from India]

It gets you more victim cred points.

Remember the check my privilege site?

[The Fusionist]

"The episodes involve male and female toll collectors"

So you don't have to a female toll-collector to receive this harassment?

[fills out application form]

[The Fusionist]

have to *be*

[The Fusionist]

(of course, given that women and men are different, and their reaction to harassment is also different, therefore female toll collectors may have more of a legitimate grievance than men)

[Mickey Rat]

Your ability to cope with this may be affected by what you are harassed by.

[Agent Cooper]

Opt-out, assholes.

[Mickey Rat]

"Cast your vote
Give a cheer
He'll do more than just drink beer

No more taxes
That's his goal
Topless girls at every toll"

[Rich]

Sony is building a robot which can form an 'emotional connection' with humans

"I'm happy to report that we are working hard to create a robot for your home that is not only capable of assisting you with everyday needs but is really capable of forming an emotional connection with all of you."

I'll just leave this here.

[UnCivilServant]

I don't want a creepy clingy robot.

The advantage of robots is that they don't get emotional.

*RTFA*

Oh, wait they're talking about emotional manipulation of the meatbag.

I STILL Don't want that!

[Libertarian]

With sexbots, it's a feature, not a bug.

[The Fusionist]

Japan has never been more Japan-y.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

"but is really capable of forming an emotional connection with all of you."

Can it hate?? If it's not possible to develop the whole range of emotions, why bother giving it any emotions at all??

[Mickey Rat]

Do you want the hooker experience, the girlfriend experience, or the psycho experience?

[commodious readies for the end]

The perfect girlfriend: hooker in the sheets, psycho on the streets.

[tarran]

Jesus Christ, a link to jezebel?!?!? Are we going to get links to infowars, skepticalscience and returnofkings as well?

[$park? is totally a Swifty]

Don't be such a drama queen.

[commodious readies for the end]

He's hysterical.

[Juvenile Bluster]

We have Johnny Longtorso for the constant links to RoK.

[Injun, as in from India]

After that Anna Merlan / Robby Soave episode, there should have been a total ban on Jizz-e-Belle links.

[Hamster of Doom]

Shouldn't we check what Shaun King says first?

[Swiss Servator]

Did it involve a SOC?

(Story of Color)

[Hamster of Doom]

It self-identified as a SoC and it seemed churlish to fail to take the story at it's word. So, yes.

[$park? is totally a Swifty]

Look, tacos are fine as a once in a while food product. But you fucking taco zealots need to back the fuck up.

[Crusty Juggler]

Great, now all the horrible foodies are going to teach us about tacos. Way to go, Sparky.

[Juvenile Bluster]

You are literally worse than Tony, Shriek, and Tulpa combined.

[$park? is totally a Swifty]

Good, those guys are all fags.

[Certified Public Asshat]

Even Uncivil likes tacos, provided there are no toppings and the ground beef is unseasoned.

[UnCivilServant]

No, you're wrong.

You have to have the right seasoning and toppings.

I don't remember what it was, I've been on a diet and for some reason tacos have a lot of calories. *looks at the grease-dripping beef, the cheese and the sour cream* oh, right...

[R C Dean]

Sounds pretty low-carb to me. Eat your fill, I say, diet boy.

[straffinrun]

I think you just called Unciv a pedo.

[UnCivilServant]

*stabs straffinrun with a fork*

[straffinrun]

Eating Tacos with a fork. You are a wild man.

[UnCivilServant]

It's for the contents that fall out and land back on the plate.

[straffinrun]

Now that is just sick. Or did you mean "taco-tacos"?

[UnCivilServant]

I do not engage in euphemisms, entendres or metaphors when commenting here.

Hyperbole and punning, are a different matter.

[Citizen X]

"I was voted Cirque du Soleil's worst-ever audience participant."

[Citizen X]

"I was voted Cirque du Soleil's worst-ever audience participant."

[straffinrun]

WTF did you do to the squirrels?

[straffinrun]

How about similes? Similes are like metaphors.

