FBI Investigates Journalist Over Joke Tweet, Ohio Passes 'Heartbeat Bill,' Trump Named Time Person of the Year: A.M. Links

• 

  Time magazine cover

  Donald Trump was named Time magazine's Person of the Year.

• Both houses of the Ohio legislature have approved a measure that would ban abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which occurs about three weeks post conception.
• Angela Merkel endorsed a prohibition on full-faced veils in Germany "wherever it is legally possible."
• "Even a cursory investigation or application of common sense would have shown my tweet to be a joke," writes Nick Baumann, a Huffington Post journalist being investigated by the FBI over a joke tweet.
• A new Bloomberg Politics poll finds 69 percent of Americans are fine with Trump's stated plan to turn his businesses over to his children while he serves as president.
• Scientists at the University of Vienna say that the frequency of Cesarean-section births is having an impact on human evolution by letting more women with narrow pelvises live.
• Julian Assange published statements he gave to Ecuadoran prosecutors regarding rape allegations in Sweden.
• "Aside from not actually being a country," Liberland— the liberty-loving utopia project on the banks of the Danube—"is also beginning to seem not all that free," writes Morgan Childs in GQ.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Donald Trump was named Time magazine's Person of the Year.

The cover is a mirror with Donald hair on it.

[Swiss Servator]

And a SugarFree Mad-Libs style story inside?!

[SugarFree]

The Hair is featured quite prominently.

[Groovus Maximus]

The Hat finally ran off with Her Goiter, and left Denial, The Angry Prostate, at the altar, yes? SAD!

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

"A new Bloomberg Politics poll finds 69 percent of Americans are fine with Trump's stated plan to turn his businesses over to his children while he serves as president."

I don't understand. Why wouldn't they be?

[WTF]

I don't understand. Why wouldn't they be?

Because TRUMP!!!11!!!!!!

[Hyperion]

Because Rethuglicans, one percenters, corporatshunz, kochtopus, fair share, duh!

[Free Society]

Because Trump needs to disinherit his children, sell off his entire life's work and then give all his wealth away to MoveOn.org

Only then can we be moderately sure of no conflicts of interest arising.

[Groovus Maximus]

Perhaps he should divorce Melania too, and just become a Tibetan Monk, sworn to a vow of celibacy and poverty. Will that shut up the detractors?

[ace_m82]

Don't be crazy! The healing won't start until he performs a ritual seppuku.

[Number.6]

"Cultural Appropriation!"

[Griffin3]

No. But maybe if he gives up his race, sex, and gender identity ...

[Sir Hunter Killer Greymouth I]

1

[Sir Hunter Killer Greymouth I]

???

[Fist of Etiquette]

It's the loneliest number.

[robc]

A friend of mine disagrees with the song. He thinks i is the loneliest number.

[Anomalous]

In his imagination.

[Rich]

😎

[Swiss Servator]

Romans! *scoffs*

[Rich]

*** narrows I's ***

[Scarecrow & WoodChipper Repair]

When did i get promoted to upper class^Wcase?

[gaoxiaen]

i +1, especially if she's a nagging bitch.

[Zeb]

I'm never quite sure how a number can be lonely in the first place.

But I think that "number" in the song is meant to be limited to natural numbers.

[Sir Hunter Killer Greymouth I]

Hmmm, where did all my other text go?

[Sir Hunter Killer Greymouth I]

You know what, fuck this website, and the demands for money that seemingly never get used for fixing the god damned website.

[Rich]

Hey, Sir -- don't go away mad!

[Sir Hunter Killer Greymouth I]

They sure as hell don't have any problem making a giant red banner pop up to tell me they're not making their goal, or the other one with the horror clown faces.

[RBS]

You're pretty whiny for a guy with "killer" in his name.

[Sir Hunter Killer Greymouth I]

Hi Reason webmaster!

[RBS]

What are you, 12?

[Sir Hunter Killer Greymouth I]

Who shit in your cheerios?

[RBS]

So, 14-15 then?

[Sir Hunter Killer Greymouth I]

No, see it's funny because it would make sense for you to be so upset if you were the webmaster, but it would be ridiculous and nonsensical for you to be so upset if you're just some random guy wouldn't have any reason to get upset.

