A.M. Links: Clinton and Trump Prepare for First Presidential Debate, Violent Protests in Charlotte, MacArthur 'Genius Grants' Announced

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  • Todd Kranin

    How Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are preparing for Monday's presidential debate.

  • One person was shot last night during protests in Charlotte, North Carolina. The protests were sparked by the fatal police shooting on Tuesday of Keith Lamont Scott. Gov. Paty McCrory has declared a state of emergency.
  • Joseph Percoco and Todd R. Howe, close former aids to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, will face federal corruption charges.
  • The 2016 MacArthur Foundation "genius grants" have been awarded.
  • "The U.S. is investigating an Islamic State militant group (ISIS) rocket fired at American troops near a military base in northern Iraq that may have carried a chemical agent."
  • Podcasts from Reason are now available on iTunes and Soundcloud.

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NEXT: Breakthrough Study Explains Why We Arrest Moms for Putting Kids in Nearly Non-Existent 'Danger'

Damon Root is a senior editor at Reason and the author of A Glorious Liberty: Frederick Douglass and the Fight for an Antislavery Constitution (Potomac Books).

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  1. How Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are preparing for Monday’s presidential debate.

    Lots of fake tan and drugs.

    1. How about fake drugs and tans?

    2. Just a thought not a sermon

      But how are the candidates preparing, FoE?

      1. So naturally a libertarian must have tannable skin and use drugs. PREJUDICE MUCH?

        1. Just a thought not a sermon

          Prejudice doesn’t have to have a negative connotation…

          1. Bobarian (Would Chip Her)

            If you’re awful enough, all connotations can’t help but be positive.

    3. PurityDiluting

      I hope Reason is preparing to put a thread out for the Commentariat to add its thoughts during the debate.

    4. Rufus The Monocled

      Hello.

  2. Just a thought not a sermon

    236) As if more evidence that the drug war is evil were needed (also, a rare example of a well-written Slate article): DEA blocks research into promising opioid alternative.

    Kratom, a plant native to SE Asia, produces a substance that provides pain relief better than morphine. Tests with mice show it is far less addictive than morphine, with few overdoses, and without the unpleasant side effect of constipation. In recent years, Kratom use has spread across the US as an herbal alternative to pharmaceutical pain relief. But now, research into the drug has stopped because the DEA declared it a Schedule I drug, apparently on the basis of a handful (15 between 2014 and 2016) of allegedly Kratom-related deaths. (The article does not make clear or cite more information on this; a quick Google search on my part found mostly hysterical Six O’Clock News-type articles).

    1. You linked to the slate article instead of the reason article on that?

    2. Mr Lizard

      Wow and this whole time I thought it was a feminist plot to deny red pill mammals their greatest drug

    3. Tonio

      Tests with mice show it is far less addictive than morphine, with few overdoses, and without the unpleasant side effect of constipation.

      There’s your answer right there. We can’t let people have effective pain relief, why someone might use it for non-approved purposes and not suffer any bad consequences.

      Also, how many mice overdosed themselves? Inquiring minds want to know.

      1. “Squeaky?! OMG, Squeaky, what have you done?!”

        *mouse remains unresponsive*

        1. Groovus Maximus

          *mouse remains unresponsive*

          Why that’s the real Mau’d dib, My Seitch Brother. He’s in a Spice Trance, that’s all. Being in Many-Places-At-Once. I guess you could say, a Kwitsmouse Haderach.

          1. DenverJ

            *narrows gays

    4. Zeb

      I’m pretty sure that “Kratom related deaths” just means that they had taken Kratom and they died. Has nothing to do with whether it actually contributed to the death. And 15 is a tiny number in any case. Far more people die from accidental aspirin overdose.

      Basically, the DEA will schedule something if it’s a drug that people enjoy. That seems to be all that’s necessary. I don’t know how this isn’t considered outrageous by more people. If it’s a psychoactive substance other than alcohol, nicotine or caffeine and becomes at all popular, ban it. Fuckers.

      1. Rich

        I’m waiting for them to ban testosterone.

        1. That’s a Department of Ed initiative.

          1. WTF

            The OCR has determined it’s required under Title IX.

      2. Tonio

        Don’t mock JATNAS for his tiny numbers. 😛

        1. Thank you. Size doesn’t matter!

          1. Groovus Maximus

            You might want to trolley downthread to Tonio’s…erm…organ grinders, Monte Crusto.

      3. Citizen X

        Many years ago i coined the term “pureaucratic” to describe the kind of modern-day Puritanism that underlies so much government rule-making. Puritanism being, of course, the fear that someone, somewhere, might be having fun – more seriously, mere human enjoyment of a thing is not sufficient for said thing to be permitted.

      4. Bobarian (Would Chip Her)

        “Far more people die from accidental aspirin overdose.”

        From the google on aspirin OD:

        A person weighing about 150 pounds would have to consume more than 30 325-miligram tablets to develop even mild poisoning.

        So, probably not an accident.

    5. Eternal Blue Sky

      As someone who can’t use opiods… that’s rather frustrating…

    6. Suthenboy

      Which branch of the FedGov is the DEA under? I am sure as soon as the emperor finds out about this he will put a stop to it. Just wait until he finds out, you’ll see.

  3. Just a thought not a sermon

    237) When I volunteered for the Public Defenders’ office in Nashville-Davidson County, TN, when I was in college, they were so overworked, they soon had me doing felony entrance interviews?a short (10-15 min.) interview with arrestees who had just arrived from intake to get their basic info, a brief version of their side of the story, and any medical issues they had.

    The one kind of case I hated dealing with most was domestic violence. Usually, the accused had a story put together, and whether it was true or not, I could quickly get their account of whatever drug dealing or breaking & entering they were charged with. But God, those domestic violence cases. To me, the case would appear something like “accused and girlfriend were drinking, had an argument, accused allegedly hit girlfriend and she called police.” But for the dude sitting in front of me, the story invariably started months or years previously, and I’m checking my watch while he goes on and on about every unresolved dispute they’ve ever had. I had a whole roomful of people I was supposed to finish interviewing while this guy’s going on about that time two years ago when his woman stepped out on him.

    No real conclusion here, except maybe the justice system is a poor substitute for relationship counseling.

    1. Illocust

      Not really surprised. Despite some activist claims to the contrary, bad relationships don’t come out of nowhere. You can generally see this stuff building from a couple miles away.

      1. “Were ya poking it?” Bill burr’s most awkward joke.

    2. Tonio

      You’re assuming two things there, JATNAS: That relationship counseling actually works, and that those people would have engaged the process (like, by showing up, at least). As I was writing this it occurred to me that you were possibly providing the closest thing to relationship counseling that these people would ever receive.

      1. Well, that and some unasked for advice from the bench at his sentencing.

      2. Just a thought not a sermon

        I often got the feeling in that job that I was the first person to actually listen to what the accused had to say in a long time, if ever.

        1. End Child Unemployment

          I commend you on your kindness and empathy. Based on what I’ve heard about folks who end up as convicts from a corrections officer relative, most of them are pretty nasty.

      3. Relationship counseling does work for some people. The problem is most people get into it way too late. By the time infidelity has been discovered, finances have spiraled out of control, trust has been shattered, etc it’s too late. The time to start speaking with a counselor was when you first started noticing your communication issues. Not when those communication issues metastasized into full-blown screaming matches and seeking comfort and understanding from the cute co-worker you had some chemistry with.

        And of course this is assuming you’re not in a relationship where both people have wholly incompatible goals and desires. He wants to grow old together and raise their 2.2 children in a perfect suburban neighborhood following the guidance of Joseph Smith; she loves pulling trains of minor league hockey players! We’re on a collision course with wackiness!

  4. One person was shot last night during protests in Charlotte, North Carolina.

    This is running the risk of being counterproductive to the cause.

    1. That would be the smell of Obama’s “Legacy” going up in smoke.

      1. WTF

        This is his legacy.

        1. Bobarian (Would Chip Her)

          Legacy

          Smoke.

          And fire.

          Like burning tires and cow patties.

      2. Tonio

        Choom Gang reference?

      3. Roger the Shrubber

        Obama’s not here, man.

    2. This is running the risk of being counterproductive to the stated cause.

  5. SugarFree

    How Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are preparing for Monday’s presidential debate.

    Too easy.

    1. Who did the Clinton campaign find to sub for Trump in the debate prep, one wonders.

      1. Rich

        Hopefully, Trump himself.