[Crusty Juggler]

Roger Furlong: You know, you're about as annoying as a condom filled with fire ants. How's that for a fucking metaphor?
Will: That's a simile, sir.
Roger Furlong: Shut your mouth, you fat girl.

[invisible furry hand]

"You're like a metaphor, baby"

[Clich? Bandit]

Dry erase boards are remarkable.

No matter how much you push the envelope it is still stationery.

[Citizen X]

I will chain you to a pipe in a crawlspace.

[Swiss Servator]

With only tacos and horchata for sustenance?

[$park? is totally a Swifty]

If you're going to become an advocate for tacos everywhere, then you'd better be willing to put your taco on the line. I'm looking at you ENB, and your taco.

[commodious readies for the end]

Bob Newhart will bury him alive in a box.

[Crusty Juggler]

"STOP IT!"

[commodious readies for the end]

You know, it's funny. I say two simple words, and I cannot tell you the amount of people who say exactly what you're saying.

[Injun, as in from India]

Look, tacos are fine as a once in a while food product.

The female genitalia innuendo should alone be enough for you to want tacos as your dietary staple.

[$park? is totally a Swifty]

You probably shouldn't mention tacos and staples together like that.

[The Fusionist]

"The New York Times Editorial Board"

When a sentence begins with those words, we can be fairly sure that whatever follows will be retarded.

"calls for repealing laws that require excessive doses of abortion drugs under the guise of women's safety."

This is shocking! Pregnant women are being required to take abortion drugs! It's amazing that any babies get born at all!

No, wait, nobody's being forced to take anything. From the editorial:

"Over the years, doctors have found ways to make these sorts of abortions even safer and more convenient, but anti-choice politicians in many states have pushed restrictions that make the process more onerous and that could even harm women's health."

Or to put it another way, Ohio requires that *if* you use certain abortion drugs you have to follow FDA protocols.

But contrary to ENB's summary, the law leaves pregnant women the option of *not taking abortion drugs at all.*

Despite the Times' concern-trolling about women's health, it's the "convenient" part of "safer and more convenient" that appeals to them.

[paranoid android]

The *doses* are what are excessive, as anybody who can read at a sixth-grade level could have informed you was the meaning of that sentence. No one is implying that anyone is being forced to take the drugs in the first place.

But of course you support the government's meddling in making use of these drugs an unnecessarily burdensome process, because we all know you default to full throated statism when it comes to any issue that comes within a hundred miles of the A-word.

[The Fusionist]

It's a common rhetorical trope to talk about how "women are forced to comply with burdensome blah blah blah" when the issue only arises because they want to kill their children.

If they *didn't* want to kill their children, the question of burdensome regulations wouldn't come up.

Or, rather, the scandal is *not* that the law imposes regulatory hoops you have to jump through before killing one's own children. The scandal is that the law permits killing one's children at all.

Statism is the government saying that certain living human beings aren't persons with full human rights, and may therefore be killed.

[paranoid android]

Well, once you get those abortion laws passed, and acquire the funding to build those new prisons to house the hundreds of thousands of women you're calling murderers, your small government theocratic utopia can finally be realized!

[Tornado16nb]

Bit dishonest seeing how the law couldn't be applied retroactively. My guess is there wouldn't be hundreds of thousands for abortion if illegal

[SugarFree]

Because Prohibition meant no one ever drank another drop again.

[Hamster of Doom]

That's what happens when you tell people what to do. They obey you, every single time. See? Control is easy.

[Tornado16nb]

Comparing abortions to drinking alcohol is not really a valid comparison.

So if we are going to use your logic, why have any laws at all?

[SugarFree]

So if we are going to use your logic, why have any laws at all?

Laws shouldn't be based on the religious obsessions of fanatics.

If you disagree with alcohol, don't drink any.
If you disagree with guns, don't buy one.
If you don't eat pork, don't buy any.
If you don't like drugs, don't take any.
If you disagree with gambling, don't make any bets.
If you object to pornography, don't watch any.
If you disagree with abortion, don't have one.