But apparently, you're jist some pissed off troll

[Sir Hunter Killer Greymouth I]

Am I getting trolled here?

I don't recall seeing anyone name "RBS" sayong or doing anything of note over the past couple days I've been here.

[RBS]

That's because unlike our resident government lawyer, I actually work. Sometimes...

[Sir Hunter Killer Greymouth I]

So I am getting trolled.

[BigT]

You, Sir, have a firm grasp on the obvious. Bravo!

[Tonio]

Yes, Hunter, you will be mercilessly trolled and hazed here. This is not a nice place.

[Hyperion]

"Yes, Hunter, you will be mercilessly trolled and hazed here. This is not a nice place."

What Tonio said. You'd best get on your big girl panties now.

[Chip Woodier]

You'd best get on your big girl panties now.

Is it Saturday night already?

[Dick N. Bimbose (n?e Cooper)]

The ones your mother laid out for you!

[Sir Hunter Killer Greymouth I]

Don't be jelly man, just call your mom in off her corner and have her do yours.

[Suthenboy]

RBS has been around for years and is a credit to the commentariat.

[straffinrun]

Yep. I don't think takin' the piss out of someone counts as trolling.

[Sir Hunter Killer Greymouth I]

Fair enough, when RBS starts doing that instead of the obvious trolling we can, talk about it.

[Tonio]

^This.

[Groovus Maximus]

BS has been around for years and is a credit to the commentariat

AMEN! He's the one who suggested that Dr. ZG and I have separate bathrooms constructed.

The man is a mother fucking GENIUS!

[Number.6]

Amen brother.

Although I'm receptive to the idea of separate houses ....

[Sir Hunter Killer Greymouth I]

"RBS has been around for years and is a credit to the commentariat"

Says a lot that you think an obvious troll is a credit to you.

[Zeb]

You aren't being trolled, just oversensitive. If you think "You're pretty whiny for a guy with "killer" in his name." means some one is "so upset", you need to re-calibrate or you are going to have a real hard time here.

IOW, chill the fuck out.

[Sir Hunter Killer Greymouth I]

"You aren't being trolled"

Yeah, I was.

"IOW, chill the fuck out."

Fuck you.

How's that?

[Sir Hunter Killer Greymouth I]

"you need to re-calibrate or you are going to have a real hard time here"

I can't imagine how a grown adult Who had ever seen any real hardship could ever categorize being trolled on a website as having a "real hard time".

[Zeb]

Fine. I was trying to be friendly and helpful, but I guess you just want to be a dick.

Have fun.

[Zeb]

Do you really believe that I was suggesting that you would suffer real hardship? Get some perspective, man. You are going to have a hard time participating in this comment section if you are going to get all pissy about "trolling" every time someone mocks one of your comments.

This is a great discussion forum, but you need to learn a thing or two about the culture here, apparently. If comments like RBS's are trolling, then everyone here is constantly trolling.

[Hyperion]

"Hi Reason webmaster!"

You're wasting your time. We've been all over this topic for years. I don't think they can be insulted anymore than they've already been. They're not fixing the fucking site, and forget even asking about an edit feature.

[To: Trshmnstr From: Hrod [C]]

and forget even asking about an edit feature.

*sighs and sullenly shakes head*

[LurkinInaBuildin]

How bout the top notch journalism of not including even a hint as to the content of the FBI-worthy tweet mentioned?

Not clicking the link, assholes, but thanks for the worthless "reporting."

[Zeb]

Take a look at the title of the post. "AM Links" should give you some hint as to what the content of the post is going to be.

Is it retarded noob day today or something?

[Crusty Juggler]

*hugs Sir Hunter Killer Greymouth I*

[Sir Hunter Killer Greymouth I]

Thank you.

[tarran]

You're going to need a full STD scan after that hug.

[Citizen X]

Jesus. What did i say about letting Crusty touch you, people?

[juris imprudent]

And that was the last that was ever seen of SHKG1.

[VG Zaytsev]

They need your money to hire cutting edge libertarian writers like shitka dalmia, robby suave, chapman and richman.

[Hyperion]

Give Robby a break, he's written some damn good articles here.

[Lachowsky]

Robby has. Chapman thoroughly pissed me off with his NRA hit piece a few weeks ago.

[gaoxiaen]

NEEDZ AN EDIT BUTTON!

