New Overtime Pay Rules Blocked, Nikki Haley Tapped for U.N. Ambassador, Americans Already Nostalgic for Obama: A.M. Links

• 

  Gerry Melendez/MCT/Newscom

  A federal judge in Texas granted a preliminary injunction blocking the implementation of President Obama's executive action on overtime-pay eligibility.

• Donald Trump has reportedly tapped South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to be his administration's ambassador to the United Nations.
• The Missouri Supreme Court has ruled that gun dealers can be held accountable for negligence, allowing a$22 2.2 million settlement to go forward. The case involved a gun and pawn shop that sold a weapon to a paranoid-schizophrenic woman, who later used it to kill her father.*
• Trump's immigration plans could spark a "tech brain drain," Wired worries.
• Obama's post-election approval rating was 57 percent, the highest it has been since September 2009.
• The Dalai Lama has "no worries" about Trump's election.
• Recount!

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

* This erroneously stated earlier that the Court had awarded the settlement.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Donald Trump has reportedly tapped South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to be his administration's ambassador to the United Nations.

She enjoys being meaningless?

[Tonio]

I wish Gov. Haley had been given a more substantial appointment. Having said that, this is a decent starter appointment and it seems likely that the Trump administration will probably shuffle its cabinet around.

[Brett L]

We still have Bobby Jindal for Secretary of the Interior.

[Noodlez]

Dalmia hardest hit.

[Free Society]

Dalmia hates Indians that betray their culture. But white people are totally racist for wanting to preserve theirs and expecting immigrants to assimilate into the host society, not the other way around.

[Domestic Dissident]

That piece was by far the most disgusting thing any Reason contributor has ever put out.

[Suell]

Which one was that?

[Domestic Dissident]

The one where she basically called him the Indian equivalent of a "house negro" and was accompanied by a picture depicting him as a cartoonish figure riding an elephant.

[Free Society]

Here's one, Suell.

[Free Society]

It's not the one I was thinking of necessarily, but Reason's indexing isn't all that great and my patience is even worse.

[Free Society]

Either that or the "Trump causes genocide in India" article. The woman is a lunatic.

[Bill Dalasio]

I wish Gov. Haley had been given a more substantial appointment.

Not so sure I agree. Haley's weak point is the absence of any kind of foreign policy background (which is also why I'm not quite sure I approve of the pick, not from lack of experience, but from absence of established policies). A UN ambassadorship plugs that gap a great deal.

[Lee Genes]

I don't get it. Why would a governor with a promising national political career take that job?

[Fist of Etiquette]

She wanted to be part of the administration but still out of pussy-grabbing range.

[0x90]

But... Dominique Strauss-Kahn can probably be found hanging around in those circles...

[Scarecrow & WoodChipper Repair]

Act of War!

[RBS]

There are a lot of people who feel like they have an obligation to accept whatever job POTUS gives you out of respect for the office.

[SugarFree]

When she runs for President no one can say she has no foreign policy experience.

[Citizen X]

+1 house with a view of Russia

[Rhywun]

Or the East River. That's sort of like in the direction of Russia, right?

[Citizen X]

In that there are at least as many Russians living around the East River as in Russia, sure.

[Brett L]

Plus the Lt. Governor was a big Trump supporter, so Trump gets to give her a Federal international position AND him the governorship. Also, UN Ambassador is great. Fly all over the world and tell people in other countries to shape up or get bombed.

[Rhywun]

If she doesn't burn it all down from the inside, her work there will not be complete.

[I'll have the fish]

-- Fly all over the world and tell people in other countries to shape up or get bombed.

You into a room - eyebrows up - "I, uh..thought I'd made myself clear on this, gentlemen?"

Kickass

[Lee Genes]

I suppose. But UN Ambassador is a pretty thankless position.

Besides, I thought Bolton was the perfect asshole for that job.

[Suthenboy]

^This. Bolton is a great UN ambassador. His re-appointment is the perfect 'fuck you' to the UN and no one deserves Bolton more than the UN.

[Free Society]

Didn't Bolton play an extraordinarily outsized role in starting the Iraq War because he personally fabricated intelligence reports or something that Bush put his credibility on? So if I remember correctly, Bolton is uniquely unsuitable for this job, he should probably find work in a prison license plate factory.

[Lee Genes]

He did. He's a piece of shit. Personally, I'd put a remote-controlled Taser on his balls and tell him to do the job, but expect to get shocked if he stepped out of line.

[LurkinInaBuildin]

"he personally fabricated intelligence reports"

When was this? I remember him only as a standard Bush-era war advocate. I don't recall anyone accusing him of personally fabricating intelligence.

[Free Society]

When was this? I remember him only as a standard Bush-era war advocate. I don't recall anyone accusing him of personally fabricating intelligence.

This unclassified chronology also stated that on the next day, December 19, 2003, the Bureau of Nonproliferation "sends email with the fact sheet, 'Fact Sheet Iraq Declaration.doc.'" to Mr. Bolton's office (emphasis in original). A second e-mail was sent a few minutes later, and a third e-mail was sent about an hour after that. According to the chronology, each version "still includes Niger reference." Although Mr. Bolton may not have personally drafted the document, the chronology appears to indicate that he ordered its creation and received updates on its development.

[Fist of Etiquette]

But why would Trump want to piss off the United Nations? It's not like he's actually a principled anti-globalist.

[Bill Dalasio]

Nah. He's got a SCOTUS appointment early on his calendar. N

[Bill Dalasio]

That's the draw exactly.

[creech]

She'll know what "Aleppo" is.
This is probably a good move if Haley has any presidential ambitions. Governor, ambassador to UN, maybe Senator next time. Will have her ticket punched so no one can claim lack of executive, foreign policy, or legislative experience.

[Ken Shultz]

"I don't get it. Why would a governor with a promising national political career take that job?"

Term limits, maybe?

You can only be the governor of South Carolina for two terms.

Jean Kirkpatrick and Madeline Albright made names for themselves as the Ambassador to the UN.

It's possible.

[CampingInYourPark]

Who?

[Tonio]

Madeline Albright was US SoS under Clinton, from 1997-2001. FWIW, she was the first female US SoS.

[Fist of Etiquette]

FFS, Tonio.

[Johnny Hit n Run Paulene]

He *tapped* Nikki Haley? Really?

[(((Renegade)))]

Beat you by a minute.

[Johnny Hit n Run Paulene]

At least. G'day Renegade.

[(((Renegade)))]

Shalom!

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

DAMN IT!

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Donald Trump has reportedly tapped South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley

Hey-oh!

[Johnny Hit n Run Paulene]

Yeah, and more below. It's like we're sharing a brain, or an echo chamber or have the same 5th grade sense of humor. This is what I come here for.

[UnCivilServant]

It's the juvenile sense of humor.

Ignore the reverberations your voice creates.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

[I'll have the fish]

Happy Day Before Thanksgiving, Rufus.

-fish

[Rufus The Monocled]

Chief UN Troll. Now there's a job I'd take.

[commodious gits gud]

The UN has to pay the troll toll to get into Trump's earhole.

[jack sprat]

Would

[Bubba Jones]

I'd tap that...

[Bee Tagger]

Trump's immigration plans could spark a "tech brain drain," Wired worries.

Wrong swamp, Trump.

[UnCivilServant]

Are these the same tech brains that come here and get trained by the american employees they're replacing?

[Rhywun]

Some of them, I assume, are good people.

[BigW]

That would be them.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Yeh, after all that fawning over Obama, I'm not so sure 'Wired' has my attention at the moment.

[Not a Libertarian]

I wonder if there is ever any chance that the magazine moves back towards its original small L libertarianism?

Has there ever been an organization or institution that after moving left had reversed course?

[Rufus The Monocled]

Not that I recall.

True believers are hard to change.

[BYODB]

The Nazi's?

[Mr Drew]

Good morning all. Let me go off topic if I may.

Last night my little girl woke me around 1:30 because her tummy hurt.

Around 2 she threw up all over my room.

By 2:30 I had her and said room cleaned up and she was inviting all the dogs into my bed with her and she asked me;

"how do mommies and daddies make babies? I mean like, exactly how and what do they do to make the baby?"

[(((Renegade)))]

Did you show her?

[Swiss Servator]

*narrows gaze*

[(((Renegade)))]

Apparently they showed YOU.

[Mr Drew]

This from the guy who, inadvertently I suppose, suggested his daughter had tasted his...add a dad, I'm just gonna stop right there. 😉

[(((Renegade)))]

Inadvertently? Please.

[Suthenboy]

Good grief (((Renegade))). There's a line man....

Oh. This is H&R.

Nevermind.

[commodious gits gud]

If you squint you can narrowly distinguish the line from the horizon.

[I'll have the fish]

*squints*

Yep

[Juvenile Bluster]

I've been dreading that question myself. Luckily it hasn't come up yet.

[Tonio]

Ouch. Sorry. But don't leave us in suspense. What did you tell her?

[(((Renegade)))]

"When a mommy and a dayy love each other very much, the daddy shoves his babymaker into her hoohoo and after 14 seconds, it shoots out pecker snot. Babies are basically made from peckersnot."

My kid had nightmares for years after I explained it to him. I still smile at the memories.

[Mr Drew]

Boy parts go into girl parts and DNA goes to an egg, basically. I wanted to tell the truth while limiting the scope of the conversation.

[(((Renegade)))]

Better get her used to the idea of pecker snot now. And throw in the pro tip about pineapple.

[robc]

When I get to that point, I am going to tell my daughter the truth: Babies come from a lab in Nashville.

[Aloysious]

This. Warp their little minds.

[robc]

Nothing warped. That is where she came from. She is a test tube baby (I prefer the old school term over IVF).

[Aloysious]

Oh, right on.

I still like warping their little minds.

[SIV]

Stork-denier

[UnCivilServant]

Look, Doctor Stork works in the lab, not the hospital maternity ward.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

"We just went to Wal-Mart and bought the kit, like most parents. We got a special discount on you because it was partially damaged. . . but, I mean, you're almost as good. The defects are barely noticeable."

[Tonio]

+1 Calvin's Dad

[Brett L]

My youngest did the same as far as puking. But he can't talk, so no weird questions.

[Tyler.C]

Yeah, i was in the same situation with both my daughters last week.

[Pope Jimbo]

I'm sort of envious about the freedom that kids and dogs have when it comes to puking.

When did I decide that I should try to hold the puke back with every ounce of my hung over body? Kids don't do that, if they get the slightest pang from that candybar they found behind the couch, they simply reverse gears and puke it all up and are better in an hour or so.

[Lord Rollingpin]

And cats.

[Citizen X]

In my experience, cats will hold it in until they can either blow it out all over a carpet (the thicker the better) or get up someplace high for greater coverage.

[I'll have the fish]

I have 2 boys (17,15) & a girl (13).

When they were little & asked, I'd basically filibuster until they were like, fuck it, I'll go ask mom.

Not good parenting, but I'd like to think I make up for it in other ways.

[Fist of Etiquette]

And after the explanation she threw up all over again.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Oh, that's rough. About a week ago, my four-month-old decided that only one parent will be able to comfort him on a given night, and if the other attempts, he'll scream inconsolably at the top of his lungs. He changes his mind on which parent it is without any rhyme or reason, as far as we can tell.