      2. WTF

        Joe Pesci as the Tommy DeVito character from Goodfellas.

    2. Rich

      “The Cloaca and The Hair”

      1. SugarFree

        “The Lurkin’ Merkin”

      2. Rufus The Monocled

        Dry flapping warted vagina versus Cap’n Hair.

        1. Citizen X

          +2 mutton flaps

        2. Cynical Asshole

          *BARF*

    3. Holger da Dane

      Too easy.

      Sure. Suddenly you have standards.

  6. Citizen X

    Joseph Percoco and Todd R. Howe, close former aids to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, will face federal corruption charges.

    Preeeet! [shakes Fist]

    1. Leave Fist alone!

      1. Dizzy.

        1. Groovus Maximus

          [appropriate audio]

  7. Joseph Percoco and Todd R. Howe, close former aids to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, will face federal corruption charges.

    Someone didn’t share spoils with the right people.

    1. Did not Gaius Verres give the correct formula some millenia ago?

      1/3 for myself
      1/3 for my friends
      1/3 for those that would prosecute me

      of course, it didn’t quite work out for him in the end…

    2. Mickey Rat

      Sometimes a pawn or two have to be sacrificed to keep up appearances.

  8. Rich

    “The U.S. is investigating an Islamic State militant group (ISIS) rocket fired at American troops near a military base in northern Iraq that may have carried a chemical agent.”

    ISIS crossed a Red Line, right? RIGHT?!

    1. RELEASE JON CARRY!

      1. Brett L

        I don’t know who that guy is, but he can’t do a worse job than the current SecState.

      2. spqr2008

        Is that his Super Sayan form?!?!?!?!?

    2. Trials and Trippelations

      So the ISIS fighters won’t be able to fight until they are ritually clean?

    3. John DeWitt

      Seems to be a mistype there. That mentions American troops in Iraq. Obama got us out of there years ago.

  9. Lord Humungus

    Hen-baiting fox was a drunk and naked Swede

    So you can forgive the elderly owner of one chicken coop in southern Sweden for first believing it was a fox on the rampage when she heard strange loud noises coming from the poultry shed.

    But when she looked outside she did not see a wild hen-chasing animal so much as a fowl sight in the shape of a naked 37-year-old man crawling out of the shed without clothes but covered in blood.

    Several chicks fled the chaos, reports newspaper Sm?landsposten.

    Police were immediately called and came to the property in the tiny village just shy of 50 residents, a few kilometres east of Ikea town ?lmhult, to take the man into custody and let him sober up in the drunk cell.

    1. Just a thought not a sermon

      Not clicking. I’ve seen Pink Flamingos and have no desire to repeat the experience.

      1. Rich

        How’d you like Desperate Living?

        1. Just a thought not a sermon

          Haven’t seen it. Good one for the kids?

          1. Rich

            Depending on their ages, may be better for date night.

            *** bites lip ***

          2. Tonio

            Only if you want your kids to turn out like Sug.

    2. ant1sthenes

      Fucking werefoxes.

  10. Podcasts from Reason are now available on iTunes and Soundcloud.

    really? I thought the ‘podcast’ fad had faded years ago.

    1. Bobarian (Would Chip Her)

      Reason? is always on the bleeding edge… of internet irrelevance.

    2. Rhywun

      I never got into it but it seems as strong as ever from what I hear.

  11. Lord Humungus

    Explicit ‘Deport Racism’ Ad: Trump’s “Racist Redneck” Supporters Don’t Realize West Belongs to Mexicans

    Back to Videos
    Explicit ‘Deport Racism’ Ad: Trump’s “Racist Redneck” Supporters Don’t Realize West Belongs to Mexicans
    Posted By Ian Schwartz
    On Date September 21, 2016

    A ‘Deport Racism’ ad against Donald Trump takes a stab at “redneck” Trump supporters and claims illegals didn’t cross the border, but the border crossed them.”

    “Kick us out? We’ve always been in… parts of or all of California, Texas, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma, Wyoming and New Mexico were all taken from ‘old Mexico,'” various actors said.

    “We didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us,” one person said.

    “So you want to deport illegal invading immigrants and make a fuss? When are you moving your ass out of Texas?” several people asked.

    One child actor chimed in, cursing: “You dumb fuck racists are full of shit, Latinos belong here get over it.”

    The ad told Trump to prepare for an “election day kick in the balls.”

    1. “Natural born citizens of the US don’t realize that they have been living in the US for generations” would be a more accurate descriptor, given that the border moved in 1848. Although the scads of people who are not descended from pre-1848 residents who did cross the border headed north without following procedure need to go back.

    2. Just a thought not a sermon

      Is this ad secretly bankrolled by the Trump campaign? It’s hard to think of something that would be more motivating for his supporters.

    3. WTF

      It’s like these idiots are actually trying to elect Trump.

    4. Tonio

      We’ve always been in… parts of or all of California, Texas, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma, Wyoming and New Mexico…

      Always, always?

      1. Zeb

        We just need to figure out who is descended from the first human occupants of each bit of land in the Americas and then give the land back to them. Then everything will be OK.

        1. But then you get into the debate about pre-clovis settlements and the people who still think the clovis-point civilization was first.

          (people went back to a lot of clovis sites and found the reason there had been a dearth of pre-clovis artifacts was that people would stop digging when they reached the clovis layer, presuming it was the first. They found artifacts in undisturbed, deeper layers at these sites.)

          1. WTF

            But those findings contradict Native American oral traditions regarding their origins, and are therefore verboten.

            1. I didn’t even get into the evidence of small boats being used to move along the edge of the ice pack and result in a double-barrelled population transfer (inbound from both Asia and Europe), which does not require the land bridge to be above water and corresponds to the tendency of humans to have reached even very remote islands by sea in relatively simple watercraft.

              One of the more amusing items was a disputed set of human remains calimed by several different tribes (as part of their ancestral claims). When they did a facial reconstruction, it looked like Patrick Stewart.

              1. When they did a facial reconstruction, it looked like Patrick Stewart.

                I know exactly what you are talking about. That was my exact thought too.

                Imagine: the entirety of Ice Age North America populated by Patrick Stewarts.

                1. WTF

                  Imagine: the entirety of Ice Age North America populated by Patrick Stewarts.

                  1. Mickey Rat

                    The ancient and skittish Lemur Man Nation.

                2. Rhywun

                  – “Engage!”
                  – “No, you engage!”
                  – “I’m already engaged!”
                  etc

              2. Tonio

                Do you have a linky to that, UCS? Did they do genetic analysis? Not that that would be dispositive because apparently the big databases (ie, 23 and Me, etc) lack enough samples of “pure” native Americans of various tribes to make granular determination, ie Cherokee. This came out during a discussion of the ancestry of a certain US Senator.

                1. I’m afraid I do not, it was something I saw way back in the 90s. I don’t know if there was even enough genetic material to test given the age of the bones.

                  I brought it up because it was funny.

                2. OneOut

                  I know of it. The various tribes have fought tooth and nail in the court system to prevent any scientific study based on religious grounds.

                  Methinks its more obvious that it is based on legal casino grounds.

            2. Zeb

              Yeah, nobody gives a fuck if you think you came from corn or grew out of the mud or whatever.

          2. OneOut

            +1 Mound Builders in the Mississippi drainage basin were so old that the local indigenous Indians had no stories about their origins.

            Funny that one hardly ever hear mention of them.

            I cant link on my phone but google them if you’re interested. It isnt just rumor or conspiracy.

        2. Cynical Asshole

          Better idea: how about we all just move back to the Rift Valley in Africa, since that’s where most anthropologists believe homo sapiens originated. Since technically we’re an “invasive species” to the rest of the planet. And while we’re at it, go back to living caves and hunting and gathering like our ancestors did – no more of that EVUL modern industrial society stuff. Sure it’ll require some adjustment, and we’ll have to cull our numbers quite a bit since the valley won’t support 7 billion of us, but most people wouldn’t be able to survive more than a month or so living that way anyway. And it really will be for The Greater Good. /sarc

      2. Well going back to the time that their ancestors conquered it and crossed a border over someone else. But that’s okay.

    5. Zeb

      Better give the Louisiana purchase back to the French too.

      1. They can’t afford the bill for the capital improvements made in the interim.

    6. robc

      Dont lose wars.

    7. Glide

      Aren’t you all a little young to be remembering your home being taken from old Mexico?