[Mr Drew]

No to the edit button. I have typos at even greaten than normal frequency and it's embarrassing, yes. But forcing writers to live with the comments as written and live with the results outweighs that IMHO.

[Gadfly]

Mr Drew is right, an edit button would be a terrible feature (unless it had a very short timer...such as only allowing you to edit a post 5 minutes after posting or if nobody has replied). I've seen forum conversations seriously messed up by edit button abuse, where people change the conversation post facto, making it impossible to follow a thread.

[To: Trshmnstr From: Hrod [C]]

It should be done like the SBNation sites (All Vox sites??)... you have 90 seconds to fix whatever shit you screwed up, and then it freezes.

[Dick N. Bimbose (n?e Cooper)]

An edit button violates the NAP.

[Tonio]

Welcome aboard, Hunter. You will never beat Fist for First. Official* "Firsts" are not awarded to the topmost post in a AM or PM links thread, and must contain a reference to one of those links - an html-formatted quote is preferred.

Uncontrollable vomiting is normal here, even if you don't read Sugar Free's stories. Don't go anywhere with Warty; you have been warned.

(*) These rules are the ancient and traditional ones, but they are not recognized by everyone.

[Sir Hunter Killer Greymouth I]

I couldn't care less about firsts, I just want my stiff to post.

[Sir Hunter Killer Greymouth I]

Hehe stiff

[straffinrun]

That you would want to be first at.

[AlexInCT]

No sloppy seconds?

[To: Trshmnstr From: Hrod [C]]

I just want my stiff to post.

Once you quit humping the keyboard, we'll show you around the Hall of Trolls.

[Sir Hunter Killer Greymouth I]

In rereading my first reply, it comes as unnecessarily dismissive, and I apologize. I was still frustrated by the failure of my links to post.

Thank you for the welcome Tonio.

[Tonio]

You are most welcome.

[Citizen X]

You must have used a greater than or less than sign in your post. The server squirrels HATE that.

[Tonio]

the failure of my links to post

This website has a maximum word length of (I think) 50 characters, so if you posted a naked link (ie, just dropped the URL into the comment box) that link would have been stripped if the url was over fifty characters.

Please don't use link shorteners such as tinyurl. With a properly link you can mouse-over the link text and the url to which the link directs will show at the bottom of a browser window; those tinyurl (etc) links don't show you where they go so most of us will not click on those at least until you establish yourself as a respected and trustworthy individual who would not try to sneak in a NSFW link using tinyurl.

Here's how you do that all proper-like; replace the square brackets in the example below with angle brackets:

[a href="http://reason.com/"]Reason[/a]

If you do this for realz (angle brackets) the only text that will appear in the comment is "Reason" and that text will appear in orange type and will be a clickable link to the url which you've pasted in between the quote marks.

[AceDroman]

Really? Reason

[AceDroman]

Omg finally thank you Tonio. I don't know htmls

[Bubba Jones]

You can paste a URL of any length and reason will shorten it for you with ellipses. Must change https to http for this to work.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

"These rules are the ancient and traditional ones, but they are not recognized by everyone."

Well, yeah, they're not recognized by the dirty apostates, but we'll purge those people in time.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Angela Merkel endorsed a prohibition on full-faced veils in Germany "wherever it is legally possible."

And fashionably sensible.

[Swiss Servator]

How about sensibly fashionable?

[Groovus Maximus]

Well, that was an about face....

[Fist of Etiquette]

It was a veiled complement.

[Tonio]

+1 slender homo

[LurkinInaBuildin]

Broke a week+ lurking streak just to thank you for this one, GM. I L'd OL.

Too tired to offer my own pun, but I think you got this one covered anyway.

[Lord Humungus]

Huge Cobra Terrorizing Apartment Complex Toilet

"We still have no idea where the snake is hiding," wrote Anton Mejier, who filmed the video, on his YouTube page.

Residents are reportedly considering eradication methods like pouring pool acid or hot water down the pipes, but Greenshields would prefer to capture the serpent alive.

"We have put cameras in the pipes to look for it," he told News24.com. "Residents are still worried and some of them are feeling like if it comes up they want to kill it which is something I don't want. I hope he has left through the pipes."