[Brett L]

You think he's manipulative now, just wait.

[Tonio]

^This

[I'll have the fish]

Yep

/parent of 3 teenagers

[Rufus The Monocled]

Phew. Just be glad she didn't ask about Trump!

[Suthenboy]

Hey Drew, my wife bought a set of coasters a couple of days ago. They have a photo of a baby with a huge surprise/horrified look on its face and the caption "I came out of your what?!!".

[Citizen X]

That is classy as shit.

[Mr Drew]

That's pretty funny.

I nearly went with the 3-d printer explanation.

[Free Society]

I'm no prude, and I've always regarded the pearl clutching about sex in the media to be a bit over the top. But then a couple days ago my four year old daughter saw a magazine with a woman minx on the front pulling up her shirt to reveal her toned abs. My daughter asks, "Daddy, why is that girl pulling her shirt up?" and so I told her the truth, "Because she's really hot and wants everyone to know it."

That appeased her curious mind and then I quietly cleared the house of magazines.

[Pope Jimbo]

Did you tell her that you are Mr. Drew, not goddamned Dr. Drew

[Fist of Etiquette]

Recount!

GAWD. Are we still talking about this? It was over a week ago. Women lost. Get over it.

[Tonio]

When a governor from a different party does this is desperation and sore loserism; it is, of course, noble and just when they do it.

[Rufus The Monocled]

In grade school the teacher divided the class between boys and girls and held an arithmetic competition. She'd flash a card and whoever said it first got a point. It was tied and it came down to me against Stephanie (who I later briefly dated by the way). I shouted the correct answer, 'Seven!' and all the boys rejoiced. The teacher asked what color paper do you want to keep tabs and the happy boys screamed, 'Blue, blue, BLUE!' And she asked the somber girls - the losers - what color they desired and they quietly replied, 'Pink'. Because pink is for losers.

Anyway. I hear they want a recount.

[LurkinInaBuildin]

YOU TRUMPED THAT BINOTCH

[Bra Ket]

The whole point of conspiracy theories is one never has to accept and get over things. Obama is giving them cover to miss the deadline and not actually request a recount, so their theory will never be disproved and they can cling to it forever.

[(((Renegade)))]

Donald Trump has reportedly tapped South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley

If the sentence stopped there, it would be far more interesting.

[Swiss Servator]

Dammit!

[Bee Tagger]

I thought upon seeing that phrasing that we all agreed we were better than this. Care to explain yourself, renegade?

[(((Renegade)))]

We are decidedly not better than this. Remember, this is a group which has SugarFree as an honored member.

[Bee Tagger]

Recount!

Grab 'em by the hanging chad.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Obama's post-election approval rating was 57 percent, the highest it has been since September 2009.

Imagine how popular he'll be when he's completely irrelevant.

[Tom Bombadil]

Absence... fonder... etc.
carry on.

[Tom Bombadil]

And perhaps not a coincidence, this is the same effect Hillary has on people. The less they see of her, the better she looks.

[UnCivilServant]

That was her campaign strategy...

[Real and Legitimate News, Jr.]

Trump's immigration plans could spark a "tech brain drain," Wired worries.

Happy Turkey Eve, Reasoneers. As a gift to you, a (very) short story I wrote some seven years ago, below:

[Real and Legitimate News, Jr.]

It was a deceptively cold day - the sun blazed freely through a cloudless sky, but no amount of sunshine could thwart the chill of the thin December air. A single two-lane highway meekly meandered through a vivid panorama of rolling hills, large brown-green patches of knee-high grasses, and sporadic trees half-full with dull yellow and dark red leaves. The occasional car happening by, together with the highway and a small abandoned gas station, seemed to somehow compliment the scenery rather than interfere with it.

-get to the other side-

When the grey 1996 Toyota Camry passed in front of the gas station, Chicken sensed something. This was the hour. This was the moment upon which heroes are forged in the searing heat of a trial. This was not a simple hunt-seed-find-seed-eat-seed mission hardwired into the DNA of all chickens - this was a true test of blood. Of feathers. Of beaks.

-get to the other side-

The phrase dominated Chicken's consciousness, with a bold lucidity not typically found in poultry. Indeed, Chicken's conscious thoughts were usually along the lines of Oh shit there's a dog! or Oh shit there's a cat! or Oh shit this enormous building is full of hens SCORE!!! But today, on this brisk, picturesque afternoon, all of Chicken's forefathers seemed to unify in Chicken's head, coalescing in one crystalline mantra:

-get to the other side-

[Real and Legitimate News, Jr.]

A cautious foot forward. The head, nervously tilting at all angles. Feathers ruffling. There is no sound. There is no cold. There is only a task.

-get to the other side-

Footfall footfall footfall faster faster faster

-get to the other side-

First lane has been crossed!

-get to the other side-

Impossibly, Chicken was increasing his speed. For good measure he flapped his wings, which did seem to boost him forward even faster still.

-get to the other side-

...first the left foot made contact with the new world, then the right. The heart pounded but steadily slowed back to a familiar pace. Chicken looked around, back toward the gas station, then to the left, then to the right, then up, inexplicably. Chicken had done it! Though no audience was present to record the occasion for posterity, a blow was struck at that moment for chickens everywhere. To the extent that one can achieve this when one has a beak for a mouth, Chicken smiled.

[Real and Legitimate News, Jr.]

EPILOGUE

Some time later, Chicken, still basking in the afterglow of his immortal accomplishment, happened upon one of his nearest and dearest colleagues, Chicken.

Chicken breathlessly related his tale of conquest and victory. Chicken listened to his friend's amazing tale, enraptured by the implications. Perhaps we will realize our full potential after all, he thought.

"One last thing, Chicken," said Chicken, "I'm going to have to tell all of my friends about this. They're going to ask me, 'What made him do it? What drove him, down deep in his gullet?' What will I say to them?"

"Tell them, said Chicken, pausing theatrically for maximum effect, "tell them I did it...to get to the other side."

A smile did not, but would have with a different type of mouth, slowly cross the face of Chicken as he mused over this ironic twist. Of course that's not what they were asking...oh! That's rich! They'll be asking for Chicken's inner motivation, not the mere short-term reason! What a hilarious distortion of expectations!

Chicken followed suit with the same non-expression. The two then joined together to share a long and hearty non-laugh.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Shouldn't this have been a story about a turkey?

[Real and Legitimate News, Jr.]

No, because the old joke goes like this:

Q) Why did the chicken cross the road?

A) To get to the other side.

If I had substituted a turkey for a chicken, the story would have been ruined. RUINED.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I wanted a whole other, turkey-related story.

[commodious gits gud]

Fact: more turkeys will be pardoned this year than Edward Snowdens.

[UnCivilServant]

Fun fact - there are more turkeys than Edward Snowdens.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

SugarFree will be along later to tell the tale of "The Hat, The Hair, and The Turkey".

See what your 'want' gets you then.

[Swiss Servator]

*shudders in dread and anticipation*

[Zero Sum Game]

*complement

[Swiss Servator]

Donald Trump has reportedly tapped South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley

Wow...lucky guy. Wait a minute...

[Tonio]

Easy there. I know you guys all go crazy for her but she's out of reach.

[(((Renegade)))]

You'll be hearing from my attorneys regarding this blatant copyright violation.

[Swiss Servator]

*waves white flag*

[UnCivilServant]

FRECH CULTURAL APPROPRIATION!

[Lee Genes]

They're baaaaaaack

We never gave up on you; please do not give up on us! This election smells fishy to everyone! Wisconson, Michigan, and Pennsylvania are showing some serious signs of election tampering! Two of those states had senate seats that were guaranteed to go to Democrats!

Those fuckers are stealing this election, do not let them do it! For America's sake, even DU was hacked! Fight, fight!

[UnCivilServant]

Naturally, there's no possibility of the result being wrong if Trump lost, but it has to be wrong if he won...

Elections happen, grow up.

[Zero Sum Game]

Before:

1. Get a load of the loser Republicans who believe in election fraud. That's a myth. You're just mad because She will win.
2. What a shithead, how could he not say he'll graciously concede when he loses?

After:

1. There HAD to be election fraud, it's the only way the pumpkin lord could have gotten elected. Probably the Russians.
2. It's OK that She didn't concede on election night. It was a trying time and she was probably just tired and scared and sad like all the rest of us.

[Pope Jimbo]

That is by far my favorite part of this election. The blatant flip on those two points. Pro wrestlers have more subtlety that these chuckleheads.

[Johnny Hit n Run Paulene]

Wisconson (sic) evidently shows signs of spelling tampering too!

[Tonio]

Two of those states had senate seats that were guaranteed to go to Democrats!

Guaranteed by who, exactly? And what are they doing about the person/organization who made that promise?

[UnCivilServant]

Bob Creamer, the election rigging guy, duh.

[Juice]

*whom

[Odysseus]

Tonio is correct. "Who" is the subject/actor; "whom" is the object/acted upon.

Guaranteed by who. Guaranteed to whom.

[Mr Drew]

This is just another reason that I love this site and the commentariat

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Two of those states had senate seats that were guaranteed to go to Democrats!

LOL. Yeah, how could HuffPo possibly been wrong when it was 98% confident Trump would lose and bring down the Republican Party with him?

FRAUD, THAT'S HOW!

[Brett L]

"Selected, not elected!" Just like the last R president. They never lose, they just get out cheated some years.

[0x90]

Are these people completely tone-deaf? Meanwhile, in worldline B...

Those fuckers degenerates are stealing this election, do not let them do it! For America's God's sake, even DU freerepublic was hacked! Fight, fight!

[CatoTheChipper]

And, in worldline CCC27#lkj31' ...

Those fuckers degenerates statists are stealing this election from Gary Johnson, do not let them do it! For America's God's John Galt's sake, even DU freerepublic reason.com was hacked! Fight, fight!

Nah, not even in an infinite multiverse.

[Tyler.C]

I have it on very good grounds from Reason and every talking head on tge left, that voter fraud is unpossible

[BakedPenguin]

Unless done by heartless Republicans (redundant, I know).

O'Keefe? Sounds like some cis-normative heartless Republican shitlord.

[Juice]

So they agree with Trump. It's RIGGED!

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

For America's sake, even DU was hacked!

Yes, DU was hacked for America's sake.

This election smells fishy to everyone!

Huh? But the boy won.

[Rich]

The Dalai Lama has "no worries" about Trump's election.

Of course, the Dalai Lama has "no worries" about *anything*.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Tha Dalai met with Trump. Asked him for some financial support. Trump says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness."

So the Dalai's got that goin' for em, which is nice.

[Pope Jimbo]

What about Shikha Dalmia's pet llama? Will it meet with Trump?

[Bee Tagger]

Trump's immigration plans could spark a "tech brain drain," Wired worries.

Well, think of it this way: without access to the multiverse there are too many variables and factors to truly measure the impact Trump will have so stop worrying about it.

[Bee Tagger]

The Dalai Lama has "no worries" about Trump's election.

Supremely disappointed this wasn't a link to a tweet.

[BakedPenguin]

Bobby McFerrin, OTOH, has been in hysterics.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Recount!

Fill in the blank:

____% of the people now calling for a recount and saying the election was rigged were, one month ago today, lambasting Trump for suggesting the election could be rigged

[UnCivilServant]

8

[UnCivilServant]

oh wait, that's the wrong % that was an approval rating.