      1. Rhywun

        Yeah, if they can trot out a living human born before 1848 then I’ll listen.

    8. Cynical Asshole

      Stay classy, La Raza fuckwits. Stay classy…

    9. DenverJ

      Of course, there weren’t actually any Mexicans living in the four corners region. In fact, other than a few nomadic natives, nobody was living in the four corners region. So the whole reconquesta thing is pretty much bullshit. It may have been Mexican territory but, Mexico was an imperialist European country just like the US.

      1. Clich? Bandit

        Well, ancestral Pueblo Indians (Anasazi is a word meaning “old ones” and isn’t used any more to describe those D House inhabitants) lived in the 4 corners region. That was really their main population center. Chaco canyon and Mesa Verde. Chaco was abandoned en mass by about 1200-1300 and Mesa Verde later, but it is now suggested that the ancestral Pueblo Indians became the modern day Utes.

        1. bacon-magic

          I thought Anasazi was the name of an African god/spider? From a Neil Gaiman book.

          1. bacon-magic

            Nevermind, that is Anansi.

          2. Rhywun

            I thought Anasazi was made by Chris Carter.

            1. Rhywun

              “made up”

        2. Red Rocks Dickin Bimbos

          it is now suggested that the ancestral Pueblo Indians became the modern day Utes.

          I thought the consensus was that the ancestral Pueblo migrated down to the New Mexico region around that time (which is why so many Pueblo reservations are located along the I-25 and I-70 corridors today).

      2. Red Rocks Dickin Bimbos

        Exactly. Shit, most of the Hispanic settlements were isolated outposts devoted to Indian conversion/slavery than honest-to-goodness communities. Texas was so sparsely populated that Mexico had to invite Whitey to live there after the country gained independence.

        La Raza types are even more ignorant than the rednecks they’re screaming against.

    10. Apaches are Mexicans now?

      1. Cynical Asshole

        Apaches, Navajo, Hopi, Commanches…

        I’m sure they’ll be very interested to learn that about themselves.

        1. Clich? Bandit

          Interestingly the Arapaho tribe was originally from the great lakes region, pushed west by the Ojibwe. Many people fail to realize subsistence living in the Great Plains and the South West is fucking hard.

        2. Citizen X

          The Comanches arrived later to that area – if i recall correctly, they were a branch of the Shoshone who moved south specifically to be close to those imperialistic Spaniards and their horses.

          1. Citizen X

            “Comanche” is a Ute word that means, roughly, “people who are always attacking us.”

            1. Cynical Asshole

              Unpossible: “everyone knows” that all Native American tribes were all totally peaceful and nice people who lived simple rustic lives off the land and never hurt a fly until EVUL white European shitlords showed up and tried to slaughter them en-masse because white people are all devils. /sarc

  12. Tonio

    One person was shot last night during protests in Charlotte, North Carolina.

    FTFA: The person was shot by another civilian, the city said.

    1. Illocust

      Ah, that explains why no one would say how or why the person was shot.

      1. Rhywun

        ^This

    2. By a cop, or other type of civilian?

      1. Tonio

        “another civilian” implies that both the shooter and the shot were non-cops. And I fucking hate the use of the word “civilian” to mean non-cop.

        1. Lee Genes

          Agreed. I heard them use that term on NPR this morning and swore out loud.

        2. robc

          I have said it before, but if I had this power, any cop who used the term “civilian” to refer to non-cops would be immediately fired.

        3. I think a clear distinction for people subject to the rule of law and those exempted from it is appropriate.

          1. Bobarian (Would Chip Her)

            How about ‘Untermensch’ und ‘Gestapo’?

        4. Yeah it’s shitty, but the shoe fits. These cops act like they’re soldiers fighting a dozen different wars in which everyone who is not affiliated with them is the enemy. The police are combatants. Maybe you could call us insurgents? Or for something more humbling, perhaps smallfolk or peasants?

          1. DenverJ

            Freedom fighters.

          2. DenverJ

            Every better You are part of the rebel alliance and a traitor.

            1. Well I’m certainly an enemy of the state. But that’s too long.

          3. Colonel Slanders

            I prefer the term “Plebs”…….

  13. Illocust

    So police are claiming to have video evidence (dash cam) of man advancing on them with a gun in the Charlotte case.

    http://www.kwch.com/content/ne…..40031.html

    1. WTF

      And they released it so everyone can see the truth of their statement, right?

      1. Rich

        The party line appears to be “only one piece of the evidence, and the viewing angle may not tell the whole truth”.

        1. Tonio

          We all know that only the totality of circs will give the real story.

    2. Cynical Asshole

      “I can tell you a weapon was seized, a handgun. I can also tell you, we did not find a book, that has been made reference too,” said Putney. “I can just tell you what I know based on what we’ve gathered through the scientific process of going through the evidence.

      [Emphasis added] Well, I guess the progtards will be dropping their faux outrage post haste then. You know, since they “fucking love science.” /sarc

      1. John DeWitt

        I liked this part, too:

        WSCO (http://on.wsoctv.com/2cnnazy) said Chief Putney said he saw some of the video from the scene, but not all of it.

        Because he has other priorities right now. Just can’t take the time to see some video about some obscure shooting that is largely irrelevant.

        1. Cynical Asshole

          “Great, some dumn prole got his dumb ass shot and now I have to take time out of my busy schedule to watch some damn video and figure how to spin it in the best possible light so that my heroic officer comes out looking as good as possible. Don’t these assholes know how fucking busy I am?!”

          Although to be fair, he probably does have some bigger fish to fry right now, what with the riots and all.

        2. Plausible deniability is important in foreign and domestic affairs.

      2. Holger da Dane

        You know, since they “fucking love science.”

        Well, everything evolves and progresses, so does scientifology. When 97% of scientifologists we agree with have democratically achieved a consensus, who are you to question their experience? You micro-invalidating truth-denier!

    3. Brett L

      Its amazing how when the evidence clears the cops unequivocably, they find a way to release the footage.

  14. Lord Humungus

    STEVE SMITH’S GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT. …. GREAT GRANDPA

    Iceman Killed After Sneak Attack From Behind

    “The wound was the result of a defensive action during the course of a physical altercation. Since no other injuries could be found, we believe he came out as a winner from that hostile encounter,” Horn said.

    Such conflict could explain the surprise attack a few days later. Anger might have mounted after the unsuccessful hand-to-hand fight in ?tzi’s counterpart and a new attack was planned ? by surprise this time.

    According to Horn, the arrow shot appears to have been launched from a great distance in an act of treachery, taking ?tzi by surprise.

    All his objects, including the valuable copper axe, remained at the crime scene ?a fact that made Horn rule out theft as the reason of the killing.

    “A personal conflict is more likely. We are talking of a behavioral pattern that is also prevalent today in most murder cases. It starts with little things and it grows to the extreme,” Horn said.

    1. STEVE SMITH WOULD HAVE BEEN ATTACK IN BEHIND, NOT “FROM”!!!!

      1. WTF

        STEVE SMITH LAUNCH ATTACK UP CLOSE!

    2. Tonio

      STEVE SMITH NOT SURE THIS RELATIVE SINCE NO EVIDENCE OF RAPE. RANGED WEAPONS NOT SPORTING HIKER-LOVE BEST EXPRESSED CLOSE UP AND PERSONAL.

    3. Val Kilmer is dead?

      1. Lord Humungus

        +1 Highway to the Danger Zone

        alternative: Homoerotic volleyball game

  15. Bee Tagger

    Joseph Percoco and Todd R. Howe, close former aids to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, will face federal corruption charges.

    Just think how easily that corruption would have flowed into New Jersey had Chris Christie not heroically slowed that bridge to a crawl.

    1. BigT

      Morning rush – Christie heroically saved NJ citizens from exposure to NY corruption.

  16. Lord Humungus

    Sword Stolen From Joan of Arc Statue in DC Park

    The sword Joan of Arc wields in a statue in Northwest Washington’s Meridian Hill Park has vanished and the National Park Service says it was stolen.

    The French heroine clutched only her weapon’s handle in her right hand Wednesday afternoon, as Borderstan.com was first to report. The bronze sword appeared to have been broken off.

    U.S. Park Police are investigating the theft. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton questioned whether NPS could have prevented it.

    1. Just a thought not a sermon

      The guy who was able to take it should be the next king?