[John]

I posted that yesterday. South Africa is worse than Florida. Just don't go there.

There was a short lived reality show called "Snake City". It was about a guy and his wife who were professional snake catchers in Derbin South Africa. Worst job in the world. He would get calls like "we have a cape cobra loose somewhere in our auto parts warehouse, can you come and catch it.".

[Juvenile Bluster]

But neither is bad as Australia. I've never seen a place that so actively tries to kill its inhabitants.

[John]

Australia is probably worse but not by much. A good friend of mine took this ridiculously expensive safari to Africa a couple of years ago. The guide told the guests, "every single animal you see has the ability to kill you."

[End Child Unemployment]

Especially the antelopes

[gaoxiaen]

In the USSA, it's the jackalopes. Or the killer rabbits.

[Red Rocks Dickin Bimbos]

Kim du Toit when he was still blogging did a piece on Africa one time. He said there's a saying on the continent that when someone gets killed by the wildlife, they go "Africa wins again."

[(((Renegade)))]

It's worth reading "Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes" to understand that the Amazon has all other places beat.

h/t to Heroic Mulatto for encouraging me to read this.

[John]

I read a book a while back about how Teddy Roosevelt almost died in the Amazon. It is a very terrifying place. The thing you don't think about is the ants. The ants in the jungle are horrible.

[gaoxiaen]

An Army of Many.

[Lord Humungus]

Bishop claims to make men's penises larger by massaging them with his hands

A bishop claims to be able to make men's penises larger by massaging their groins with his hands.

Ghanaian preacher Daniel Obinim has been filmed performing a ritual where he moves around a room full of men, grabbing them each by the crotch.

In some cases, he will keep hold of their penises and give them a little shake.

Graciously, he also offers to massage women's breasts in order to enlarge them too.

[Brett L]

Man, sometimes the simple cons are the best cons.

[Tonio]

Always.

[SugarFree]

Penn State is flooding him with offers.

[John]

Their last team mascot is unavailable due to a long prison sentence. So, they do have a position available.

[Crusty Juggler]

Uhh...I have the same power...

[Swiss Servator]

*narrows gaze, zips up*

[To: Trshmnstr From: Hrod [C]]

+1 abscess

[Rich]

In some cases, he will keep hold of their penises and give them a little shake.

Anyway, never more than *three* shakes.

[Lord Humungus]

After that it's $20.

[The Last American Hero]

Paging Billy Bush.

[gaoxiaen]

I concur with the breast treatment. Penises (other than my own) just turn me off. I wish that I could be gay or bi.

[LurkinInaBuildin]

Seriously, wouldn't it be so much easier?

"I'm not homophobic, I'm JEALOUS."

[Bee Tagger]

"Even a cursory investigation or application of common sense would have shown [that] to be a joke,"

My open-mic night sets always end with me screaming this at the audience.

[Steve G]

+1 Michael Richards

[LurkinInaBuildin]

"Everybody stop what you're doing and look at the insensitive man!!"

[Rich]

Scientists at the University of Vienna say that the frequency of Cesarean-section births is having an impact on human evolution by letting more women with narrow pelvises live

and by reducing the number of natural born citizens.

[Slammer]

I read it as University of Vagina

[Tonio]

reducing the number of natural born citizens

+1 Julian May reference

[thrakkorzog]

Macbeth hardest hit.

[Chipwooder]

+ 1 from his mother's womb untimely ripped

[BigT]

Et tu, thrakkorzog?

[Groovus Maximus]

Episotomies Also, intrapartum HRT*

*Relaxin and Progesterone allow the ligament that inserts at the pubis symphisis to become much more elastic to allow for successful crowing and vaginal delivery, absent a dystocic birth d/t awkward fetal positioning. RXing more IV during natty childbirth helps dramatically. Epidurals help greatly as well.

[Tonio]

I love it when you talk that way to me, Doc.

[Groovus Maximus]

Tykovka, is that you?!?!? (My pet name for Dr. ZG)

Oh, Tonio, did you read what I wrote for you yesterday in Mourning Links?

[Tonio]

The Chittluns/Chirrun thing? Yes. Sorry for not responding. I was wrong and I learned something about US English I didn't know. I'm familar with Southern and Appalachian dialect, but not so much with Oklahoma (obviously). Thanks.