[Tonio]

100?

[Tyler.C]

Yeah its funny to see the left now make token aknowledgement of voter fraud. (Which reason assures is non-existent)

[SugarFree]

For those of you enjoying this image from Lord Humungus yesterday, the story is just as STEVE SMITH as you imagined...

Abominable
by Fredric Brown
1960

Sir Chauncey Atherton waved a farewell to the Sherpa guides who were to set up camp here and let him proceed alone. This was the point beyond which they would not accompany him. This was Abominable Snowman country, a few hundred miles north of Mt. Everest, in the Himalayas. Abominable Snowmen were seen occasionally on Everest, on other Tibetan or Nepalese mountains, but Mt. Oblimov, at the foot of which he was now leaving his native guides, was so thick with them that not even the Sherpas would climb it, but would here await his return, if any. It took a brave man to pass this point. Sir Chauncey was a brave man.

Also, he was a connoisseur of women, which was why he was here and about to attempt, alone, not only a dangerous ascent but an even more dangerous rescue. If Lola Gabraldi was still alive, an Abominable Snowman had her.

[SugarFree]

Sir Chauncey had never seen Lola Gabraldi, in the flesh. He had, in fact, learned of her existence less than a month ago, when he bad seen the one motion picture in which she had starred?and through which she had become suddenly fabulous, the most beautiful woman on Earth, the most pulchritudinous movie star Italy had ever produced, and Sir Chauncey could not understand how even Italy had produced her. In one picture she had replaced Bardot, Lollobrigida and Ekberg as the image of feminine perfection in the minds of connoisseurs anywhere. The moment he had seen her on the screen he had known that he must know her in the flesh, or die trying.

But by that time Lola Gabraldi had vanished. As a vacation after her first picture she bad taken a trip to India and had joined a group of climbers about to make an assault on Mt. Oblimov. The others of the party had returned; she had not. One of them had testified that he had seen her, at a distance too great for him to reach her in time, abducted, carried off screaming by a nine-foot-high hairy more-or-less-manlike creature. An Abominable Snowman. The party had searched for her for days before giving up and returning to civilization. Everyone agreed that there was no possible chance, now, of finding her alive.

[SugarFree]

Everyone except Sir Chauncey, who had immediately flown from England to India.

He struggled on, now high into the eternal snows. And in addition to mountain climbing equipment he carried the heavy rifle with which he had, only last year, shot tigers in Bengal. If it could kill tigers, he reasoned, it could kill Snowmen.

Snow swirled about him as he neared the cloud line. Suddenly, a dozen yards ahead of him, which was as far as he could see, he caught a glimpse of a monstrous not-quite-human figure. He raised his rifle and fired. The figure fell, and kept on falling; it had been on a ledge over thousands of feet of nothingness.

And at the moment of the shot, arms closed around Sir Chauncey from behind him. Thick, hairy arms. And then, as one hand held him easily, the other took the rifle and bent it into an L-shape as effortlessly as though it had been a toothpick and then tossed it away.

A voice spoke from a point about two feet above his head. "Be quiet; you will not be harmed." Sir Chauncey was a brave man, but a sort of squeak was all the answer he could make, despite the seeming assurance of the words.

He was held so tightly against the creature behind him that he could not look upward and backward to see what its face was like.

[Lee Genes]

If Lola Gabraldi was still alive, an Abominable Snowman had her.

Maybe she was happier that way.

[SugarFree]

"Let me explain," said the voice above and behind him. "We, whom you call Abominable Snowmen, are human, but transmuted. A great many centuries ago we were a tribe like the Sherpas. We chanced to discover a drug that let us change physically, let us adapt by increased size, hairiness and other physiological changes to extreme cold and altitude, let us move up into the mountains, into country in which others cannot survive, except for the duration of brief climbing expeditions. Do you understand?"

"Y-y-yes," Sir Chauncey managed to say. He was beginning to feel a faint return of hope. Why would this creature be explaining these things to him if it intended to kill him?

"Then I shall explain further. Our number is small and is diminishing. For that reason we occasionally capture, as I have captured you, a mountain climber. We give him the transmuting drug; he undergoes the physiological changes and becomes one of us. By that means we keep our number, such as it is, relatively constant."

"B-but," Sir Chauncey stammered, "is that what happened to the woman I'm looking for, Lola Gabraldi? She is now?eight feet tall and hairy and?"

"She was. You just killed her. One of our tribe had taken her as its mate. We will take no revenge for your having killed her, but you must now, as it were, take her place."

[SugarFree]

"Take her place? But?I'm a man."

"Thank God for that," said the voice above and behind him. He found himself turned around, held against a huge hairy body, his face at the right level to be buried between mountainous hairy breasts. "Thank God for that?because I am an Abominable Snowwoman."

Sir Chauncey fainted and was picked up and, as lightly as though he were a toy dog, carried away by his mate.

[Swiss Servator]

OH GOD, NO!

Proto-SugarFree!

[Aloysious]

Romance.

blech.

[Tonio]

Fascinating. Recommend the Wikipedia article on Brown for those who wish to dig deeper.

[Swiss Servator]

NONONONO!

[Citizen X]

Wow. The larger version of the cover is even more... haunting than the one LH posted.

I just realized that the odd noise i've been hearing for the last several minutes is me, screaming. How strange.

[Swiss Servator]

I larfed.

[Lee Genes]

It's different when we do it.

Short answer: There isn't a power dynamic at play when black folks say "cracker."

Black people don't have the power that comes with privilege in matters related to racism. We don't have power over white people in matters of race because racism targets us while sparing our white friends.

The most black people can do is laugh at the common white people jokes about lack of seasoning and rhythm. But there's a difference between racism and pettiness.

Racism may be mean, but meanness isn't always racism. The difference lies in who has the power and privilege, which in this case, is still white people.

The word "cracker" at its absolute worst is a mean insult, kind of like being called a "white loser" on the school yard. If a black person calls you a cracker, you can pick up your ball and go home if you want to, but you don't get to cry "racism." At most, you're a victim of bullying. That's still very upsetting, but it isn't racism.

[Tonio]

Bull. Shit.

[Bra Ket]

Is it a foregone conclusion that racism is worse than bullying?

[BakedPenguin]

Of course. Because as suggested by the narrative above, only white people are guilty of racism.

[Rhywun]

It's like they're totally unaware of "cracker culture" and its origins. If they don't like to read, they could always watch the Maury show and see it in action.

[Tyler.C]

Yeah I've heard this line of reasoning from a former coworker, when my (Italian) boss asked why eating pizza wasn't appropriation. She said there has to be a power dynamic.

He was a smart enough employeer to lrave it there, but privately he told me how much bullshit that is, because the itallians were also discriminated against in the past. It's just an attempt to redefine racism so that only specific gropus (whitey) can be racist.

[Juice]

So, for the love of social change, please give up this strange desire to want to say the N-word.

You first.

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

Hah, interesting. I heard some comedian briefly talk about this the other day and it mostly made sense to me, but it worked in the opposite way. His point was that it's hard to consider cracker a slur, because the point of a slur is to remind the victim that they are deficient in some way. Excluding wiggers, what's insulting to a modern white guy about being a cracker?

If it's an insult based on race, "cracker" is obviously racist, but it's arguably not terribly mean or insulting.

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

Though I should make clear that I (and I assume the mysterious comedian) are mostly coming from a coastal perspective. I don't know how common cracker is used by blacks against whites in the rural south, and whether the whites there get all bothered about it.

[Crusty Juggler]

There is a whale in the Hudson River

Spoiler: It's not Rosie O'Donnell. It's so cool that it's once again legal to make jokes about her.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Colby Sue Weathers is a paranoid schizophrenic who, in 2012, was spiraling out of control. Her mom, Janet Delana, knew it. She told Odessa Gun and Pawn Shop not to sell her a weapon.

Sounds like in Missouri if you don't want someone to be able to protect themselves just tell all the gun shops not to sell to your target.

[Tonio]

This establishes a dangerous precedent that anyone with access to a phone can yank the 2A rights of someone with a single call and no due process. Let's say you're a psycho ex-wife planning to kill your former husband and he becomes suspicious and wishes to acquire a pistol. PXW calls in the husband as dangerous...

[Crusty Juggler]

The Dude From 'Big Lebowski' Is 'Rooting' for Donald Trump

Bridges told Entertainment Weekly that his latest film Hell or High Water "shines a light" on why Trump defeated his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton during the presidential election given "how seriously disappointed many people have been in the way that the government is running."

"They have little faith in it, and we'll see," Bridges said. "I hope we don't throw the baby out with the bathwater here. But I'm rooting for the guy, Mr. Trump."

#notmydude

[Citizen X]

That's just, like, your opinion, man.

[Johnny Hit n Run Paulene]

That comment really tied the thread together.

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

This election will not stand, man.

[Lee Genes]

For some non-derpy feel-good news

An Irish waiter working in an American restaurant got an early Christmas gift when a customer tipped him $750 to bring his new family home for the holidays.

[Crusty Juggler]

Yeah, get those dirty, long-haired, job-stealing Irish out of my country!

[Juvenile Bluster]

We'll take the niggers and the chinks. But we don't want the Irish!

(waits for random Guardian reader to happen upon here and use this post as evidence of how racist libertarians are)

[kinnath]

It's true! It's true!

[Rhywun]

*donald sutherland point & shriek*

[Rufus The Monocled]

You said nigger! You can't say nigger! I saw it on CNN! You can't utter it in any context! No niggrer! This is a nigger word free zone!

NO NIGGER.

/looks around ferociously waving broken flash light.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Yeah but did Jeffrey vote for Trump? THIS IS ALL THAT MATTERS NOW.

FIGHT!

[Crusty Juggler]

Corps Wants to Put Silencers on a Whole Infantry Battalion

What we've found so far is it revolutionizes the way we fight," Love told Military.com. "It used to be a squad would be dispersed out over maybe 100 yards, so the squad leader couldn't really communicate with the members at the far end because of all the noise of the weapons. Now they can actually just communicate, and be able to command and control and effectively direct those fires."

Chief Warrant Officer 5 Christian Wade, the division's gunner, or infantry weapons officer, said the Lima companies in two other battalions -- 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, and 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines -- now had silencers, or suppressors, on all their rifles, including the M27 infantry automatic rifles. All units are set to deploy in coming months. The combat engineer platoons that are attached to these units and will deploy with them will also carry suppressed weapons, he said.

[UnCivilServant]

It's taking them this long? I'd have thought they'd be far more widespread by now simply for the utility and ergonomic benefits.

[I can't even]

On the other hand, they add weight to Marines who are already weighed down with far too much crap. And they are suppressors - not silencers. There will still be supersonic "cracks" with every round fired.

Interesting concept but it certainly needs to be tested.

[Swiss Servator]

I think 3/6 was in Afghanistan the same time I was....interesting to see them get this.

[Juice]

What about 7/9? Was she there?

[Swiss Servator]

Oh Gawd, I wish she had been....

[Brett L]

"It used to be a squad would be dispersed out over maybe 100 yards, so the squad leader couldn't really communicate with the members at the far end because of all the noise of the weapons. Now they can actually just communicate, and be able to command and control and effectively direct those fires."