[Tornado16nb]

Hmmm well those are nice examples but Abortion results in the killing of another human being...a human that didn't have a choice in the matter. Bit different than gambling or smoking which is yourself

[Tornado16nb]

What should laws be based on then?

[Tornado16nb]

Ok if what you say is true which your criteria seems to be all or nothing...then why do liberals complain about diminished access to abortion in places like Texas? Since ya know prohibition of alcohol didn't work out all that good. You would think they can just get them on the side...why even need a clinic?

[SugarFree]

Because buying a pint of whiskey from a store is safer than drinking bathtub gin?

San Francisco just used regulations to drive the last gun store out of business? Has this not impacted gun rights in the city? Can't the law-abiding gun owner just buy them in the street?

[Tornado16nb]

No they can't. And comparing guns to abortion is odd

[SugarFree]

No, it isn't. Both gun-grabbers and anti-abortion folks both love to use regulatory burden and argue that shutting down access to legal avenues of access somehow doesn't impact the people who seek to employ those avenues.

And, of course, they both lie and say that the regulatory burden is actually about the safety of the people they are fucking over.

[paranoid android]

Bit dishonest seeing how the law couldn't be applied retroactively.

Why would that matter? As Eddie just said, they are murderers who murder their children. In the *real world* a law that applied retroactively could probably never actually come to pass, but we're not talking about the real world, we're talking about one in which Eddie's fantasies all come true.

My guess is there wouldn't be hundreds of thousands for abortion if illegal

Prohibition: this time it will work!

[Tornado16nb]

Getting abortions is a bit different then sneaking drugs around.

Not sure there would be many companies making abortion drugs and doctors performing them anywhere close to the rate now

You wouldn't be able to apply law retroactively and punish those...only going forward so your point is dishonest

[paranoid android]

You wouldn't be able to apply law retroactively and punish those...only going forward so your point is dishonest

Again, I'm not sure what's dishonest about it, since we're not debating actual political realities, but Eddie's insane fantasies. According to him, these women have broken laws that are already on the books, namely laws against murder. If he thinks that women who had abortions in the past *shouldn't* be prosecuted and/or punished for their crimes, he should outline his moral reasoning for believing so.

[Tornado16nb]

There is a difference between what he thinks and what the law says currently and what it will be. Not sure he advocated for retroactive punishment.

[Cyto]

There is a reason we've all heard the phrase: "Died in a botched back-alley abortion."

[Tornado16nb]

Yea not sure any argued they would all go away. Bit of a strawman from folks above. If the criteria was all or nothing then why have any laws like say for murder or arson? As they obviously must have some effect on deterrence otherwise they make no sense

[Mickey Rat]

Yes. Propaganda.

[Krabappel]

Oh this reminds me, I saw the *worst* bumper sticker yesterday:

"Choose moms choose life". Like, the Jif peanut butter slogan. I don't even get it. Choosy women who don't want a baby choose abortion.

[SugarFree]

Fuck off, slaver.

[Tornado16nb]

The ad hominem fallacy

[Zeb]

Not really. It's comment on the policies he supports, not an attack on his person.

[SugarFree]

Nope. Nice try, though.

Eddie would jail pregnant women to keep them from having abortions, forcing them to labor for another (the fetus being a person in his own logic.) That's slavery.

[Tornado16nb]

Since when is if you feel people have the right to life, liberty and property and believe that unborn are people (seeing how they are a unique human) that are in early stages of development makes you a statist for one wanting to help protect that? So in order to not be a statist would mean you have to support no laws at all

[SugarFree]

So in order to not be a statist would mean you have to support no laws at all

Yup. That's exactly what was said. You nailed it.

[Tornado16nb]

How does one not be a statist then? Wouldn't laws against murder be statist per the logic above?

[SugarFree]

Only if you accept that abortion is murder. That's stealing at least two bases.

[Tornado16nb]

So what does an abortion do? What is the result?

[Tornado16nb]

Murder is a legal definition.

Abortion results in the killing of another human being with unique dna each and every time. This is indisputable.