[Groovus Maximus]

That, and I apologised to you for calling you, "dolt." I thought you were Tony, since I wasn't paying attention. (Tony's never called me, "Doc," before - shouldda been my first clue).

[Tonio]

Apology accepted. I was a bit surprised by that ("dolt"), but not enough that it damaged our friendship; assumed you were having an off day as we all do.

[Flakfizer is Ballet, Jr.]

Like Groovus, I have more than once seen "Tony" and read "Tonio", and vice versa. I don't recall popping off in any case, but this is my apology in the event that I have and didn't catch it.

(Apology to Tonio, not Tony, but you all know that)

[Tonio]

Thanks, Junior. I'm aware of the Tonio/Tony similarity, and am generally not the overly-sensitive type.

[Swiss Servator]

SCREW OFF, TONY!

Oh, wait... 🙂

[BigT]

successful crowing

Um .... screaming?

That is John-worthy.

[Tonio]

Good catch.

[Groovus Maximus]

That's what Dr. ZG said to her OBGYN when Vlad was born.-)

[Tonio]

Dayum. [applauds]

[Atanarjuat]

How do they know beforehand that a woman's pelvis is too narrow and a c-section is needed for that reason? My friend's mom was told that when he was born, he said, and she was a pretty fat lady. Although his younger sister did sortof have no hips or ass. And can you dumb it down a little bit?

[Groovus Maximus]

Internal and external measurements are taken, and basically, monitoring the birth as is happens, looking for particular S/S that something is amiss. X-rays can also be safely taken late in a pregnancy, should there be any concerns.

Hips allow for a greater space on which the baby rests (like a big recliner, or one of draped metal basket chairs), and is independent of how narrow or wide the anterior fossa ovalis (the big hole in the bottom of the two articulating pelvic bones) actually is. That, more than anything else, will determine how well a pregnancy can go.

The great advancements in both 3D and 4D imaging help immensely.

Fun Medical Fact: The shape of the fossa ovalis is the only self-apparent way to determine the sex of a human skeleton (and notice I didn't say "Gender," either).

[Groovus Maximus]

anterior fossa ovalis

Correction: Pelvis Foramina, AKA Pelvic Inlet. I was momentarily distracted by the kids.

Fossa ovalis is in the heart; it's closure during gestation helps signal when it's time to deliver.

[Tonio]

Also, higher mean birth weight that has come with modern western nutrition and medicine contributes to the problem.

[Groovus Maximus]

Correct. That is the most notable obstetric metric to have on human evolution than the amount of C-sections performed, quite frankly. And biggest contributor to dystocia.

[Tonio]

"Obstetric metric" for the win.

[Spartacus]

Yeah, this. When I was younger babies were 6.5 pounds or so. Over 7 was a big baby. Almost of my friends' babies these days are over 8 lbs. That's a significant bump.

[Number.6]

Blame it on food deserts, man.

[gaoxiaen]

And increasing the number of tight pussies. +1 or 2, or 3 orgasms.

[jack sprat]

Nice links.

[Bee Tagger]

be a shame if something happened to them?

[Lord Humungus]

5 Things I Learned From Neil deGrasse Tyson

I've been booking and hosting PCMag's streaming interview series, The Convo, for nearly a year now. In that time, we've had many big names stop by for a chat?from best-selling authors and government officials to CEOs, scientists and former astronauts. However, none of these names attracted a live studio audience from the busy PCMag staff. That quickly changed when Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson stopped by our offices recently.

Tyson stopped by to talk about his new book, Welcome to the Universe, but the 50-minute conversation?which included questions from viewers watching live on Facebook?touched on many different geeky topics, including politics, education, the multiverse (also, "the metaverse"), Twitter beefs, which sci-fi movie "violated more laws of physics per minute than any other movie ever made," space colonization, and Bigfoot poop?just to name a few. And Tyson easily handled it all with wit, candor, and intelligence.

[Rufus The Monocled]

I don't get it. Why is he so popular?

[Citizen X]

Because he looks exactly like a baby seal.

[straffinrun]

Kiss from a Rose Seal?

[Eternal Blue Sky]

He has that "African American Narrator Voice". Not to the extent of, say, Morgan Freeman, but enough that when combined with his "I Fucking Love Science" credentials it makes him a hypnotic influence on the "I Fucking Love Science" people.