I would think the ability to have the element of surprise in an attack last past the first volley would also be revolutionary.

[Caput Lupinum]

There are two sources of sound, the initial explosion that propels the bullets, and the sonic boom caused by the bullets traveling faster than the speed of sound. A suppressor can diminish the first, but can do nothing about the second. While it makes them much quieter than a non suppressed rifle, especially to the operator, they still make plenty of noise from the sonic boom. Unless they switch to sub-sonic ammunition, the element of surprise will still vanish at the first trigger pull.

[Je suis Woodchipper]

sub-sonic 223 that cycles?

[UnCivilServant]

They make a .22 LR conversion for the AR-series that cycles just fine...

[Cdr Lytton]

If it's good enough for the alternate indoor marksmanship qualification range... train as you fight, right?

[Mr Drew]

I have witnessed it.

[SRVolunteer]

I guess they probably have, but I'm wondering if they've tested this when another group of guys down the street is shooting back at you. Sound diminishes per the inverse square law, so it may not matter that much.

Or, if the sound the enemy is making is roaring in your ears, it's probably time to fix bayonets or something...

[UnCivilServant]

You can't fix bayonets to a suppressed rifle...

There may be a flaw in this plan.

[SugarFree]

Make the suppressors sharp.

[SRVolunteer]

You attach the bayonet to the thing that goes up.

[Zero Sum Game]

The marines don't carry swords? Man, those commercials have been lying to us all!

[TheZeitgeist]

Obama's post-election approval rating was 57 percent, the highest it has been since September 2009.

Grandma's approval rating skyrocketed after family agreed switch gets flipped next Monday.

[AddictionMyth]

I have no worries. I actually think it will be fun.

[Lee Genes]

Toni Morrison is still retarded.

Under slave laws, the necessity for color rankings was obvious, but in America today, post-civil-rights legislation, white people's conviction of their natural superiority is being lost. Rapidly lost. There are "people of color" everywhere, threatening to erase this long-understood definition of America. And what then? Another black President? A predominantly black Senate? Three black Supreme Court Justices? The threat is frightening.

In order to limit the possibility of this untenable change, and restore whiteness to its former status as a marker of national identity, a number of white Americans are sacrificing themselves. They have begun to do things they clearly don't really want to be doing, and, to do so, they are (1) abandoning their sense of human dignity and (2) risking the appearance of cowardice. Much as they may hate their behavior, and know full well how craven it is, they are willing to kill small children attending Sunday school and slaughter churchgoers who invite a white boy to pray. Embarrassing as the obvious display of cowardice must be, they are willing to set fire to churches, and to start firing in them while the members are at prayer. And, shameful as such demonstrations of weakness are, they are willing to shoot black children in the street.

[UnCivilServant]

Does she forget that the country is still only 13% black? The law of averages would say that the Senate would not be predominantly black barring either a dedicated effort to skew it or a fluke of an outlier sample.

[Lee Genes]

Morrison has one lens thru which she views the world. Always has.

[TheZeitgeist]

The lens in question itself seems to be black. More like a lens cap.

[SugarFree]

Her bluest eye?

[Lee Genes]

+1 Middle School Reading Assignment

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Imma say the brownest one.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

The only black person currently in the Senate is Republican Tim Scott of South Carolina (although he'll be joined next year by Kamala Harris).

I wonder if Toni would be happy if more Tim Scotts were elected.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Tim Scott isn't really black. If he were, he wouldn't be a Republican.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Much as they may hate their behavior, and know full well how craven it is, they are willing to kill small children attending Sunday school and slaughter churchgoers who invite a white boy to pray. Embarrassing as the obvious display of cowardice must be, they are willing to set fire to churches, and to start firing in them while the members are at prayer. And, shameful as such demonstrations of weakness are, they are willing to shoot black children in the street.

It's true. Every white person I know has slaughtered at least two churchfuls of Negroes by the age of 15.

[JaimeRoberto]

This would be news to my churchgoing brother who took in a black family from his congregation who was on the verge of homelessness because the father lost his job.

[Rufus The Monocled]

And we're the ones obsessed with race?

Sheesh.

Once again. Projection on their part.

[Rhywun]

That's probably the most racist thing I'll read, well, today. There's always tomorrow.

[Tonio]

I can barely understand that word salad. Sad.

[I can't even]

Unlike any nation in Europe, the United States holds whiteness as the unifying force.

How did she cram so much stupidity into one sentence? Has she ever visited Europe? (real Europe - not London and Paris)

[Rufus The Monocled]

Racism in Europe is in everyday conversation. It would shock us here.

[CatoTheChipper]

We know that Trump is a racist, sexist, transphobic, homophobic, xenopobic, Islamic shitlord who was voted in by a patriarchical white power structure that is just like him. Under the fascist Trump Regime, it is inevitable that minorities, women, LBGTQ+, foreigners, and Muslims will be severely persecuted by the state. For some time at least, the oppressed people will have recourse to the courts and will need competent legal representation. Victims of oppression need to fight back fascism, and they need the resources to do so.

This creates an enormous business opportunity. Develop an insurance product that indemnifies individuals of marginalized groups for legal expenses incurred solely due to their race, gender, sex, national origin, or religion. From reading sites like Huffpo, Daily Kos, and NYT, there should be a huge market for this insurance product.

We all know that oppressed communities need an insurance product that fights fascism. Premiums would have to be fairly high because of the near-certainty of loss, but it could be marketed to affluent progressives to cover others as an opportunity to atone for their white privilege.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Today in "Libertarian or Not," I give you for consideration:

Mr. Peanut, beloved(?) Planter's icon.

He's a top hat and monocle-wearing corporate shill who made his fortune urging people to eat his own kind. This seems very libertarian, as I understand popular perceptions of the term.

On the other hand, he is likely the beneficiary of massive agricultural subsidies, which is anti-libertarian.

Perhaps he is merely a standard-issue Republican?

[Citizen X]

Mr. Peanut is from Suffolk, Virginia. While there may be libertarians in Suffolk, they are almost certainly more of the hide-from-UN-helicopters-in-the-Dismal-Swamp variety.

[Caput Lupinum]

Worse, he is actually from Scranton.

Planters was founded by Italian immigrant Amedeo Obici in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He started his career as a bellhop and fruit stand vendor in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Obici later moved to Wilkes-Barre, opened his own fruit stand, and invested in a peanut roaster. Obici turned peddler within a few years, using a horse and wagon, and calling himself "The Peanut Specialist". In 1906, Obici entered a partnership with Mario Peruzzi, the great grandfather of Tyler Peruzzi, the soon to be owner of Planters. Peruzzi had developed his own method of blanching whole roasted peanuts, doing away with the troublesome hulls and skins; and so with six employees, two large roasters, and crude machinery, Planters was founded.

[Lee Genes]

+1 Skeeterville

[Crusty Juggler]

Nikki Haley tapped

Wow. Just wow.

[(((Renegade)))]

Jesus, how many fucking times do we recycle the same gag?

[UnCivilServant]

Until it can no longer silence the person.

[Not a Libertarian]

Maybe it can be blamed on Squirrels.

[Johnny Hit n Run Paulene]

42

[Tyler.C]

Realy? I thought it would be at least 69?

[AddictionMyth]

What Trump really needs right now is a radical islamic terror attack. Even if the guy was radicalized by the FBI, or forced into an arranged marriage at a young age, or they were just a patsy for the private security industry. Then again, he never seemed to get much of a terror 'bump' so I don't know.

[Citizen X]

What you need is to take either more drugs or less drugs.

[AddictionMyth]

Dance with me, CX.

[Citizen X]

Sorry, no. Even if i wasn't married, your weird clammy flippers kind of freak me out.

[Lord Rollingpin]

Zip!

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

Fewer.

[Roger the Shrubber]

Fuck off.

[Johnny Hit n Run Paulene]

Your mom got a terror bump!

[Zero Sum Game]

It's impolite to point out that someone's dad has been cuckolded and his mom is carrying a little jihadi.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

A federal judge in Texas granted a preliminary injunction blocking the implementation of President Obama's executive action on overtime-pay eligibilityreducing the work schedule of federal contractors to 32-35 hours per week.

The real effect of overtime pay. Every company I've ever worked for cuts your hours to avoid even the possibility of paying you time-and-a-half.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Damn it!

[commodious gits gud]

You don't have to yell, we can hear you fine.

[BYODB]

As a critical administrative employee who's also hourly, our entire department gets enough overtime between three people to hire two other employee's. So not every company is so wise.

[Ken Shultz]

"The Missouri Supreme Court has issued a $22 million ruling against a gun shop that sold a weapon to a paranoid-schizophrenic"

The link says $2.2 million.

"Colby Sue Weathers is a paranoid schizophrenic who, in 2012, was spiraling out of control. Her mom, Janet Delana, knew it. She told Odessa Gun and Pawn Shop not to sell her a weapon.

"I trusted the man at the gun store," Delana told KMOX. "I did. I put my whole trust in him that he would do the right thing and not sell her the gun, but he did anyway."

Seems like a reasonable verdict under those circumstances.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Except to the extent this is true, this means that in Missouri, all you have to do to prevent someone from being able to buy a gun is to tell the gun store not to sell it to them.

[Ken Shultz]

If her daughter wanted to sue her mother for slander, she should be free to do so. She'd have a tough time winning that suit in court.

It's the same thing with being underage.

If her mother had told the gun seller that her daughter was underage--and he sold to her anyway--it would be the same thing.

[CampingInYourPark]

So, if you want to buy a car and your mother tells the car dealer you can't drive worth a shit, the car dealer is liable for any accident you have if they sell you a car, right?

[paranoid android]

"Can't drive worth shit" is a terrible analogy for this situation. "Has violent seizures that make driving inherently dangerous" would probably be more like it.

[CampingInYourPark]

Not seeing where that is the magic threshold that makes harmful use of a product the fault of someone not using the product harmfully

[CampingInYourPark]

Seems like a reasonable verdict under those circumstances.

No, it doesn't. There's nothing negligent about trading a legal product in good faith with another person, even if a third party objects.

[CampingInYourPark]

You might as well say Delana was responsible for not having her put away. Did she lock up all her kitchen knives?

[Ken Shultz]

Did somebody sell her daughter a kitchen knife--after being warned not to?

[CampingInYourPark]

No, but apparently according to your understanding of negligence, if a warning is made that a negative consequence is possible, any person that sells any product is liable for that negative consequence. It's absurd.

[Ken Shultz]

If I tell you my kid is under 18, and you sell him a gun anyway--you don't think you should be held responsible for the consequences of your decision?

You are responsible for the consequences of your willful choice to disregard other people's safety by your own action.

That's negligence.

There is nothing new or groundbreaking about this.

[I can't even]

After such a conversation I might be extra attentive, but if he shows a valid FID permit (or whatever they have in Missouri) and passes a federal background check, I'm going to assume you are full of shit.

[Ken Shultz]

In that case, be prepared to explain it to a jury of your peers.

Because all a plaintiff has to do is convince seven out of twelve jurors that you willfully disregarded a warning by a preponderance of the evidence.

And a preponderance of the evidence is probably going to run on two questions:

1) Was the boy under 18, or was the daughter schizophrenic?

2) Was the shop owner warned that the boy was under 18 or the that the daughter was schizophrenic?