      1. That’s the sword in the stone, not the sword in the Joan.

        1. Oh, very good, sir, yes, quite.

          *modest applause*

        2. Tonio

          Joins TM in applauding.

        3. Cynical Asshole

          the sword in the Joan.

          These euphemisms…

      2. Rich

        +1 watery tart

    2. Tonio

      You know what other government agency was interested in french heroin?

      1. The NYPD?

        1. Tonio

          ^this

      2. Citizen X

        Rob Ford’s assistants?

  17. Bee Tagger

    How Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are preparing for Monday’s presidential debate.

    If they aren’t stocking up on booze and nyquil then they’re not preparing the same way as me.

    1. Tonio

      +1 Purple drank

  18. Just a thought not a sermon

    “The 2016 MacArthur Foundation “genius grants” have been awarded.”

    This guy sounds alright: Daryl Baldwin, 53, Oxford, Ohio. A cultural preservationist who is director of the Myaamia Center at Miami University of Ohio, Baldwin works to rejuvenate the language and culture of the Miami (Myaamia) nation. Though the last native speaker of the Miami language died roughly half a century ago, Baldwin has mastered the language and is teaching it to others.

    I’ve read this guy’s stuff, I like him: Gene Luen Yang, 43, San Jose, Calif. The graphic novelist/cartoonist takes on a broad range of topics. He has told many stories from a Chinese-American perspective, creating, for instance, inspirational Asian superheroes.

    Skeptical about this lady though: Maggie Nelson, 43, Valencia, Calif. Writer Nelson serves on the faculty of the California Institute of the Arts. Much of her work, articulated in five nonfiction books, has been inspired by feminist and queer theory and other schools of thought.

    1. DJF

      From Wikipedia

      MacArthur was a capitalist,[12][13] and the Foundation’s original 1970 deed said that one purpose of the foundation was to support “ways to discover and promulgate avoidance of waste in government expenditures.”
      However, MacArthur did not spell out specific parameters for how his money was to be spent after he died. MacArthur told the Foundation’s board of directors, “I figured out how to make the money. You fellows will have to figure out how to spend it.”

      Between 1979 and 1981, John’s son J. Roderick MacArthur, an ideological opponent of his father with whom the elder MacArthur had an acrimonious relationship, waged a legal battle against the Foundation for control of the board of directors.[9] The younger MacArthur sued eight members of the board, accusing them of mismanagement of the Foundation’s finances. By 1981, most of the original board had been replaced by members who agreed with J. Roderick MacArthur’s desire to support liberal causes

      1. Lee Genes

        So the idiot son went against the wishes of the man who made the money. Sounds about right.

      2. WTF

        Conquest’s 2nd Law: Any organization not explicitly and constitutionally right-wing will sooner or later become left-wing.

        1. Lee Genes

          Particularly when the people who run the organization have no skin in the game.

          1. Bobarian (Would Chip Her)

            More important is the dependence on other people’s skin.

      3. DJF

        “”””ways to discover and promulgate avoidance of waste in government expenditures.””””

        I wonder if any of the genius award winners did anything to avoid waste in government expenditures?

        I bet that many of them have helped to waste taxpayer money

    2. WTF

      Daryl Baldwin, 53, Oxford, Ohio. A cultural preservationist who is director of the Myaamia Center at Miami University of Ohio, Baldwin works to rejuvenate the language and culture of the Miami (Myaamia) nation.

      KULTURAL APPROPRIASHUNZ!!!11!!!!!

    3. Skimming the list and the synopses of their work included therein, it looks like it includes two kinds of people: social studies gringos doing racial/sexual/cultural awareness-type stuff here in the States, and immigrant doctors/engineers pioneering the spread of low-cost medical and computing technology to the third world.

      I have more respect for the latter than the former, and I think the grant money ($625,000 in quarterly installments for 5 years) will be better spent on their endeavors. But maybe I’m being too hasty. I don’t have much appreciation for modern art and literature, but I won’t deny that they play a pretty crucial part in our lives, regardless. C.S. Lewis once said, “Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.” What joy could we get from a world where we were only concerned about just, I dunno, existing?

      So maybe I oughta check my disdain. Just a thought provoked by your just a thought.

    4. I’ve read this guy’s stuff, I like him: Gene Luen Yang, 43, San Jose, Calif. The graphic novelist/cartoonist takes on a broad range of topics. He has told many stories from a Chinese-American perspective, creating, for instance, inspirational Asian superheroes.

      Eh. Not a fan of New Super-Man. Considering with DC Rebirth they are mostly returning to the pre-Flashpoint timeline, why the hell didn’t they just the Great Ten their own series instead of the idiotic choice of a Chinese “Justice League” with Chinese “Batman,” Chinese “Wonder Woman,” etc.?

      1. Rufus The Monocled

        Yeh. That was…erm, weird.

    5. SugarFree

      Anyone is more deserving than Coates. Terrible writer, subpar thinker, and a racist.

      1. Sometimes I think he is speaking directly to you.

        “I was made for the library, not the classroom. The classroom was a jail of other people’s interests. The library was open, unending, free.”

        1. Lee Genes

          Shorter Coates: In the classroom I had to listen to opposing viewpoints and debate them. So racist.

        2. SugarFree

          The library doesn’t want you either.

        3. Rufus The Monocled

          He said that?

          Terrible.

          Awful.

          Maddening.

          1. Maddening? Boring, mundane, uncontroversial. What self-styled nonconformist hasn’t panned the classroom as stifling his or her young genius?

  19. Rich

    McCrory has declared a state of emergency.

    So in tonight’s riot the National Guard will shoot to kill?

    1. Hopefully.

  20. Lord Humungus

    It looks like a Doomcock early prototype to me…

    Mexican police: Van with cannon used to shoot drugs to US

    Drug smugglers employ very creative methods to get their loads across the U.S.-Mexico border.

    But it’s not every day they use a van outfitted with a 10-foot (3-meter) air cannon to shoot projectiles into the United States.

    Mexican federal police said in a statement last week they found such van parked on a street in Agua Prieta, Mexico, along the border with Douglas, Arizona.

    It was reported stolen from the city of Hermosillo in the Mexican state of Sonora over the summer.

    Images provided by the Mexican police show the black van with hole cut in its roof with a cannon in the back of the van that could fire projectiles. Authorities also said they found an air compressor apparently used to launch packages.

    1. WTF

      STEVE SMITH EMPLOY CREATIVE METHODS TO GET LOADS ACROSS HIKER’S BORDERS!!!!!!!

  21. Juvenile Bluster

    So apparently Glenn (Instapundit) Reynolds was suspended from Twitter for commenting “run them down” in response to rioters protestors blocking highways and surrounding peoples’ cars in Charlotte.

    1. “Glenn Reynolds is a racist monster.”

    2. Bee Tagger

      A helpful PSA: you’re allowed to view both the actions and reactions as foolish.

    3. I’m with Glenn. I got places to be and don’t have time for their racist cause. I’d drive through them, giving them plenty of time to decide to get out of the way in order not to be slowly crushed.

  22. Domestic Dissident

    Cowardly, lowlife street rat in a hoodie sneaks up behind old, homeless looking out of it white dude and karate kicks him down to the ground for no apparent reason at all, but probably simply because he has the terrible misfortune to be a white guy in Obama’s America. Warning, this will probably make you sick to your stomach.

    Every time you think life under Mofobama can’t sink even lower, somehow amazingly it manages to. Now we’ve got a little mini race war breaking out in normally pleasant Charlotte. Say hello to President Donald Trump folks.

    1. Mikey, how about this one: Fartillery Weighs A Ton?

      1. Domestic Dissident

        It’s awesome that you think what’s going on these days is funny. Says a lot about you.

        1. I started preparing for the upcoming race war the second Negrobama was elected president, so I’m ready to go when it erupts near me.

        2. Cyto

          I wasn’t aware that Obama’s America extended to London.

          1. Apparently there are Londoners who think it does, because they’re trying to organize people to vote in the US election. (technically expat outreach, but ab absurd and open virtue signalling in an almost farcical double-decker bus.)

          2. Tonio

            Well-done, Cyto. Would you like to star in a Troll-B-Gone commercial?

          3. Citizen X

            Look, Cyto, Mikey isn’t very smart.

        3. kbolino

          Man who invents ridiculous nicknames accuses other people of being unserious. Were there no mirrors around?

  23. Joseph Percoco and Todd R. Howe, close former aids to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, will face federal corruption charges.