[Lord Humungus]

I find Carl Sagan interesting - his descriptions of events and the scientific process made me truly interested in astronomy, physics, and larger philosophical questions. James Burke - aka, The Day the Universe Changed, which I highly recommend even though it is dated - does the same.

Tyson, on the other hand, doesn't have the same effect on me. His explanations are dry and don't touch on the majesty of the universe. Maybe I like a little flowery speech-a-fyin' in my science.

[SugarFree]

Sagan wanted to share something with you that he found wonderous; Tyson is treating you as a hostile witness.

[Rhywun]

Sagan was also a pothead. Tyson strikes me as a teetotaler.

[John Titor]

Sagan had an almost child-like glee in what he was discussing. Every episode of Cosmos is him going "look at this, isn't this so damn cool?" While Tyson basically dictates what you should believe to you, which is extremely annoying when he discusses subjects he has no goddamn knowledge of, particularly history ("Columbus' expedition is an example of science funding").

[WTF]

Connections was an excellent series by Jame Burke which preceded The Day the Universe Changed. Check it out if you haven't seen it.

[Lord Humungus]

I've heard about it but haven't watched or read it. Will check it out.

[SugarFree]

I really, really liked that one as well.

[Spartacus]

I liked that series, although my inner pedant got a little annoyed at times over connections that weren't quite accurate. But when you try to cover so much ground you have to cut corners a little bit.

[John Titor]

He is accepting to usurp Keith David as 'America's African American Voice'. I will not allow it.

[Dick N. Bimbose (n?e Cooper)]

No one can supplant He of Two First Names with Authoritative Voice.

[(((Renegade)))]

Read the Maddox essay on IFLS for some insight.

Tyson long ago ceased to be a scientist- being a "personality" is far more lucrative.

[That's A Bingo!]

Because people fucking love science!

[Crusty Juggler]

He is the official scientist of the cool kids, and also those who are innocent and curious and seek him because the cool kids made him popular. It's all douchey tribalism. Bill Nye has the same audience.

[BigT]

Why is he so popular?

He is a black 'scientist.'

Liking the first allows one to overcome the Original Sin of America (racism). The second allows one to play at being one of the intelligentsia. So it's a doubleplusgood virtue signal - tolerant and intelligent.

[Atanarjuat]

If Hollywood is any guide, America loves a wise old black man.

[gaoxiaen]

Or Gunny.

[Chip Woodier]

NDT is at least a real scientist, and not that Howdy-Doody looking bow tie addict engineer he hangs around with.

[Zeb]

I don't think he's terrible (when he's talking about astronomy and not preaching about global warming or whatever).
But there are better science popularizers out there (though most of them seem to have a thing about lecturing people on global warming).

[Bronson, Missouri]

"I talked to Mr. Genius Scientist about easily digestible pop-science-related ideas and a bunch of water cooler pop culture piffle. Look how smart we both are!!!!!"

[robc]

Tool users dont evolve (except for genetic drift).

[Kool]

YOU LEAVE MAYNARD ALONE!

[Brett L]

I'd have to read the whole thing, but some set of women with narrow hips died in childbirth, that doesn't imply that:
1) they were as or more likely to die birthing narrow hipped daughters
2) that their daughters were more likely to be the children not born

Its kind of like saying epi pens are driving evolution to let people who go into anaphalactic shock survive to breed. Not really evolution, as you point out.

[robc]

The argument is that tool users change their environment to meet their needs, instead of evolving with changes in the environment.

And by using tools to save the weak and preventing them from dying, we are putting off evolutionary changes, not causing them.

It was an argument used in The Mote in God's Eye **before** the humans met the Moties.

The Moties history shot a hole in the theory. Sorta.

But the orginal argument failed to account for genetic drift.

[Tonio]

The evolutionary changes aren't "put off" they continue happening randomly, just as they always have. What is different with tool users is that "selection" doesn't happen. IOW, the people who would have died early, or who would not have found mates, are now able to live long lives and to find mates and reproduce.

Someday we are going to have a reset - either a meteor or an epidemic. Those who survive the initial event will have to be self-sufficient and robust.