The question becomes whether one thinks it is murder of another individual or not and where/when a person obtains unalienable rights

[SugarFree]

The question becomes whether one thinks it is murder of another individual or not and where/when a person obtains unalienable rights

And this is the exactly the base you and Eddie are stealing.

[SugarFree]

It ends a life. Just like you do when you eat meat, or eat a carrot.

[bacon-magic]

Obligatory

[Mickey Rat]

As a general principle, carrots as a category do not have rights but humans do.

How is "a human has rights at all stages of life" base stealing but "a human at the earliest stages has the moral significance of a carrot" not base stealing?

[paranoid android]

Since when is if you feel people have the right to life, liberty and property and believe that unborn are people (seeing how they are a unique human) that are in early stages of development makes you a statist for one wanting to help protect that? So in order to not be a statist would mean you have to support no laws at all

See, except the legality of abortion is not the issue at hand. Whether the government should have the power to meddle in the decisions made between doctors and patients about what treatments to take and in what doses *is* the issue at hand. I see such meddling as an unacceptable interference on the liberty of both the doctor and the patient, regardless of what the underlying medical problem being treated is. Eddie is all for it, for the sole reason that that government power can be used as a cudgel to make it more difficult for women to get abortions. See the difference?

[Zeb]

Or to put it another way, Ohio requires that *if* you use certain abortion drugs you have to follow FDA protocols.

And that's the problem. With most drugs, doctors can prescribe off-label and give people drugs at whatever dose and for whatever purpose they deem proper.

I get that you favor anything that makes abortion less convenient or more unpleasant. But beyond that, this is a terrible rule.

[The Fusionist]

"I get that you favor anything that makes abortion less convenient or more unpleasant."

Anything?

Do you have a cite for that, or are you simply making up straw-man positions and imputing them to me?

[Zeb]

Sorry, I thought that was a fair assessment of your position. Maybe "anything" is a bit hyperbolic. You do seem to support any law that restricts abortion, whether or not it has any sense to it. And if I really, truly believed that it was the worst thing in the world and must be stopped, I probably would too.

[Crusty Juggler]

Behind the undoing of Fox News boss Roger Ailes.

Taking on Ailes was dangerous, but Carlson was determined to fight back. She settled on a simple strategy: She would turn the tables on his surveillance. Beginning in 2014, according to a person familiar with the lawsuit, Carlson brought her iPhone to meetings in Ailes's office and secretly recorded him saying the kinds of things he'd been saying to her all along. "I think you and I should have had a sexual relationship a long time ago, and then you'd be good and better and I'd be good and better. Sometimes problems are easier to solve" that way, he said in one conversation. "I'm sure you can do sweet nothings when you want to," he said another time.

What I do not understand about this is that if he was sexually harassing anyone and everyone forever and ever, why did all of these women keep showing up to work and cashing their paychecks? They were happy to accept the trade-off of a high salary and fame, but only up to a point?

[Warty]

...Yes?

[Crusty Juggler]

Thanks.

[John]

Because they liked the money and fame and really didn't mind the attention. Since when is a guy finding a woman attractive and hitting on her such an unbearable experience for the woman? It would have been one thing if he were assaulting and them and grabbing their ass or something. Or if he had told them give up the goods or hit the door. He doesn't appear to have done any of that. He just hit on them all of the time, which they clearly didn't mind or they would have said something or quit.

They happily made the trade, accepted the money, fame and attention only to then try to be a victim once they got tired of it or their careers went south for other reasons. Carlson didn't get run off Fox because she wouldn't screw Alles. She got run off Fox because she got old and her ratings dropped. All Alies hitting on her did was give her an excuse to sue when they fired her.

[paranoid android]

Since when is a guy finding a woman attractive and hitting on her such an unbearable experience for the woman?

*Looks at picture of Roger Ailes*

When he's doing it.

[John]

Exactly that. I think it was fluffy who once said on here that most of this is nothing but a grown up version of the pretty girl in the 8th grade telling her boyfriend "that nerd talked to me". Yeah, if Daniel Craig had been running Fox News, I don't think Carlson would have ever complained even after she was fired.