    Until January, when he left the administration for a job at Madison Square Garden, Mr. Percoco was Mr. Cuomo’s all-purpose body man, political enforcer and shadow, an honorary brother who had been at Mr. Cuomo’s side since both worked for Mr. Cuomo’s father, former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, in the 1990s.

    Get ’em, Preet!

  24. Lord Humungus

    Family flee home after finding spiders that can either kill or give you an erection lasting FOUR HOURS in Asda bananas

    Ashley Gamble, his partner Sophia Newcombe, and their two daughters fled after dozens of the creepie-crawlies burst out of a nest that was stuck to a piece of fruit and spilled onto the kitchen floor as they unpacked their shopping.

    The Brazilian wandering spiders have a bite that can kill in two hours and are amongst the most venomous on earth.

    Its venom can also cause an erection lasting up to FOUR HOURS in victims.

    Forklift truck driver Ashley, 28, said the scene was like “something out of a horror movie” ? and is refusing to return to the house until Asda pays for it to be fumigated.

    1. Bee Tagger

      Dying before your erection does stands to become the new “dying peacefully in your sleep.” if you ask me.

    2. LOL @ the solar panels and featureless, grey sky.

    3. Mr Lizard

      DEATH? Or BONER?!!!!

      1. Bee Tagger

        Give me rigidity or give me death!

      2. Elspeth Flashman

        Death by boner.

        1. Groovus Maximus

          There is a *IS* a reason the Viagra people have that particular (and infamous) disclaimer….

    4. Just a thought not a sermon

      said the scene was like “something out of a horror movie”

      A sexy, sexy horror movie.

      1. WTF

        Bow-chaka-bow-wow

    5. Lee Genes

      Well, at least you know what you’ll be doing for the last four hours of your life.

    6. Rich

      Its venom can also cause an erection lasting up to FOUR HOURS in victims.

      And you won’t believe the effect it has on *women*.

      1. SugarFree

        It turns them into men in Obama’s America.

        1. Groovus Maximus

          [Somewhere, somehow, David Cronenberg furiously pens a sequel to, “Shivers.”]

    7. Pope Jimbo

      “C’mon baby, I’ve only got 4 hours to live and a huge boner. Let’s fuck!!!”

      “Sure, easy for you to say, you don’t have to wake up for work tomorrow.”

      1. bacon-magic

        “You have to suck the poison out, I’d do it for you!”

  25. Lord Humungus

    Dems to GOP: Help us fix ObamaCare

    Insurers have been dropping out of ObamaCare or hiking their premiums this year due to financial losses, fueling Republican criticism of the law ahead of the November elections.

    While Democrats are pushing back at the GOP attacks, they are also expressing hope that Republicans will work with them to make fixes to the law when the new Congress convenes in 2017.

    “There are things we can do and need to do to address restoring competition in these exchanges, and my hope is when we’re through the elections and past the elections, we’ll do those,” Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) said.

    Carper pointed, for example, to improving the health law’s “three Rs,” which refer to programs that were created to shield insurers from high costs and losses. Republicans have attacked these programs as a “bailout” of insurers and have restricted taxpayer money from being used on them, putting a strain on insurer finances.

    1. Rufus The Monocled

      We knew it was gonna come to this.

      It’s a classic of a child being warned not to do something but doing it anyway and then demanding the parent step in and fix it.

      1. WTF

        Of the course the Stupid Party will comply, and then they will own a piece of the ongoing disaster.

        1. CatoTheChipper

          Worse than that: the Evil Party will be able to blame the failures of its own ObamaCare on the Stupid Party, while retaining the prerogative to take credit for any success.

          Remember No Child Left Behind?

    2. Tonio

      Dems to GOP: Help us fix ObamaCare

      No. Fuck you.

      1. WTF

        If only. You know they will actually “reach across the aisle” to “craft a bi-partisan solution”. Idiots.

    3. Glide

      I’ve yet to see any policy incentives offered by the Ds for the Rs to come to the table.

      Lots of “work with us, and we’ll stop saying you’re the devil.”

      Not a lot of “work with us, and we’ll actually shrink the government’s healthcare footprint.”

      1. WTF

        Why would the Ds offer anything? Public shaming of the Rs for not “working together” abetted by a compliant media has always been more than sufficient to bring the Rs to heel.

    4. OneOut

      No mention of programs to shield forced consumers from high costs and loses ?

      Thats interesting. Im sure it was just an oversight.

  26. Rensselaer cops suspended without pay in woodchuck incident

    The two officers had been on paid administrative leave since city officials learned about their alleged responsibility for the killing of the woodchuck during a Rensselaer Police Benevolent Association golf outing July 29 at Frear Park Golf Course in Troy.

    Sammon and Spath earn $55,584 and $78,128, respectively, according to the most recent 2016 report by the Empire Center’s See Through NY payroll site.

    1. Lee Genes

      How many woodchucks could two police chuck?

    2. Tonio

      +1 Caddyshack

  27. Lord Humungus

    I Was RFK’s Speechwriter. Now I’m Voting for Trump. Here’s Why.

    Here it is. John and Robert Kennedy devoted their greatest commitments and energies to the prevention of war and the preservation of peace. To them that was not an abstract formula but the necessary foundation of human life. But today’s Democrats have become the Party of War: a home for arms merchants, mercenaries, academic war planners, lobbyists for every foreign intervention, promoters of color revolutions, failed generals, exploiters of the natural resources of corrupt governments. We have American military bases in 80 countries, and there are now American military personnel on the ground in about 130 countries, a remarkable achievement since there are only 192 recognized countries. Generals and admirals announce our national policies. Theater commanders are our principal ambassadors. Our first answer to trouble or opposition of any kind seems always to be a military movement or action.

    Nor has the Democratic Party candidate for president this year, Hillary Clinton, sought peace. Instead she has pushed America into successive invasions, successive efforts at “regime change.”

    1. Bee Tagger

      That HAS to be a clickhole headline.

    2. Chip Woodier

      The legacy of JFK & RFK is “being abandoned by today’s Democratic Party.”

      Ouch. That’s gonna leave a mark.

  28. Lee Genes

    Would Angelina please take my uber-hot rich divorcee cherry now?

    4 Reasons to Talk About ‘Virginities’ Instead of ‘Virginity’

    After all, I didn’t really want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. The first time I had penis-in-vagina intercourse was special. It was a new sensation, it required my partner and I to have an adult conversation about pregnancy and birth control, and for a while, he was the only one I’d done that thing with, so it did feel like we shared something unique.

    However, I also didn’t want to make this act out to be more important than other relationship milestones. That would feed into the ideas that a) sex between people with penises and people with vaginas is the most valid kind of sex and b) you are somehow changed after you “lose your virginity.”

    So, I came up with this system: We have infinite virginities. It can be the first time you sleep over with someone or move in with them. It can even be the first time you go to an EDM festival or solve an antiderivative or do something else totally unrelated to sex.

    1. Zeb

      Sure, why not?

      1. Lee Genes

        I don’t really have a problem with it since it’s just a linguistic issue. It’s just a window into the complete and total obsession with sex and image among feminists. Everything gets viewed through the lens of getting your jollies off.

        1. Tonio

          More a window into their very shaky grasp of reality. Sure, there are multiple thresholds, but there is a specific meaning to the term “virginity” and I’m surprised they don’t eschew that word since it is patriarchal.

          In their defense: “He [U-Turn] and I busted our car-jacking cherries together” is an example of common usage of an equivalent term.

    2. WTF

      “This way I can slut it up all my life while pretending I’m not actually a slut!”

    3. The first time I had penis-in-vagina intercourse

      Okay so the writer is a radical feminist retard of the highest order.

    4. Brett L

      Catholic girls were waaaaay out ahead of this trend.

      1. Citizen X

        +1 technical virgin

    5. ant1sthenes

      I can’t help but wonder if they would spend so much time obsessing over such stupid things if they were doing something meaningful or creative with their life, or at least working a physically demanding job.

    6. KerryW

      I used to solve several antiderivatives a day, but now I’m down to one or two a week — maybe I need some testosterone treatments.

  29. Lord Humungus

    California University Students Call Words ‘Crazy’ and ‘Stupid’ Hate Speech, Play in Big Ball Pit

    During its “inclusive language” campaign, California State University-Northridge students lounged in a bouncy-ball pit and held forth about words that hurt their feelings in a so-called “vent tent,” Heat Street has learned after exclusively reviewing documents and video footage.