If the answer to both those questions is "yes", then chances are that a majority of jurors are going to find the gun shop owner liable by a preponderance of the evidence.

And this is all as it should be.

The gun shop owner isn't responsible for what some schizophrenic did, but he is responsible for his own choices. And if he willfully chose to disregard a warning and willfully chose to sell to a schizophrenic anyway, then he's responsible for making those choices.

[CampingInYourPark]

The gun shop owner isn't responsible for what some schizophrenic did, but he is responsible for his own choices.

His own choice resulting in zero harm to anyone. Regardless of whether you can dupe a jury into stealing money from a person for simply conducting trade is beside the point of whether "it is as it should be".

[CampingInYourPark]

If I tell you my kid is under 18, and you sell him a gun anyway--you don't think you should be held responsible for the consequences of your decision?

Yes, I would be responsible for trading an inanimate object to your kid. What should be the penalty for that be, in your view?

[CampingInYourPark]

Let's say your kid has a penchant for ass play with GI Joes. If you tell me he's spreading fecal matter around your house am I responsible for your shit party if I sell him/her a GI Joe?

[CampingInYourPark]

You are responsible for the consequences of your willful choice to disregard other people's safety by your own action.

You would have to show that it is unsafe to place a molded piece of steel in another person's hand.
Just what are the consequences of this transfer of steel? Who was harmed?

[Ken Shultz]

"You would have to show that it is unsafe to place a molded piece of steel in another person's hand."

No.

Not to a jury of your peers, you don't.

This isn't a philosophical or scientific question.

This is a trial in which only a majority decision is required, and it doesn't need to be beyond a reasonable doubt.

It's a jury trial. A civil jury trial.

You sold a schizophrenic a gun after being warned she was a schizophrenic, and now you have to convince a jury beyond that this is okay.

Better just refrain from selling guns to people you've been warned are schizophrenic.

[BYODB]

You're being retarded Ken. Stop it.

If she really wanted to stop her kid from getting a gun, she would have had her kid committed. She didn't do her due diligence in finding out how to actually and legally stop her from getting a gun. She did the retarded thing in asking someone not to sell a legal item to a person with a legal right to own the thing.

Does she have power of attorney over her daughter? If not, fuck off, because that daughter is still her own person according to the law. Instead of putting her trust in a gun vendor, maybe, just maybe, she should have put her trust in a psychiatric profession instead. Maybe she did, maybe she didn't, but how would she warn every gun seller in a 100 mile radius not to sell a gun to her daughter?

You're smarter than this Ken. Although, in all fairness, the news story from St. Louis is virtually fact free so it's hard to know exactly what actually happened. It's implied that this gun shop was negligent but there are no details beyond that they were investigated by the ATF before and a FOIA seems to be pending.

[Ken Shultz]

"If she really wanted to stop her kid from getting a gun, she would have had her kid committed.

The standard for committing someone isn't the same standard for finding a guilty verdict in negligence trial.

And I don't see why it would be.

If the jury finds you liable because you willfully disregarded a warning that a buyer was schizophrenic, then that's the only standard that matters.

Incidentally, commitment generally requires a judgement call by a psychiatrist that a patient is a danger to herself or others. For all we know, she may have stopped taking her medication, refused to go to her psychiatrist, suffering from an especially bad episode, whatever.

Regardless, this jury isn't deciding whether this schizophrenic should be committed. Why would they take the commitment standard into consideration? The jury was deciding whether the gun seller was liable for his choice to sell her a gun. The patient wasn't even on trial.

You're off in left field somewhere thinking about the way you wish things were. You're daydreaming out loud.

[I can't even]

So, assuming her background check and whatever else Missouri requires for permits were in order, she wouldn't have proceeded to buy from the next closest gun store?

[Ken Shultz]

We're only responsible for our own choices.

Why would he be liable for turning her down?

[CampingInYourPark]

We're only responsible for our own choices.

I thought we are responsible for other's choices with the things we trade with them?

[Ken Shultz]

Maybe that's where the confusion is.

No. He's not responsible for shooting somebody. This isn't a criminal trial.

He's responsible for willfully choosing to sell a gun to a schizophrenic after he'd been warned she was a schizophrenic.

[CampingInYourPark]

He's responsible for willfully choosing to sell a gun to a schizophrenic after he'd been warned she was a schizophrenic

And the specific harm in selling a gun to a negro was exactly what, Ken?

[BYODB]

Yeah, because the random word of some random person definitely trumps the second amendment.

Say, Ken, what happens if I warn the gun shops near you that you're a schizophrenic?

[Ken Shultz]

Have you not read anything in this thread?

[CampingInYourPark]

From what I read you've stated the obvious, that people can win lawsuits against others even if the other party hasn't acted in a way that caused harm to anyone else and furthermore, you think that it's just peachy.

[Will4Freedom]

Is the mother's word enough do disqualify the sale? Is she qualified to make the call or was the daughter professionally diagnosed??

If she has a doctor's note, she should have given it to the police and had her daughter LEGALLY disqualified from purchasing a weapon.

I'm just afraid that this like the camel's nose under the tent.

[Ken Shultz]

"Is the mother's word enough do disqualify the sale?"

We're not even talking about a law here. It all depends on the judgement of a jury. That's what juries are for--they weight the relevance and credibility of evidence and testimony.

If you don't want to end up with your life savings subject to the judgement of a jury on a question like that, there's an easy way to avoid it--don't sell guns to people who you think might be schizophrenics.

There was a recent case in Nevada where a gun shop owner refused to sell a gun to a friend because he heard she had a medical marijuana card. Even is selling the gun to her weren't against the law, as a business owner, why willingly take on the risk of getting sued?

"I'm just afraid that this like the camel's nose under the tent."

There isn't anything new here. This is just a negligence tort, amirite?

People taking each other to court is the libertarian replacement for regulation and laws.

The Second Amendment doesn't give us permission to violate someone's rights with a gun, and it doesn't absolve us from negligence either. The Second Amendment gives us the right to own and carry a gun. We can still be held responsible by a jury for what we choose to do with them.

[BYODB]

Yes, but it would appear that the person who actually did something with the gun isn't the person being held responsible here.

There are guidelines for who can and who cannot buy a gun. Apparently, in your universe, if I tell gun stores that you are a dangerous person that is sufficient to deny sale of a firearm to you Ken. I'm no lawyer, but it would seem that the potential liability of what you might do with a gun is enough of a justification to deny you your second amendment rights based on hearsay. Sounds legit. Next up? Lets deny you your first amendment rights because I've said that you will say something mean.

After all, it's much better to shift the burden of proof onto the accused. I see no downsides. And I see this being appealed and thrown out based on the scant evidence provided in the article.

[Cdr Lytton]

Ken, the standard is not "someone says (without evidence or professional competence) another person is schizophrenic". The standard is adjudicated as mentally defective. Meaning there has to be a formal process before stripping a person of their rights. And not just stripping their right to self defense, but to run their own life in pretty much any other way. That's the standard that needs to be met.

If the mother wants to go down that road, she could have worked with the girl's doctor and whatever mental health authorities are present in her community. But I'm going to guess that the girl's illness (without or more likely with treatment/drugs) was not as severe to meet the threshold to be adjudicated as mentally defective or committed to a mental hospital.

[Cdr Lytton]

Btw, Ken Schultz is schizophrenic and reason shouldn't allow him to post here.

That's enough to yank his posting privileges, right?

[Ken Shultz]

"Meaning there has to be a formal process before stripping a person of their rights."

You're trying to win some philosophical argument.

I'm telling you how jury trials work.

You're talking about the world as you think it should be.

I'm talking about the world the way it is.

You want a philosophical argument?

Just because I support the Second Amendment doesn't mean I have to support negligence.

[mashed potatoes]

"Clinton received 7 percent fewer votes in counties that relied on electronic-voting machines compared with counties that used optical scanners and paper ballots"

I am not statistician but couldn't this also have been reported that Clinton's over performance in paper ballots compared to electronic voting is a statistical anomaly???

[But Enough About Me]

Yes, of course. In order to make this complaint one has to assume that some other method of counting is without error or influence, at least compared to the method being complained about. No one knows what method of counting actually makes a good baseline for accuracy.

[robc]

One that has been six sigma approved?

[Michael]

Trump's immigration plans could spark a "tech brain drain," Wired worries.

Sorry, but I'm not buying this. Most H-1Bs aren't being imported to fill some high level development positions that require skills Americans don't have. All of the complaints I've heard are from mid-level sysadmins that have been tasked with training their replacements. It seems that a large number of H-1Bs that have arrived in recent years are completely clueless, and the people they're replacing are essentially being ordered to teach them even the most basic IT skills that otherwise cost thousands of dollars in certification. I'm as pro-immigration as they come, but if I found myself in a situation where my employer told me that I was being replaced and that my severance was contingent upon this kind of transition I'd promptly find the nearest class action attorney.

[Lee Genes]

To some extent, H1-B's are used by companies to help train overseas staff. When we shifted manufacturing out of the country back in the 90's, we had to bring a large number of young engineers over to train them. In general, design departments did not transfer overseas.

Note that some of this shift was because China was opening up and if you wanted to sell to China, you needed to be there.

[BYODB]

"It seems that a large number of H-1Bs that have arrived in recent years are completely clueless, and the people they're replacing are essentially being ordered to teach them even the most basic IT skills that otherwise cost thousands of dollars in certification."

Gee, why on earth would businesses prefer these people? INCENTIVES? HOW DO THEY WORK?!?

[Cynical Asshole]

Donald Trump has reportedly tapped South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley ...

*Archer voice* Seriously, are we not doing phrasing anymore?

Her views on various U.S. military and national security matters usually fall within the GOP's hawkish mainstream.
...
Haley also represents the addition of a rival. She was critical of some of Trump's proposals, such as his temporary ban on Muslims' entry to the U.S., during the Republican primary contest...
...
But when she visited Trump last week, Haley told reporters that she never disliked Trump in spite of her past comments.

"He was a friend and supporter before he ran for president, and was kind to me then. But when I see something I am uncomfortable with, I say it," she said.

The hawkish views don't bode well from a libertarian POV. But the fact that he's willing to work with someone who isn't just a spineless yes-woman is a positive sign IMO. It shows that perhaps he's more flexible and willing to listen to counter opinions than he seems.

[Tonio]

UN "Ambassador" is pretty much a ceremonial post, but as I noted elsewhere it would give her some foreign policy experience which might come in handy down the road.

[Crusty Juggler]

DEA raids colossal fentanyl operation. Could produce thousands of pills per hour.

In one of the largest drug busts in Utah history, federal agents seized synthetic opioids in bulk and cash by the bagful on Tuesday. The home the agents raided contained a "pill press," which they considered to be the source of thousands, possibly millions, of fentanyl pills. The drug producers falsely labeled the pills as Xanax or oxycodone and distributed the capsules in part by mail across the United States.

Multiple federal agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration and the National Guard, as well as the Internal Revenue Service, surrounded a house located in the city of Cottonwood Heights, in Salt Lake County. Authorities also searched another home, which the Salt Lake Tribune described as a "stash location." At the stash location alone, the Tribune reported that authorities found 70,000 pills disguised as oxycodone and another 25,000 as fake Xanax.