The whole thing is just stupid. If you don't like the boss hitting on you, tell him no. Women have enormous amounts of social power. A woman can humiliate a man with great ease. Even the worst hound dog men don't get any pleasure out of hitting on a woman who isn't buying it. All these women didn't mind and played along or Alles would have moved on to easier pickings.

[RBS]

Shit, what happened to Fluffy?

[John]

Good question. I miss him. He was one of the smartest people on here.

[robc]

He was my favorite author who posted here.

[The Fusionist]

*If* he did the stuff they say, then he shouldn't be supervising female employees.

Or at least he shouldn't complain when one of their brothers or husbands comes in and beats him up.

[The Fusionist]

I mean, hiring attractive women to do the news, get extra profits, use the profits to give them extra salary...brilliant business model and I salute his vision, but the extra profits should be the only reward he gets, he shouldn't be able to sample his own product.

[commodious readies for the end]

That's where all the dealers go wrong. Eventually he'd be up to his eyeballs in poon, and the business model falls apart fast when you're higher than your customers.

[Warty]

Right now I'm stuck in a waiting room and there's nothing I can do to avoid hearing Kelly Ripa screechwhine about unfunny things. I hope I die soon.

[Juvenile Bluster]

I'll trade you. I'm in a waiting room right now and CNN is on.

[The Fusionist]

Hate to break it to you, but have either of you ever seen *Sixth Sense*?

[commodious readies for the end]

Sixth Sense was about purgatory; they're both in hell.

[tarran]

I have found just going up and turning off the TV works. And I'm not some massive body builder.

Alternately change the channel to whatever is on pbs

[Warty]

There are a lot of Normals watching. I'm not so hungry yet that I don't care about being rude. We'll see what happens if I'm stuck here for another hour.

[Swiss Servator]

Tear the TV off the wall and crush it. I suspect none would make much of a fuss at you.

[commodious readies for the end]

Is that billable to his insurer?

[Rufus The Monocled]

Still don't get how Strahan gets these sorts of gigs.

[Agent Cooper]

Adult black male tooth gap is charming.

[straffinrun]

Podbay's History of the Roman Empire is pretty good. 20 minute episodes. Perfect for killing a little time.

[Warty]

I knew I should have grabbed my earbuds. Fuck.

[straffinrun]

Next time. I'm through 60 of them. Nice for the commute.

[Chip Woodier]

If you are at a doctor's office, you might have time for an episode of Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. Or maybe even two. (If anyone has a commute that long, time to think about moving)

[robc]

Im working thru part 3 of Hardcore History's King of Kings about the Persian Empire.

Clocks in at just over 5 hours.

That is just part 3, Part 2 was 4 hours and Part 1 was about 3, IIRC.

[Chip Woodier]

I knew I should have refreshed the page.

[Warty]

Huh, and a Donald Trump ad just came on. So they exist. I don't know why this surprises me.

[UnCivilServant]

Because so far he's relied on free advertising from an adversarial press and his opponants?

[Citizen X]

Oh, Warty. Don't you remember the Bargain? Death is the one release you shall not have.

[Warty]

"I feel...stronger."

[Warty]

Oh god, now a Hillary ad. Kill me kill me kill me

[John]

I see Hillary ads all of the time. The funny thing about them is that she sounds just like Trump. Every ad I see is about how she is going to go out and stick the foreigners put America back to work again.

[commodious readies for the end]

She's giving moderates a reason to vote against Trump with something resembling a clear conscience.

[John]

I don't see how. No one thinks she actually believes that. And I thought moderate were all about internationalism and free trade and all that.

[commodious readies for the end]

You're thinking squishes and RINOs. I'm talking about the sort of blue-collar Democrat or marginally attached Republicans who generally thinks border security is important but hate Trump's specifics. Both sides have their bases locked up. Clinton isn't any more worried about losing left-wingers than Trump is about losing his Fifth Avenue crew. Now they're fighting over the moderates who hate them both about equally. So it behooves Clinton to suddenly act like a border hawk.