    CSU-Northridge’s event stretched on for an entire week, teaching students about “potentially hurtful phrases” and cautioning that “using non-inclusive language can have a negative affect on others.”

    The University Student Union, a student-led nonprofit campus organization, spent more than $1,000 in student fees on the event, according to invoices. Urging students to avoid hurtful language, USU came up with a list of offensive words ? and then printed them in huge, all-caps text, hanging the poster on campus regardless of their supposedly triggering potential.

    1. Slammer

      Oh, Canada

    2. Just a thought not a sermon

      Sounds like an innovative kindergarten.

  30. Rich

    Breast milk bank now open in New York

    *** pumps breast fist ***

    My prediction of breast milk farming is getting closer to reality.

    Think of the JOBS!

    1. I’ve been pushing for the sale of breast milk for years. People hate the idea. It’s icky. It exploits new mothers and endangers their babies.* It’s icky.

      It’s also one of the best ways to prevent necrotic bowel in preemies and medical supply is, so I’m told, perpetually tentative.

      Mostly I think people object because they know once it’s for sale on the open market, some bastard will be making cheese with it. And they’re just not cool with that.

      1. Lee Genes

        some bastard will be making cheese with it

        +1 Lumbersexual

      2. robc

        I have been making breast milk cheese jokes for the last 9 months.

        1. Groovus Maximus

          That explains whey you have been sleeping on the couch for the last eight of them.-)

          1. robc

            whey

            intended?

            1. Groovus Maximus

              intended?

              She had to curd your enthusiasm somehow.-)

              1. bacon-magic

                Those jokes are cheesy.
                *light bulb turns on above cranium
                “Cheesy Titty Puffs”

        2. Chip Woodier

          I have been making breast milk cheese jokes for the last 9 months.

          You could have had 9 months of yogurt.

    2. BigT

      How does one apply for a job as breast milk pumper?

    3. Pope Jimbo

      If breast milk farming becomes a thing, I believe it is time to invest in companies that make those goofy carpal tunnel braces.

    4. Groovus Maximus

      Not one of you has made neither a reference nor a joke about Mad Max, Fury Road. This was begging for an Immortan Joe reference.

      All of you disgust and sicken me.

      1. Red Rocks Dickin Bimbos

        “Do not, my friends, become addicted to breast milk. It will take hold of you, and you will resent its absence!”

        Better?

    5. Emmerson Biggins

      EVERYBODY THIS IS A STICK UP. GET YOUR BOOBS OUT NOW!

      Oh, that’s not how this works? Well shit. Nevermind.

  31. The Intellectual Yet Idiot
    What we have been seeing worldwide, from India to the UK to the US, is the rebellion against the inner circle of no-skin-in-the-game policymaking “clerks” and journalists-insiders, that class of paternalistic semi-intellectual experts with some Ivy league, Oxford-Cambridge, or similar label-driven education who are telling the rest of us 1) what to do, 2) what to eat, 3) how to speak, 4) how to think? and 5) who to vote for.
    But the problem is the one-eyed following the blind: these self-described members of the “intelligenzia” can’t find a coconut in Coconut Island, meaning they aren’t intelligent enough to define intelligence hence fall into circularities???but their main skill is capacity to pass exams written by people like them. With psychology papers replicating less than 40%, dietary advice reversing after 30 years of fatphobia, macroeconomic analysis working worse than astrology, the appointment of Bernanke who was less than clueless of the risks, and pharmaceutical trials replicating at best only 1/3 of the time, people are perfectly entitled to rely on their own ancestral instinct and listen to their grandmothers (or Montaigne and such filtered classical knowledge) with a better track record than these policymaking goons….

    1. …He knows at any point in time what his words or actions are doing to his reputation.

      But a much easier marker: he doesn’t deadlift.

    2. Still unclear what’s his issue with GMOs. Because the odds of calamity are low but the severity is high?

      1. ant1sthenes

        Yep, it’s sort of the quintessential black swan event. Think of him as Ian Malcolm.

  32. Lord Humungus

    It’s always good news for Democrats:

    How Hillary’s Very Bad September Could Be Very Good for Her in November
    The greatest threat to her was soft turnout. Now Trump’s proximity in the polls could light a fire under wavering Clinton supporters.

    You can choose one or more of the explanations for what has happened to Hillary Clinton in recent weeks as Donald Trump has closed in on her in the polls. The “fundamentals” of this year?economic and political data?have pointed to a close race for more than a year; Trump has (until his recent birther nonsense) offered a more temperate version of himself; Clinton has been haunted by her emails and her health; Republican holdouts have been returning to the fold, another sign that the electorate will vote more and more along lines of party preference.

    But what is especially bedeviling the Clinton campaign is that, at least until now, constituencies most critical to her campaign seem to have no sense of urgency about keeping the Donald Trump out of the White House. While Hispanics, who backed Obama in 2012 by a more than 2-1 margin, support Clinton by a similar margin, they seem far less inclined to vote than they did four years ago.

    That is what could change now that Trump threatens to actually take the White House.

    1. She can’t even get people to show up to a rally. They’re not going to show up to the polls.

      The question now is the margin of fraud.

      1. Domestic Dissident

        The way things are going for her right now, she’ll probably have a seizure and collapse right in the middle of the debate, live in front of an audience of millions.

        1. WTF

          I am sure she will be sufficiently rested and medicated, and the ‘moderators’ will be sufficiently protective of her, for that to never be shown on air.

        2. Illocust

          I’m wondering how that would play. I know how it would be reported. The media would wax poetic about how strong she is to go to a debate while that ill, but I’m wondering how the average voter would actually see such an act.

      2. Brett L

        She can’t even get herself to the rally.

    2. ant1sthenes

      Cue Baghdad Bob meme.

  33. Hillary Hates You
    There is one key fact to understand about Hillary Clinton, one unarguable truth that explains all of her terrible policy positions and her dishonest, self-defeating behavior. Everything she believes leads to this conclusion. Everything she does, even the stupid things that have hamstrung her, stem from it.

    Hillary Clinton hates you.

    She doesn’t dislike you. She is not irritated with you. She does not merely prefer the company of others, though she certainly does prefer the company of those who will either pay her or suck up to her.

    She hates you.

    You’re deplorable. You’re irredeemable. With a wave of her limp, clammy hand, this sick old woman dismisses you from the company of those whose opinions have value, whose interests matter, who have any moral claim to participation in self-governance. You are less than nothing. You are vermin to be, at best, driven from society….

  34. London’s Muslim Mayor Tells New Yorkers that Terrorism is “Part and Parcel of Life in a Big City”
    Sadiq Khan, London’s first Muslim mayor, has never hesitated when it comes to lecturing Americans about how they are mishandling terrorism. At an event in New York City called “Building Progressive, Inclusive Cities,” Khan told New Yorkers that they should simply get used to Islamic terror.

    Terror attacks are “part and parcel of life in a big city,” Khan told the Evening Standard just hours after multiple terror attacks in New Jersey and New York. He mimics words that come from most of the European Union’s leaders. After multiple terror attacks in France, the French Prime Minister told his subjects that they “will have to live with terrorism.”

    The mayor is devoted to making sure Donald Trump does not become the next president of the United States and full supports Hillary Clinton, voicing his support for her throughout America’s big cities….

    1. WTF

      Also the view of the open borders, let’s-bring-the-Syrian-refugees-here crowd.

      1. Zeb

        It could be true. That doesn’t mean you don’t try to do something about it, but in a society that is at all free, bad people will be able to do bad things.

        1. WTF

          in a society that is at all free, bad people will be able to do bad things.

          Of course, but it makes no sense to add to the problem.

        2. In a society that is at all free, tolerance is not taken for granted, it’s earned. And you certainly don’t subsidize them and bend over backwards to import an intolerant demographic whose children will pledge to kill your children.

          1. Zeb

            No. All I mean is that if you want freedom, you can’t expect to stop all bad things.

            I agree that bringing a lot of Middle Eastern refugees to the country isn’t any kind of moral obligation or a very good idea.

            1. No. All I mean is that if you want freedom, you can’t expect to stop all bad things.

              I certainly can’t disagree with that. The cost of preventing those bad things would be too high. But from where I’m sitting, a society that is effectively devoid of an Islamic presence bears no cost, but instead has a lower liability.

    2. Tom Bombadil

      I wonder if he would be so sanguinely accepting of the concept that assassination attempts are part and parcel of being a big city mayor.