[Crusty Juggler]

"It's safe to say that this individual is responsible for hundreds of thousands, more likely millions, of counterfeit tablets going across the continental United States," DEA special agent Brian Besser said, according to ABC4 Utah News.

"These counterfeit pills have fentanyl being put into them and there is no control mechanism, there is no regulation method. So one person may get a pill out of a counterfeit batch and take it and use it," Besser said. "The second person may take the pill and die almost immediately." Because the drugs were marketed as less powerful narcotics, like oxycodone, they posed an extra danger to users unprepared to ingest fentanyl.

And they say millennials are lazy.

[John]

Wouldn't the problems associated with a drug that killed half its users on the first use solve themselves?

[Citizen X]

Alice Bowie hardest hit.

[AddictionMyth]

LOL. You crack me up, CX.

[SugarFree]

Ah, so that's who you are.

[John]

They always out themselves. They just can't help it.

[Rhywun]

In hindsight it's obvious they are the same person, isn't it.

[Citizen X]

Oh, Trolly McTroll, i'm not the one that cracked you.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

You forgot to switch your handle

[AddictionMyth]

^ Fregoli's

[Swiss Servator]

It's shriek.

[John]

Little known fact that the Lama once paid his greens fees at a Trump resort by ensuring that Donald Trump will achieve total consciousness on his deathbed. So, Trump has that going for him.

[Ken Shultz]

"Trump's immigration plans could spark a "tech brain drain," Wired worries."

Usually, the term "brain drain" is used in reference to people leaving their homeland to go elsewhere rather than leaving the U.S. to go home.

Seems for a lot of people, the H1-B is a natural graduation from the student visa program. Maybe we should look at student visas.

About 30% of freshman admitted to UCLA and Cal Berkeley are foreigners.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/.....story.html

The justification for UCLA and Berkeley is to keep the cost of an elite education down for Californians.

Why are California's taxpayers underwriting keeping the cost of an elite education down for foreign students?

[John]

I have seen more than a H1-B visa applications in my time. I can tell you they have nothing to do with finding skills that can't be found in this country. Every single one of them is about cost. To give an example, the last one I saw was for an electrical engineer who just graduated from NC Central and wanted to work for Duke Power. You are telling me you can't find an American electrical engineer anywhere? Really?

[Ken Shultz]

I'm talking even student visas.

It was different back during the Cold War, when we hoped that if a country's future leaders were educated in America, they'd have less affinity for the communists and more affinity for American culture and the United States.

The Cold War is over.

Even if America is better off if foreign STEM students stay after graduation, why are there so many foreign student visas in the first place and why are publicly funded institutions accepting foreign students?

If foreign students prefer UCLA to USC or Berkeley to Stanford, it's because UCLA and Berkeley cost less--no matter what Playa Manhattan says. The reason UCLA and Berkeley cost less is because they're funded directly by the tax payers.

[John]

I can tell you why there are so many foreign student visas. Foreign students are nearly always full pay. They write a check for the advertised tuition amount. The colleges lobby the hell out of USCIS to get as many of those VISAS issued as possible because they are a cash cow.

[tarran]

It's a very old problem that transcends borders.

[Ken Shultz]

That's what it turned into. A way for the UC system to get more money.

It should be noted, however, that because the UC system is funded by the taxpayers, tuition for foreign born students is less than it would be otherwise.

Again, it costs foreign students more to go to USC than UCLA and more for foreign students to go to Stanford rather than Berkeley.

The foreign students are still ultimately getting cheap tuition courtesy of the taxpayer.

[EDG reppin LBC]

That's a bingo. Tuition paid; cash on the barrelhead.

[Rhywun]

The reason UCLA and Berkeley cost less is because they're funded directly by the tax payers.

Even after accounting for out-of-state tuition?

[Ken Shultz]

Yes, that's why I'm comparing USC to UCLA and Stanford to Berkeley.

USC and UCLA are in the same city. Stanford and Berkeley are in the same general area.

UCLA and Berkeley are substantially cheaper on out of state tuition than USC and Berkeley.

[Ken Shultz]

"UCLA and Berkeley are substantially cheaper on out of state tuition than USC and [Stanford]".

Fixed!

Honestly, price wise, Berkeley is a steal. That's why it's so popular with out of state students.

And it's cheap that way for a reason--because it's taxpayer funded.

[Rhywun]

I know it's cheaper than Stanford but there could be lots of reasons why. Are you certain that out-of-state tuition is publicly subsidized?

[Ken Shultz]

Money is fungible.

If Berkeley were no longer funded by the taxpayers, their tuition would quickly skyrocket to match Stanford's.

Same with UCLA and USC.

[Rhywun]

I guess if Stanford and Berkeley are equal in every respect like quality of staff and housing? I don't know that at all.

[Ken Shultz]

They are of similar quality in terms of prestige, location, specialties within STEM, etc.

One of them gets billions of dollars a year in taxpayer funding.

The other one doesn't.

We're not talking about how correlation doesn't mean causation, here; we're talking about the taxpayers giving one of them billions of dollars per year. We're talking about state employees staffing the school, etc.

The foreign born students use the same facilities and employees as non-foreign born students.

If you want to tell me the difference in tuition isn't because the costs for one of them is being underwritten directly by the taxpayer, I think that burden's on you.

It's the same with UCLA and USC by the way.

[Ken Shultz]

"I guess if Stanford and Berkeley are equal in every respect like quality of staff and housing?"

Stanford better invest in better housing because they sure as hell can't compete with Berkeley on tuition.

[CatoTheChipper]

Why are California's taxpayers underwriting keeping the cost of an elite education down for foreign students?

Diversity.

It's the core strength and the most important objective of the Californian higher education system. Nothing adds to diversity as much foreign students (unless they come from Europe or China or Japan.)

[Ken Shultz]

"It's the core strength and the most important objective of the Californian higher education system."

Sounds like a qualitative judgement to me.

Regardless, California is already diverse without foreign students.

[jack sprat]

Was this covered already? If so apologies for just catching up. But boy oh boy did I enjoy reading this proggy internecine shitstorm. ( I just picked a random link to story there is lots of coverage)

http://heatst.com/entertainmen.....dentities/

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Heh. I hadn't seen that before.

[0x90]

it's so awkward watching cis dudes double-down on being an asshole. we're out here dying and you can't bite your tongue? https://t.co/RRbKNwncsO

? Robyn Kanner (@robynkanner) November 22, 2016

[Cynical Asshole]

we're out here dying

*facepalm*

If ever there was a statement dying for a "*citation needed*" it's that one. These fuckwads act like there's roving bands of rednecks "gettin' some queers, and some trucks, and havin' a good old fashioned fag drag." Seriously, what year do these dipshits think it is?

[Zero Sum Game]

They might be referring to the suicide rate of trans people, but it's hard to tell one way or another because SJWs are retarded. It could go either way at this point.

[Cynical Asshole]

"The dating app announced a new feature this week which gives users 37 different gender options," Jost said. "It's called 'Why Democrats lost the election.'"

OK, first there was the "Trump supporter on Black Jeopardy" sketch, then "The Bubble" sketch, and now this. There's at least one writer at SNL who's a closeted non-proggy douche. Whoever it is is probably still a prog, but they clearly "get" something that their fellow progtards just don't. Perhaps instead of getting pissy and throwing a fit they should shut up and listen. I hope they don't though. If they were to actually learn something it might stop the flow salty ham tears

[robc]

Probably an anti-prog liberal.

[0x90]

Writing comedy is an exercise in seeing things from other people's points of view, so it's no coincidence that good comedians often go on to be good with dramatic roles, too. But in either case it is an act, so it should be equally unsurprising to find that in their own personal life, the writer or actor may remain an insufferable ideological prick.

[AddictionMyth]

We need to stay focused on Trump's conflicts of interests so that his team can focus on priorities - bombing the hell out of North Africa, rounding up millions of illegals and housing them indefinitely in Arpaio prison camps, and house-to-house urban warfare to crack down on lawless black people and the drugs that they are either taking too much or too little of.

[Tonio]

"We"?

[AddictionMyth]

How are those boxcar designs coming along?

[Real and Legitimate News, Jr.]

Good, go focus on it. Go to Washington, take copious notes, interview all the relevant power players. Leave no stone unturned.

I expect a full report on March 1, 2020.

[Number 2]

"A federal judge in Texas granted a preliminary injunction blocking the implementation of President Obama's executive action on overtime-pay eligibility."

The judge found that Obama had exceeded the delegated to him by Congress by ignoring the plain language of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Hey Reason - I wonder how many of our new "allies," who realized the need to restrain executive power exactly two weeks ago yesterday, will applaud this judge's effort to restrain executive overreach. Care to guess? Maybe...zero?

[SugarFree]

In a true Hit and Run tradition, I repost the favorite Flashback Thread of all time:

There's Safety In A Union

If you have ever wondered why so many of so still make fun of joe the troll to this day, and miss Fluffy so terribly, this is the thread for you.

[Lee Genes]

joe, being a small man, was just feeling a little unsafe in crowds

[Citizen X]

Fucking joe. I like where he tries to tell OTHER people to fuck off for being partisan. Projection ain't just a river in Egypt.

Walmart and the Ghost of Jimmy Damour

[Citizen X]

Also, Fluffy was awesome.

[Tonio]

Ah, Sug, you are a treasure.

[SugarFree]

I'm just glad they didn't nuke the comments on that one like they did the Ham Tears thread.

[commodious gits gud]

?

[SugarFree]

This had a 1200+ comment thread at one time. It was deleted in some sort of decorum fit.

[Zero Sum Game]

It went up to at least 1,656.

If I could turn back time...

[John]

Joe was the worst. Fluffy in contrast was one of the best people on here. I didn't always agree with him but he was always interesting. And to this day, there are things he said that I shamelessly steal. His take down of Keynesian economics was flat out brilliant.

[robc]

Does anyone know where Fluffy went? Did he get tired of us or something?

[Zero Sum Game]

I'd completely forgotten about him. That fucking guy was always like that too. Twisty little fuck who would never concede being wrong about the slightest conviction he held or position he took.

I guess I should thank my lucky stars that the only ones left of trollcamp are mostly just tedious.

[robc]

I was happy with my comments in that thread.

Especially this one:
The customers acted like they were getting festival seating at a Who concert or tiered stands at an FA Cup semifinal.

[robc]

Fluffy,

Give it up. joe is just on the rag today. Explaining the inconsistenies in his arguments in a clear concise manner appears futile. -- J sub D

**sniff**

[Swiss Servator]

*Pours out libation for J sub D*

[Pro Libertate]

Amen.

[UnCivilServant]

609 comments from before I joined the site... do I have the time to read them?

[UnCivilServant]

... there's no comment treading. Truely those were barbaric times.

[robc]

No actual accounts either, you could post with whatever name you wanted whenever.

It was an awesome time to be alive.

[Brett L]

P Brooks, to the dueling field, stat.

[UnCivilServant]

I hope he quotes the post, otherwise I won't know he's responding to me.

[Zero Sum Game]

It's weird because people (especially those who have been around a long time) still sometimes reply as if there isn't threading. Old habits die hard, I guess.

I thought I was going crazy in thinking there were changes to the comment system around here when I returned. I didn't remember having to log in, once upon a time, and I remembered monolithic non-threaded conversations like that which were really hard to follow.