[invisible furry hand]

But if you die and go to hell, it will be Hillary ads, Trump ads, Kelly Ripa, and Opeth's last three albums

[Warty]

Opeth? What's that? It's like you started to say something that's a word, but then you made a mistake and said something that doesn't exist and has never existed.

[Aloysious]

Hell is Home

[John]

http://www.rollcall.com/news/opinion/.....one-donald

Keep it classy Roll Call keep it classy.

[lap83]

In response to Zika, it expedited new uses for pesticide-treated bed nets and mosquito traps

So now pregnant women can cower in bed all day if they don't want Zika and carry a mosquito trap with them when they go to the bathroom. You Gaia haters are never satisfied.

[lap83]

dammit that was supposed to be in response to the EPA link /needs coffee

[John]

http://www.reuters.com/article.....SKCN1180F6

The EPA kills almost as many people as the FDA.

[commodious readies for the end]

A "patch of shrubby swampland" or an "anarcho-libertarian utopia"?

No roads, so: yes.

[Free Society]

"The Daily Mail newspaper article stated that there was no support for the allegations ... The point of the article was that these allegations could impact the U.S. presidential election even if they are untrue."

I'm kind of shocked that they'd come right out and admit it. CNN or NBC wouldn't be so forthright about the ragginess of their publications.

[invisible furry hand]

If she's suing in the UK a prompt apology will be helpful in reducing damages

[tarran]

Apologize!

[Free Society]

That's funny, in the US legal system a prompt apology would most likely increase the damages.

[straffinrun]

It's another, "Well some people are saying..." straffinrun.

[ant1sthenes]

So now the UK is trying to influence our elections too. But can they outdo the Russian hackers?

[commodious readies for the end]

Stern but silent tut-tutting really isn't much of a deterrant.

[invisible furry hand]

Japanese fisherman's karate skills to defeat bear

[John]

They actually captured that on film. It is on youtube

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

[bacon-magic]

That was funny John.

[Crusty Juggler]

"He drove himself to hospital, and he even remembered to grab the fish that he had caught," a local police officer told AFP.

Remember, most bears are right-handed, so use that knowledge to your advantage, people.

[Injun, as in from India]

Or kick it in the nuts if it's a male?

[straffinrun]

Ever met a Japanese fisherman? They never have an "empty hand."

[Injun, as in from India]

"He drove himself to hospital, and he even remembered to grab the fish that he had caught," a local police officer told AFP.

"

That's like an old-school hero who fights off the bad guys and finishes his mission.

[commodious readies for the end]

OH MY GOD BE MORE CHINESEJAPANESEY.

/Cheryl

[Agent Cooper]

Mountain fishing is so Japan. It's not like they don't have enough water.

[R C Dean]

I love the caption:

Despite Mr Aoki's success, police advised people against fighting Japan's numerous wild bears.

Plus, who knew Japan had "numerous" wild bears?

[Eternal Blue Sky]

'The founder of Latinos for Trump warned that if Donald Trump isn't elected, the U.S. will see "taco trucks [on] every corner."'

Well shit. I thought there was no way anyone could possibly give me a good reason to vote Clinton and then this guy promises utopia...

[The Fusionist]

My taste buds say yes, yes, but my diet says no, no.

[straffinrun]

There's another. The next Secretary of State will be an improvement.

[Brett L]

I thought that when Hillary left that office, too.

[Libertarian]

Would an effectual Guiliani be better or worse than a bumbling Kerry?

[SugarFree]

"taco trucks [on] every corner."'

Tulpa's nightmare world, where people can do things as long as they don't hurt anyone, cops aren't free to murder and destroy the homes of anyone they like, students aren't bodyslammed and anyone can buy anything they like from mobile stores.

The horror... the horror.

[tarran]

Today I parked in the middle of the road, perpendicular to the direction of travel. The cops were on the other side of town, so no one was there to stop me. The guy I blocked was all upset until I told him there were no cops around. He jumped on the hood of his car with his girlfriend and they had sex right there while he wore his tie like a headband.

FREEDOM!

[Free Society]

I hope there were eagles or monster trucks on that tie.

[tarran]

No wolves.