    3. Tom Bombadil

      “The mayor is devoted to making sure Donald Trump does not become the next president of the United States and full supports Hillary Clinton, voicing his support for her throughout America’s big cities….”

      Sounds like yet another unintended Trump boost.

    4. Eternal Blue Sky

      The mayor’s an idiot from everything I’ve heard about him, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he said this.

      But every single news outlet reporting this has chopped the quote down to just

      “part and parcel of life in a big city”

      Anyone have the full thing for context?? Because half a sentence just isn’t doing it for me.

  35. Roger the Shrubber

    Podcasts from Reason are now available on iTunes and Soundcloud.

    I hope there are two-sentence synopses of these podcasts so that I can add my witty comments without bothering to listen.

  36. Lee Genes

    Get out and vote you idiots. Seriously, it’s important that you make a choice, even if it’s uninformed.

    1. Rich

      I refuse to watch these chopped-up repeated-phrase, um, productions.

    2. Slammer

      Stolen from derpbook:

      “Dear Hollywood celebrities,

      You only have a place in my world to entertain me. That’s it.

      You make your living pretending to be someone else. Playing dress up like a 6 year old. You live in a make believe world in front of a camera – and often when you are away from one, too. Your entire existence depends on my patronage.

      I’ll crank the organ grinder; you dance.

      I don’t really care where you stand on issues. You see, you aren’t real. I turn off my TV or shut down my computer and you cease to exist in my world. Once I am done with you, I can put you back in your little box until I want you to entertain me again. I hope you realize that the only words of yours that matter are scripted. In my world, you exist solely for my entertainment.

      So, shut your word hole and dance, monkey!”

      1. There’s a reason Actors used to be classed alongside cutpurses and prostitutes in society. I think the prostitutes are more honest and should be classed above the actors.

        1. Zeb

          Nah, whores and actors are the same thing, pretty much. The thieves belong in a different category.

      2. Tonio

        Pedantic rant: The organ-grinder was the person who operated or “ground” the organ.

        A street organ is an automatic mechanical pneumatic organ designed to be mobile enough to play its music in the street. The two most commonly seen types are the smaller German and the larger Dutch street organ.

        1. Slammer

          Pedantry on organ size? You be you, Tonio 😉

          1. WTF

            I always heard it’s about how big it is, it’s how well you “grind” it.

            1. WTF

              “Not” about. Shit!

      3. Rufus The Monocled

        But…George Clooney!

        GEORGE. CLOOOOOOONET.

        Surely he’s smart, no?

        1. WTF

          No.

  37. One person was shot last night during protests in Charlotte, North Carolina. The protests were sparked by the fatal police shooting on Tuesday of Keith Lamont Scott. Gov. Paty McCrory has declared a state of emergency.

    Morons are going to drag everyone into their narrative shitshow, because it would be upsetting to taking a step towards fixing it by acknowledging that the other might have at least part of a valid point.

    Thinky thoughts: This was the background in Charlotte when the shooting occurred.

  38. A Woman’s Prerogative
    …Now we move into an era where women have almost unchallenged, unilateral control of the birthing of the next generations of the human race. As I’ve mentioned before, with safe and legal abortion, feminine-controlled birth control, feminine-primary societal norms, feminine-controlled definitions of rape or harassment, and feminine-controlled legislation of men’s responsibility to fatherhood (irrespective of genetic origin) women’s consolidation on power is nearly complete….

    …I understand that in some ‘sphere communities Vasagel is the ‘big fuck you’ to women for have had such uncontested social control for so long, but to them I would advise not to get too elated too quickly. For the most part the socio-psychological infrastructure that conditions men for the Blue Pill will still exist, and there will always be Betas, even ones with the male prerogative that Vasagel implies, who will still defer to the feminine as their only means to sex and intimacy. The Feminine Imperative is nothing if not fluidly redefining itself to work around challenges to it s power. Vasagel may represent a change (assuming men are allowed to have it or can afford it) in our intersexual dynamics, but it will take some time before there is real change in our social dynamics as a result of it.

    1. Tonio

      Erm…throughout most of human history (and probably before) childbirth was an exclusively female thing. Most men were wise enough to want to stay the fuck away from all that. And it seems that in most cultures and places women had access to abortifacients of varying effectiveness and safety, and again had recourse to those without the input of men. Say you were away on a hunting trip and upon your return your previously-pregnant woman reported that she “lost” the baby; most men wouldn’t question that as spontaneous abortions and still-birth were extremely common before modern medicine, nutrition and sanitation. It was only with the medicalization of childbirth that this dynamic changed.

  39. BigT

    Dems flocking to Trump in Ohio.

    Trump dems are a bit different from Reagan
    dems.

    http://www.cbsnews.com/news/on…..-to-trump/

    1. “Halle Minchin Skook”… You can’t fool me, that’s a character from a Carl Hiaasen novel.

  40. Juvenile Bluster

    Donald Trump : The only Presidential candidate who has actually promised to take away your guns (if the police think you shouldn’t have them)

  41. “The U.S. is investigating an Islamic State militant group (ISIS) rocket fired at American troops near a military base in northern Iraq that may have carried a chemical agent.”

    I wonder if it’s at all related to the chemical agent purportedly used by Assad that Obama wanted to use to justify US strikes against the Assad regime. I’ve said it before, Obama made that gas attack happen when he promised ISIS an air force in his Red Line Speech if it would appear that the regime gassed some civilians.

  42. Flagged Two Times in 2014, Ahmad Rahami Passed Scrutiny

    When Ahmad Khan Rahami returned in March 2014 from a nearly yearlong trip to Pakistan, he was flagged by customs officials, who pulled him out for a secondary screening. Still concerned about his travel, they notified the National Targeting Center, a federal agency that assesses potential threats, two law enforcement officials said.

    It was one of thousands of such notifications every year, and a report on Mr. Rahami was passed along to the F.B.I. and other intelligence agencies.

    Five months later, when Mr. Rahami’s father told the police after a domestic dispute that he was concerned about his son having terrorist sympathies, federal agents again examined his travel history. And again, despite Mr. Rahami’s now having been flagged twice for scrutiny, the concerns were not found to warrant a deeper inquiry, one of the law enforcement officials said. Ahmad Rahami was not interviewed by federal agents.

    But now, the travel history of Mr. Rahami, who is accused of carrying out bombings in New York and New Jersey last weekend, has become a focus of investigators, a subject made all the more urgent by details contained in a notebook that suggests he drew inspiration largely from the Islamic State.

    If only we had access to his phone!

    1. ant1sthenes

      What exactly would they have found that they could do anything about? He bought some pressure cookers? His parents owned a restaurant, so it’s easily excused.

  43. Slammer

    Tobe Hooper on Texas Chainsaw Massacre

    Most people associate notorious Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein with the chainsaw-wielding, mass-murdering movie villain Leatherface ? but it turns out a sweet 1949 cartoon character was the true inspiration behind the deranged fictional terror: Baby Huey.

    Similarly, Leatherface was a big oaf with no friends and waddled around making animal noises. But in contrast to the animated duck, Leatherface and his two twisted brothers were the hunters, slaughtering humans in the most ghastly fashion in the 1974 horror classic, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”

    “He never became an adult. He was like Baby Huey. It’s kind of the way I envisioned him from the cartoons,” “Chainsaw” director Tobe Hooper revealed about his Leatherface character, originally played by actor Gunnar Hansen, who died last year at the age of 68.

    I love that movie.

    1. Just a thought not a sermon

      I’m a big fan of horror movies, and it’s one of my favorites. Sort of a proto-slasher movie, but a lot better than any of them. It’s also funny in parts, if you have a sick enough sense of humor.

      I rate is somewhere below Dawn of the Dead and the Shining, but it’s definitely in my Top 5.

      1. Lord Humungus

        I get annoyed by all the screaming – screaming at the dinner table scene, screaming when she gets chased,.. damn girl, you could run faster if you got some air into your lungs

        1. Just a thought not a sermon

          It’s a lot easier to write a script when the main killer is non-verbal and the main victim does nothing but scream.

          1. No wonder porn scripts are so lazy.

            1. Careful of those lemon stealing whores

      2. PurityDiluting

        Dawn of the Dead … definitely top 5, regardless of genre

    2. Brett L

      The funniest part to me is that the movie was intended to be PG-13, so Hooper would call up the MPAA and say, “how can I show a girl hanging on a meathook and not have it be an R movie?”