[Citizen X]

You probably wouldn't like them.

[UnCivilServant]

huck|12.2.08 @ 1:25PM| block | mute | #

I do think that retailers should be careful about drumming up a frenzy and letting shoppers murder each other for $100 laptops,...

Now that would be a spectacle. Two shoppers enter, one shopper leaves...with a laptop.

Pro Libertate|12.2.08 @ 1:27PM| block | mute | #

Chuck,

Ah, you've shopped at Thundermart!

No, X, you were incorrect. That got a grin out of me 😀

[Pro Libertate]

I forgot about that thread. Huh.

[UnCivilServant]

Pro Libertate|12.2.08 @ 4:33PM| block | mute | #

Has Reason taken steps to prevent joe from getting trampled by the unreasoning, crazed libertarian mob that is eager to buy $0.05 six-packs of Coke?

[Pro Libertate]

Apparently so, as I've not heard about any trampling or trampling-like activity.

[lafe.long]

Tila Tequila's Twitter Account Suspended After 'Sieg Heil Salute' Photo Surfaces

After she tweeted a photo of herself holding up the Nazi salute during a dinner at Maggianos Little Italy restaurant, the restaurant posted a statement on Facebook apologizing for Tequila's actions, and her Twitter account was later suspended.

[Crusty Juggler]

I understand why the stupid alt right meetup is receiving coverage, but the amount of anger thrown their way is ridiculous. They are pathetic and should be viciously mocked, not feared. Are people this desperate to have a true villain in their lives?

[SugarFree]

Yes. They really are that desperate.

[John]

I read that there were 200 people at that thing. To put that in context, Bronycon drew something like 3,000. These losers can't outdraw the Bronies. And they are supposed to be the new Brownshirts? Really? I bet more guys got laid at Bronycon than at that stupid thing. It is a collection of losers who spend their lives posting on 4Chann and a few other places. It is hard to come up with a more pathetic political movement.

[commodious gits gud]

These losers can't outdraw the Bronies. And they are supposed to be the new Brownshirts?

I wish they'd act more like it, and receive an epic and well-deserved beatdown. Fuckin' jamokes.

[Cynical Asshole]

Are people this desperate to have a true villain in their lives?

I think a lot of people really are. These are people who had to grow up listening their parents wax poetic about how they "fought the good fight" during the civil rights era of the 1960's and their grandparents wax even more poetic about how they were "the greatest generation" who "defeated the Nazis and fascism" in WW2. They're desperate to have some equally grand "enemy" to slay. Because just living good, decent, quiet lives as best they can isn't good enough for these fuckwits. They're desperate for some grand enemy to fight.

[Crusty Juggler]

Related: Politico Editor RESIGNS After Publishing Home Addresses Of Alt-Right Icon Richard Spencer, Advocating For 'Baseball Bats'

Why is "RESIGNS" capitalized?

"Stop whining about Richard B. Spencer, Nazi, and exercise your rights as decent Americans," Hirsh wrote in a public Facebook post. "Here are his two addresses."

I wasn't thinking of a fucking letter, Doug. He lives part of the time next door to me in Arlington. Our grandfathers brought baseball bats to Bund meetings. Want to join me?"

That was written by a sixty-year-old man who had been employed.

[Citizen X]

Christ, what an asshole.

[commodious gits gud]

All this Trump-related violence.

[John]

People of all persuasions, but Progs especially love to exaggerate their political enemies. It is one of the wages of getting your personal identity and self worth from your politics. If Trump is just a well meaning but bad politician, then the people who oppose him are part of an ordinary political cause. If, however, Trump is some fascist monster, the people who oppose him are a part of some great struggle to save America. If you get your sense of self worth from your politics, the first option is too horrible to contemplate.

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

Yes. What's better than playing Pretend Civil Rights Movement? Playing Pretend WWII.

[0x90]

Well, there's a good idea: make morons into martyrs.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Seriously. With all the coverage "white nationalism" or whatever has been getting over the past few months, you'd think there were actually more than 50,000 or so of them in the entire nation of 315 million

[0x90]

But there was only one Hitler, and look what he did!

Headline: Libertarian Strategist Derpy says One Holocaust not Enough, Will not Stop until 300 Billion are Dead!

[CatoTheChipper]

If the white nationalist movement was as large and as vicious as progressives fantasize, you'd think that they would have organized at least one assassination attempt against the first black president. I remember the fear they expressed in the media eight years ago. It was enough to make my mother-in-law heartily fearful for his safety, and I had to explain to her that the Secret Service would do everything necessary to keep Obama safe. To tell the truth, though, even I was somewhat concerned about how *real* racists would react to Obama's election.

As it stands, the only serious attempt on the President was by a delusional Elvis impersonator.

I seriously doubt there are 50,000 white nationalists. There may be that many who are curious about what Spencer's ilk are thinking and perhaps feel some sympathy about their concerns. But it is a smaller and less dangerous lunatic fringe than #BLM, which has already inspired the murder of a dozen cops.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

I seriously doubt there are 50,000 white nationalists. There may be that many who are curious about what Spencer's ilk are thinking and perhaps feel some sympathy about their concerns. But it is a smaller and less dangerous lunatic fringe than #BLM, which has already inspired the murder of a dozen cops.

Yeah, I figured 50,000 was an incredibly generous assessment. I'd be surprised if the actual number breaks five digits.

If the white nationalist movement was as large and as vicious as progressives fantasize, you'd think that they would have organized at least one assassination attempt against the first black president.

Nah, see, they did something even more racist - they declined to vote for a 70-year-old white woman!

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

I think we need to consider the fact that being a neo-Nazi is so uncool their biggest celebrity booster is Tila Tequila.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Did they block the #assassinateDonaldTrump thing?

If not, I will celebrate its pending demise. Hopefully.

[Rhywun]

Someone needs to to twitter-bomb that pic of the kids doing the Bellamy salute that always makes the rounds only caption-contest it with various comments more relevant like 'alt-right school undercover!1!'.

[BYODB]

Is this chica a chica, or is she an arian? Because, last I checked, tequila isn't a German beverage therefore, to these fuckwits, it must be inferior yes?

Or are they inclusive for everyone except Jews? Or is her name supposed to be ironic? Is it even her name?

I am genuinely confused. Mostly, I'm just confused about why anyone, and I mean anyone, would pay the slightest bit of attention to this person. It's almost as if this whole Nazi shtick is first and foremost a case of 'there's no such thing as bad publicity'. How many click's is this person drawing from people who are visiting their sites to leave hate mail?

Nevermind, I've already given this more thought than it's worth.

[Rufus The Monocled]

"A federal judge in Texas granted a preliminary injunction blocking the implementation of President Obama's executive action on overtime-pay eligibility."

Good. Take your hippie crap elsewhere.

[lafe.long]

NASA Uncovers Images Mysterious Bright Details on Surface of Dwarf Planet Ceres

One of the most intriguing images came in early October, while Dawn was about 920 miles (1,480 km) above the surface of Ceres and at an angle where the sun's position showed interesting reflections not seen during the first four orbits. The image clearly reveals enigmatic bright regions at the bottom of the dwarf planet's huge Occator Crater, which scientists believe is a sign of recent geologic activity.

[I can't even]

The cultural enrichment of Germany keeps getting better.

Migrants Burn Down German Refugee Center After Camp Runs Out of Nutella and Gummy Bears

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/.....mmy-bears/

[UnCivilServant]

Who wouldn't want these wonderful people to be living in their neighborhood?

[CatoTheChipper]

Diversity is our greatest strength.

[Free Society]

Personally, I think vibrancy is our strength.

[Free Society]

We need those people living in our societies. They're very valuable for our.... uh.... well we need the migrants for labor in our......umm ......erm.....migrant soup kitchens? Anyways I'm certain these people are vital to our economy and culture and we can't do without them. Plus turning them away would violate the principles of .... uh.... it would violate their right to come here...and....uh....hmmmm..... collect welfare and commit crime?

[Palin's Buttplug]

As much as I hate Trump if he does cut off the relatively small refugee flow into the US I will give him credit for it.

But we will probably get more Big Gov plus shitty social conservatism to go along with it.

[Citizen X]

Hey, i get it. I'll burn shit down if i ain't get my Nutella, too.

[Brett L]

Headlines from the Day After Tomorrow:

Natives Destroy Walmart After Black Friday Deals Run Low
Probably in Florida.

[AddictionMyth]

Stupid Trumpkins. They think they're so smart.

[Johnny Hit n Run Paulene]

And yet you, so stupid. Go figger.

[Swiss Servator]

Handle switching again, eh?

[lafe.long]

Alicia Silverstone says that she'd go naked than wear wool in support for PETA

"It's like on the slaughterhouse floor where there's a conveyor belt and it's going that fast. It's just so fast, the shearing process. They're cut. They're harmed. They get very seriously wounded, and there's no care for them when they are wounded. It's just, 'Move onto the next.' These are not creatures to the people who are doing this; they're just objects," she says. "When the sheep are no longer useful, they're killed. So, there is no happy place that they get to go for being a wool sheep."

[SugarFree]

Get back to us 20 years go, Alicia.

[Juvenile Bluster]

If 20 years ago me saw Clueless/Aerosmith "Crazy" video Alicia Silverstone do this, I would've pretty much made it my life's goal to support anything she had to say.

[Cynical Asshole]

So much this. That "Crazy" video came out when I was ~15 or so. Right smack in the middle of awkward teenaged hormone phase. That video was the cause many an awkward boner back then.

Now, for a trip down memory lane...

[Greg Loves His Woodchipper]

Not only did it come at an awkward teenage time for me but it was also a time where you had to beat it to pretty much whatever you could find. Music videos were a common source for teenage me (also "Bodyshaping" on ESPN)

[Juice]

What the hell is wrong with her now?

[Sevo]

"When the sheep are no longer useful, they're killed. So, there is no happy place that they get to go for being a wool sheep."

You think that's bad, you should see what I do to a Dungeness crab!

[Citizen X]

You fuck it?

[Eternal Blue Sky]

Google "Shrek the sheep" to find out the horrors these animal activists want sheep to undergo.

[Free Society]

Democratic presidential electors revolt against Trump
The Electoral College could see a historic number of 'faithless electors.'

At least a half-dozen Democratic electors have signed onto an attempt to block Donald Trump from winning an Electoral College majority, an effort designed not only to deny Trump the presidency but also to undermine the legitimacy of the institution.

Oh shit! Democratic electors that were elected to vote for Clinton, have decided not to give their votes to Trump. FAITHLESS ELECTORS OMG.

[Rhywun]

In the past, the president-elect has called the body a "disaster for democracy." In 2012, he urged supporters to march on Washington when he believed Mitt Romney had won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College.

His views haven't changed. In a recent, post-election interview with "60 Minutes," he said, "I would rather see it where you went with simple votes."

Yeah, "states" are so old-fashioned anyway. Who needs 'em?

[Free Society]

People forget that these United States are (ostensibly) a federation of states that have pooled their sovereignty. It's not supposed to be a popular vote anymore than it would make sense the for UN Secretary General to be determined by a global popular vote, which would make that post determined solely by the Chinese and Indians.

[Rhywun]

We're rapidly reaching the point where federations modeled on ours (say, Germany) are now more "federal" than we are.