And the girl was wearing this shirt.

[tarran]

I almost forgot. The CVS manager came out to yell at us.

As soon as I told him "cops are all gone!" he rushed back inside.

Soon his staff was real busy stocking leftover passover coke on the shelves, next to the real stuff made with corn syrup.

And then they started singing Anarchy

[SugarFree]

I went to the park, put on a blindfold, and spun around and around firing my machine gun in all directions.

[Hamster of Doom]

I took a shower. When I washed my hair I did not rinse, nor did I repeat. Then, I left the non-dairy creamer on the counter.

Later I plan to undercook both eggs and beef. It's absolute anarchy up in this bitch.

[paranoid android]

I took a shower. When I washed my hair I did not rinse, nor did I repeat.

Wait, doesn't that leave you walking around with lathered-up hair all day?

[SugarFree]

Are you trying to mansplain shampoo?

[Hamster of Doom]

*hamsplains anarchy*

[Swiss Servator]

Tulpa's Hell - chained to a food truck as a server?

[SugarFree]

Tulpa's Hell is people remembering the dumb shit he's argued in the past and throwing it in his face. We made this place Tulpa's Hell, which is why he had to change his handle and still changes it constantly now.

[Warty]

Piles of glibness. Oceans of glibness.

[Citizen X]

I helped my kid set up a lemonade stand... WITHOUT getting a city license first.

[SugarFree]

MONSTER!

[Hamster of Doom]

PEOPLE COULD HAVE DIED

[Jerryskids]

During the visit, Trump noted that he has "tremendous feeling for Mexican Americans."

You know who else had "tremendous feeling" about a particular group of human beings? Just an unbelievably yuuge feeling, a spectacular amount of feeling, a - dare I say it - historic amount of feeling?

[commodious readies for the end]

OMWC during a quinceanera?

[bacon-magic]

Crusty and John in Samoa?

[Krabappel]

That's not funny. I went to high school in Hawaii and when the Samoan girls were fighting, it was a terrifying thing.

[Ken Shultz]

"There's been a 35 percent increase in the number of people using marijuana since 2002?from 6.2 percent of people over the age of 12 that year to 8.4 percent in 2014, according to a new analysis released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

Two problems with that statement from The Atlantic

1) Isn't the word "use" a loaded term?

Let's try a thought experiment:

There's been a 35 percent increase in the number of people using [chili peppers] since 2002.

Doesn't the word "using" make [chili peppers] sound like some new street term for meth or something?

How 'bout "consuming"?

There has been a 35 percent increase in the number of people [consuming] marijuana since 2002.

2) In most people's minds, that's not "a 35 percent increase in the number of people using".

To a general audience, when you say something has increased by 35% since 2002 and that in 2002 6.2% of the American people were "using" marijuana, to most of them, that means the number of people "using" marijuana has increased from 6.2% of Americans to 41.2% of Americans--6.2% + 35%.

There has been 35% increase in the rate of use--not "a 35% increase in the number of people using".

P.S. And they wonder why people don't believe what they're told about global warming.

[Krabappel]

I agree with you that use has a negative connotation, probably from the term "drug user".

We don't call alcohol consumers "alcohol users".

Consider the show "Strangers with Candy" -- the intro has Jerri Blank saying "I was a boozer, a user and a loser."

From now on, we should call them "marijuana enthusiasts". I really need to go back to Seattle again soon so I can show my enthusiasm.

[commodious readies for the end]

The sad thing about users like you is that you don't even realize you have a problem.

*writes Krabappel's name on mandatory counseling list*

[Krabappel]

I deserve to be burned with flash bang grenades. Please help me!

[commodious readies for the end]

Fracking linked to New Zealand quake, reported no one.

[R C Dean]

News coverage of birth control is heavy on priests and politicians, light on doctors or other medical experts.

Perhaps because there is zero medical controversy, and much controversy over politicians ordering priests to violate their religions?

[Mickey Rat]

Being that the Left has decided birth control should be stuff paid for by other people. It really has nothing to do with science but submitting to the progressive's revealed truth.