      IMO, one of the reasons it is so scary is that the “action” happens off screen. You’re presented with a setup and a result.

      1. Brett L

        Oh, its retold in the article.

  44. Lord Humungus

    Hillary Clinton Leads Donald Trump by Six Points in Latest WSJ/NBC Poll
    Both candidates viewed negatively by majority of voters; third-party candidates at 12% support

    Paywalled.

    Saw this: Dems and #Nevertrump are going crazy over this poll.

    Also saw this in a (gah) Hotair comment: The most revealing question in the NBC poll. Who did you vote for in 2012?

    47% said Obama.
    33% said Romney.

    The rest either didn’t vote or voted for someone else.

    Obama won by 3.9%. Yet this poll has 14% more Obama voters and Clinton is only getting a 5% lead over Trump? Really?

    1. There seems to be anecdotal evidence to support the supposition that Democrats respond to pollsters more often.

    2. Cyto

      Checking Real Clear Politics, something is weird in the polls right now. The two latest polls differ by way more than the margin of error. One has Clinton +6, the next has Trump +5. Both with about a 3% margin of error.

      One or both of them are not correctly calculating their error bars.

      From the same visit, RCP poll averages give the Dems a really good chance of taking the Senate.

      1. Error bars aren’t absolute. There is a non zero chance that a random sample of 300 voters drawn from a population of 1,000,000 voters where 97% of them will vote for Saddam Hussein will entirely consist of insane people who don’t recognize Saddam Hussein’s greatness.

        The confidence intervals are generally 95% i.e. 19 out of 20 times they run that survey with a sample of that size the actual popularity of the candidates in the parent population would fall within the margin of error. In one out of 20 surveys it would not. XKCD has a great example of this phenomenon.

        1. Tonio

          ^This. And don’t forget the portion of the population who, like me, absolutely refuse to respond to polls or surveys.

          1. robc

            Its more fun to respond wrongly.

            My Mom once told a surveryor that we owned 3 VCRs and zero TVs.

    3. Lord Humungus

      html tag fail – should have put the other person comments in quotes

    4. Lord Humungus

      html tag fail – should have put the other person comments in quotes

    5. WTF

      Gotta skew them pols to try to prop up Herself.

      1. Groovus Maximus

        Worst. Euphemism. EVAR!

  45. Rufus The Monocled

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6EEEmHbVyE

    I have to say they nailed The Young Turks pretty well in this parody.

  46. Lord Humungus

    #CharlotteProtest Beating man begging for mercy in parking garage.
    Twitter Video

    damn – makes me want to start packing.

    1. Domestic Dissident

      Obama’s legacy playing out right before our very eyes. Hello President Trump.

    2. Chipwooder

      You aren’t already??

      1. Lord Humungus

        Never had to *knocks on wood*

        1. Groovus Maximus

          Much -phemism…. So very Eu…

    3. AlmightyJB

      Animals. Too bad he wasn’t armed. I always at least have a pocket knife big enough to reach vital organs.

  47. White House staffer’s email hacked revealing secret service plans, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton’s private schedules, secret service plans, and even Michelle Obama’s PASSPORT

    DC Leaks said in an email: ‘The leaked files show the security level of our government. If terrorists hack emails of White House Office staff and get such sensitive information we will see the fall of our country.’

    1. WTF

      The real story is that some have speculated that it could be the Russians working for Trump.
      Russians.
      TRUMP.

    2. Ferchrissakes.

      [1] If terrorists hack this information, who is to assume that these clowns are even a worthwhile target? You can get 10x the bang for the buck at any given shopping mall.

      [2] Damage to people in the white house does NOT mean “the fall of our country”. Hell, all of DC has been intentionally trying to destroy this country for the last 20 years … and we’re still here!!!

  48. Nervous colleagues tracked woman’s PMS on calendar to avoid ‘situations’

    What’s really alarming is that this isn’t a one-off, according to the Herald-Sun ? there are actually several apps built just to enable men to track women’s menstrual cycles, such as PMS Buddy.

    Now if only I could get women in the office to track my hangovers.

    1. Illocust

      Sounds reasonable. I’m better than when I was younger, but I’m still not at my most reasonable when PMSing. If I found out someone was doing this about me, I’d take it as a good reason to examine my own behavior and what I can do to fix it.

      1. Bobarian (Would Chip Her)

        Unless you were PMSing at the time, in which case you’d take it as a good reason to place his head on a pike and wear his skin as a trophy.

    2. Citizen X

      This is a skill a married man acquires early on, if he wants to stay married.

      1. Brett L

        I don’t track it, I just realize when my wife starts making ever more crazy-sounding statements that it must be that time again. Which, with the hormone releasing IUD is nothing like a regular monthly cycle.

    3. Tonio

      Patriarchy! Control or wombynz bodies!! UNFAIR!!1!

      But wanting to know where gun owners live is totally OK.

  49. Cynical Asshole

    On the Charlotte crap:

    I’m starting to become a little more confident that what my semi-educated wild ass guess as to what happened may have been pretty close.

    Specifically, that Keith Scott was sitting in his car waiting for the school bus to drop his kid off when he saw one or more of the cops, in plain clothes, approaching the apartment complex armed. Not realizing they were cops, he grabbed his gun and got out of his car to go confront the armed men, then the cops started shouting conflicting commands at him – maybe on shouted “get on the ground” while another shouted “don’t move” while a third shouted “drop it” etc. – possibly without any of them bothering to identify themselves as cops. He got confused, didn’t know what to do next, perhaps got back into his truck thinking “maybe if I ignore them they’ll go away” (newsflash: no, they won’t – once cops have started shouting commands at you they’re not going away until you either comply or are dead). Then got back out of his truck in his confusion, still holding the gun and got shot by Vinson.

    1. Cynical Asshole

      IOW, it’s a tragic mistake. The cop didn’t go in thinking “I hope I get to shoot an unarmed n****r today,” and the guy who got shot wasn’t just calmly minding his own business “reading a book” and not harming a fly either. That said, there were several fuck-ups all the way around, on the cop’s part (don’t go in plain clothes to serve a warrant, identify yourself as cops before you start shouting conflicting orders, don’t shout conflicting orders at peopls, etc.) as well as Scott’s part (don’t go confront a bunch of unknown armed men, don’t get all confused and get back in your truck and then get back out while said armed men are shouting at you, etc.).

      All that said: I think Officer Vinson probably shouldn’t be a cop anymore, just like the panicky bitch cop in Tulsa shouldn’t be, but of course we all know neither one will be fired. There likely won’t be any consequences at all, which of course is the real problem.

      1. kbolino

        There likely won’t be any consequences at all, which of course is the real problem.

        This, this, so much fucking this. The “thin blue line” is a conspiracy against the public.

  50. Glide

    Random note: we know that Gary has tried to use iSidewith.com as part of his campaign. For that reason, I thought it might be of interest to the folks here that they seem to have had a serious recalibration of their scoring system since I last logged in. It seems a lot less linear than it did before. My Trump agreement score went from 75-ish to 50, and Stein and Clinton who were both north of 50 based mainly on foreign policy and social issues have plummeted to under 25%. Johnson actually went up.

    I don’t mind the scale change because it was dumb to imagine I agreed with Clinton more often than not. But I sure would have been curious to see this scale in action during the primaries.

    1. Lord Humungus

      took the quiz again which gave me different results, much more GJ than before

      Candidates you side with…
      Gary Johnson 89% Libertarian

      Darrell Castle 79% Constitution

      Donald Trump 60% Republican

      Hillary Clinton 21% Democratic

      Jill Stein 18% Green

      1. kbolino

        I got 99% Johnson, 97% McMullin, 84% Trump, 12% Stein, 8% Clinton

        I think Johnson is so highly scored because the areas where I disagree with him are of least importance to me.

        1. AlmightyJB

          I got 200? Adolf Hitler.

          1. kbolino

            You got 200 what, care of Adolf Hilter?

        2. kbolino

          Note: there were no questions about cake or Nazis.

  51. BigT

    Rasmussen: Trump +5

    Watch as this lead increases and spreads to the WSJ and other polls

    http://m.rasmussenreports.com/…..atch_sep22

  52. BigT

    This week’s Fifth Column – TDS circlejerk in which Welch lets his gay bigot mask slip.

    Only Kmele makes this worth sampling at all

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