[Free Society]

Give Germany a chance. They seem to be hellbent on destroying their worthwhile institutions.

[Palin's Buttplug]

?Obama's post-election approval rating was 57 percent, the highest it has been since September 2009.

Dubya's was only 22% when he was leaving a shitty economy and two lost wars behind.

American's have short memories though.

[CampingInYourPark]

I can faintly remember $700 an ounce gold

[Sevo]

Strange how turd's memory is so selective, isn't it? It's almost like he's a fucking ignoramus.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Its coming along with 5% interest rates. Gold is down $20 today and the mining index is breaking down.

The GOP part of the economic cycle will bring higher deficits and oil prices with their phony tax cuts and big defense spending.

Sell your shitty gold nougats and buy Raytheon.

[UnCivilServant]

Shouldn't those be 8% rates?

[Michael]

Ha ha! Awesome.

[Citizen X]

Considering the source of the advice, i guess i should do the opposite of it, you Shit Midas you.

[Sevo]

Buttplug|11.23.16 @ 10:17AM|#
"Its coming..."

Well, I guess he *is* a fucking ignoramus.

[Michael]

+ 8%

[Pompeius the Quant Retard]

Cool financial fanfic bro

[Swiss Servator]

$600/oz gold has been his chant since 2013

O!Care is really popular (8%)

Jeb! will be the Elephant nominee

etc.

[Domestic Dissident]

American's have short memories though.

A journalist working for a major news organization, and he doesn't even know basic elementary school grammar.

No apostrophe goes in there, you fucking retard.

[Citizen X]

Mikey, shreek is neither David Weigel nor employed.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Ezra Klein: Democrats Got More Votes This Election Than Repubicans. They Should Act Like It.

This is not an argument that the election was rigged, or that Trump's win is somehow illegitimate. The president is chosen by the Electoral College. The Senate is built to favor small states. Gerrymandering is legal. America does not decide national elections by simply tallying up votes.

But the will of the voters still matters, or at least it should. Thus far, Democrats have slipped comfortably into the position of minority party. They aren't demanding that Trump put forward compromise candidates for key posts. They aren't laying out a proactive agenda that would serve as their basis for negotiations with Trump and the Republicans. And they aren't, in their public messaging, emphasizing that most voters opposed Trump's agenda, and that both Democrats and Republicans need to take that seriously.

The Cleveland Indians scored more runs in the World Series than the Chicago Cubs. They should act like it and demand they share the trophy.

[Tornado35235gsg35423ttg3gt3g3g]

Conveniently ignores the gop house had more votes and the senate is due to california running two democrats

Trump didnt even campaign in cali where e got less than romney or mccain

[geo1113]

It wouldn't be an Ezra Klein article if the facts were not conveniently ignored.

[John]

Ezra Klein tweeted the other day about an article he described as "really decomposing the factors that motivated Trump voters". Decomposing? It is a small thing but it is so indicative of what a horrible pretentious moron he is.

[commodious gits gud]

Was he making a show at being mathematically minding? I remember decomposing fractions back in high school.

[Brett L]

Well, he is pretty rotten at analysis.

[John]

It is the 1960 Yankees' theory of winning. And people elected Trump to change things and get things done. If the Democrats refuse to in any way help, it won't end well for them in the midterms in 2018.

[Free Society]

Ezra Klein: Democrats Got More Votes This Election Than Repubicans. They Should Act Like It.

Yes, since the national popular vote tally is completely irrelevant, they should act like they lost. If it were relevant, both candidates would have known about such terms ahead of time and both candidates would have run completely different campaigns as a result. Hell, even the voters would have behaved differently under that scenario, the Republicans in California might have crawled out of their hiding holes to vote and pushed Trump over the top of the popular vote. Who knows? Certainly not the pollsters and double certainly not Ezra Fucking Klein.

The only thing Hilary's popular vote count actually proves is nothing at all.

[Pro Libertate]

Since that vote has not been relevant since 1789, since the system was intentionally designed the way it was to expressly protect minority rights, and since the GOP controls the House and Senate, most states, and will soon add the White House, the SCOTUS and more states. . .I'm thinking that going on about an irrelevant method of tallying may be missing the point.

[Rufus The Monocled]

The Yankees hammered the Pirates in 1960 but Pittsburgh won. Should we retroactively give the Yankees the win?

Idiot.

[Sevo]

"Defectors: North Korea would fall without capitalistic markets"
[...]
"North Korea has tolerated ? and taxed ? some market activities since the country's state rationing systems crumbled amid an economic crisis and famine that killed an estimated hundreds of thousands in the mid-1990s."
http://www.sfgate.com/world/ar.....630992.php

According "Post War" (among others) the Soviet Union lasted quite a bit longer than it would have without such markets; they were the only source of food for many people.

[Free Society]

And in the case of the Soviet Union at least, they relied on the pricing found in western countries to calculate the value of their factors of production. The central planners used to base their production schemes on Sears Roebuck catalogs and the like. Looking at the pricing in external markets was to be sure, a very imperfect way of calculating price, but it was an order of magnitude better than the entirely arbitrary alternatives.

[0x90]

U.K. Parliament Approves Unprecedented New Hacking and Surveillance Powers

A few years ago, it would have been unthinkable for the British government to admit that it was hacking into people's computers and collecting private data on a massive scale. But now, these controversial tactics are about to be explicitly sanctioned in an unprecedented new surveillance law.

[...]

"Every citizen will have their internet activity ? the apps they use, the communications they send, and to who ? logged for 12 months," says Eric King, a privacy expert and former director of Don't Spy On Us, a coalition of leading British human rights groups that campaigns against mass surveillance. "There is no other democracy in the world, possibly no other country in the world, doing this."

Admitting to doing this, you mean.

[Free Society]

I'm pretty sure the US already does this. And I'm pretty certain that countries have been doing this for each other, under the guise of espionage. Country A contracts country B to spy on Country A's citizens and give the data over to country A, to get around Country A's laws on domestic surveillance.

[0x90]

Yep... the proper caricature for intelligence agencies is basically Bart Simpson in a secret service getup.

*pushes Milhouse*

*gumball machine tips over*

*gumballs rolling everywhere*

"I didn't do it."

[The Fusionist]

"The Dalai Lama has "no worries" about Trump's election."

Easy for *him* to say, he's not an oppressed person of color!

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Shit, he doesn't even live in the U.S.! He has no idea what he's talking about!

[Domestic Dissident]

"The Dalai Lama has "no worries" about Trump's election."

"When you realize how perfect everything is, you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky."
-Siddhartha Gautama

[The Fusionist]

"Don't worry, be happy."

-Bobby McFerrin

[EDG reppin LBC]

Don't you mean Shitbarfer Squatmama?

[Swiss Servator]

*polite applause*

[The Late P Brooks]

The Senate is built to favor small states.

If by "favor" you mean "protect".

This new hobbyhorse of the progressive left claims the small flyover states are bullying the wise metropolitan masses. I'm pretty sure the Founders recognized, even in those primordial days, just how likely it would be that the cities would use t\heir concentrated influence to put their interests ahead of the widely dispersed rural citizens.

Also- this nation was not devised as, nor was it ever intended to be, a direct democracy. The more I think about it, the more I believe the 17th Amendment (something never in my recollection even mentioned in any of my collegiate history or political science classes) was a colossal mistake.

[Tornado35235gsg35423ttg3gt3g3g]

That is what the house of reps is for...senate was supposed to be selected by state government

[Rhywun]

Yeah, I've been hearing this from the left all my life - it just louder after the election of any Republican. Hell, I was making the argument myself back when I was young and stupid.

[Pro Libertate]

They had their flaws, to be sure, but at least they could read, think, and operate outside the 24-hour news-cycle. They were far more advanced politically than almost anyone in politics today.

[The Late P Brooks]

This morning, in the NYT, there is yet another article beating that popular vote drum.

Boo hoo hoo. And- correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't TEAM "I'm With Her" feature a legion of the sort of "political savants" who make their careers analyzing and manipulating the nuances of the political process and tweaking their candidate's performance to best advantage on the map of the political battlefield?

It's almost like those guys got their heads handed to them by a bunch of ignorant savages who outflanked them as they were toasting their great upcoming victory in their commander's tent.

[Tornado35235gsg35423ttg3gt3g3g]

Yup it is like americans beating the british

[Pope Jimbo]

Part of the pre-election narrative was also that while the two might be close in the general polls, she had a LOCK on the electoral college.

They told us over and over that resistance was futile because the electoral college would deliver the goods for her.

[Tornado35235gsg35423ttg3gt3g3g]

They loved the electoral college before when there was a blue wall

[0x90]

I can't be bothered to find references, but pretty sure I recall the Rs being preemptively lectured not to even think of trying any of the post-election funny business that the Ds are currently engaging in.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

As I've said before, citing Clinton's popular vote win as evidence that she should have won the election is like claiming your football team should have won the game because, even though they scored fewer points, they passed and ran for more yardage than the other team. Sure, it feels like if you have more total yards than the other team, your team should win, but that's not always the case. More importantly, that wasn't the agreed-upon metric, and the opponent didn't strategize with that metric in mind.

If this were a popular vote election, Trump's team wouldn't have focused so much on so-called Rust Belt states like Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. He would have focused on running up the score in states like Texas, Alabama, and Arizona.

[UnCivilServant]

The better sports analogy was the "only won 3 of 7 games in the tournament but won those games by more points", as it better fits the electoral versus popular vote parameters.

[Free Society]

In addition to candidates behaving differently in a national popular vote scenario, the voters in states where Republicans don't bother to vote would have seen different voter behaviors, possibly enough to push Trump to the top of the popular vote tally. We can't possibly know the answer to that with any certainty. Especially given the piss poor polling that was in evidence this election.

Clinton's national vote tally couldn't be more irrelevant.

[UnCivilServant]

Or the voters change in behaviour. The non-blue voters in New York and California might have had higher turnout if they didn't have the certainty that they would never tip the state's electoral votes.

Too many variables to say who would have won.

[0x90]

The Red Sox got more hits & runs in 2016 than any other team, followed by the Rockies.

The Cubs clearly stole the World Series.

[The Late P Brooks]

If this were a popular vote election, Trump's team wouldn't have focused so much on so-called Rust Belt states like Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

Exactly. As Hillary's phalanx of geniuses were busy patting themselves on the back and crowing about how they had the election in the bag.

[CampingInYourPark]

What a politician advocates really means nothing anymore. It's the geographic location they "focus"

[Bee Tagger]

Show me once place in this thread that I've resorted to sexual innuendo. I have standards.

[Johnny Hit n Run Paulene]

So do we. They're just lower than yours.

[Citizen X]

In YOUR endo.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

"Show me once place" seems like a fine euphemism.

[Crusty Juggler]

"Endo here has forgotten more about dispensing pain than you and I will ever know."

[UnCivilServant]

That still doesn't mean he currently knows more than we do. What someone used to know can't be used if it's been forgotten.

[Swiss Servator]

Agreed.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Archer: What the hell smells like shrimp?

Cheryl: Just my sensual womanhood. Oh, wait. Eww.

[I'll have the fish]

*considers changing screen name*

[Rhywun]

Most people grow more wise and understanding of how the world works as they get older.

It's weird to see the opposite happen.