[thrakkorzog]

Even if it were the case that c-sections were causing some genetic drift that would allow more narrow hipped women to survive and have birth, there's already been ~100,000 years of modern humans giving birth the old natural way, compared to maybe 70 years of safe c-sections.

On an evolutionary scale that's nothing unless we were specifically breeding women like livestock for some traits that make natural childbirth impossible.

[To: Trshmnstr From: Hrod [C]]

On an evolutionary scale that's nothing

The peppered moth begs to differ.

[Tonio]

A progressive is someone who insists that evolution through natural selection be taught in public schools, but insists that public policy be constructed so as to thwart natural selection at every turn.

[DesigNate]

Nice.

[Zeb]

I'm not sure I buy that. There are a lot of features in human populations that seem to have evolved while we were tool-users. Until pretty recently, our tool use didn't do much to prevent disease, for example, so disease has still been an environmental pressure that selects for more disease resistance.

[Fist of Etiquette]

"Aside from not actually being a country," Liberland? the liberty-loving utopia project on the banks of the Danube?"is also beginning to seem not all that free," writes Morgan Childs in GQ.

She was great in Falcon Crest.

[Kool]

I could not remotely get through the article. It's dripping with condescension. "White men! White men! White men!"

[John DeWitt]

Apparently only white men love liberty. Everyone else loves authoritarian regimes.

[Raven Nation]

I read the first 9-10 paras and it also seems to be an exercise in cramming as many prog talking points into a piece as possible.

[Tonio]

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they debate you and then you win. We are in the transition between laugh-at and debate.

[(((Renegade)))]

White men! White men!

Whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?

[straffinrun]

Claim to be gay?

[Rhywun]

Nothing screams "freedom" like "public healthcare, education, [and] criminal defense".

[Eternal Blue Sky]

Yeah.

The author spouts "WHITE MEN" as if that's to be unexpected of a tiny nation between frickin' Croatia and Serbia.

[mad.casual]

Wow, he rather literally states that he would rather take a nap than be free (to cross the border). I'm sure his stance with regard to refugees and immigrants elsewhere are consistent with this.

[Emmerson Biggins]

Me too. I tried. After 5 or 6 insults I stopped. Fuck you GQ.

[Dick N. Bimbose (n?e Cooper)]

Thanks be to GQ for tackling this highly-popular subject. Ugh.

[Lord Humungus]

Half of Detroit votes may be ineligible for recount

Michigan's largest county voted overwhelmingly for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, but officials couldn't reconcile vote totals for 610 of 1,680 precincts during a countywide canvass of vote results late last month.

Most of those are in heavily Democratic Detroit, where the number of ballots in precinct poll books did not match those of voting machine printout reports in 59 percent of precincts, 392 of 662.

According to state law, precincts whose poll books don't match with ballots can't be recounted. If that happens, original election results stand.

He blamed the discrepancies on the city's decade-old voting machines, saying 87 optical scanners broke on Election Day. Many jammed when voters fed ballots into scanners, which can result in erroneous vote counts if ballots are inserted multiple times. Poll workers are supposed to adjust counters to reflect a single vote but in many cases failed to do so, causing the discrepancies, Baxter said.

[Rich]

Oops!

[John]

Voter fraud is fake news!!

[WTF]

It would be pretty funny if all of this recount nonsense does nothing more than expose Democrat voter fraud.

[John]

Considering the state of places like Detroit, Milwaukee and Philadelphia, that would not surprise me. We had the big recounts in Florida in 2000 but even the big cities in Florida are by big city standards not that corrupt. Places like Detroit and the big cities in the east are a totally different animal.

[robc]

I think it will be really, really funny if the recount lowers Clintons vote total.

And when the machinge numbers are higher than the book numbers, shouldnt that immediately trigger a hand count of the ballots, as some obviously got counted multiple times by the machine?

That should have happened on election night BEFORE the numbers were even reported.

[I can't even]

That is exactly what is happening so far.

[robc]

Except they are saying they wont recount since the numbers dont match.

[I can't even]

If they did a recount in Pennsylvania, I assume massive fraud in the Philadelphia districts would be exposed.

[Tonio]

That would depend on how well the theoretical fraudsters covered their tracks. If they just added in a couple of boxes of illegitimate ballots on top of the legitimate ones, then you would know that tampering had occured, but not know which individual ballots were legitimate. If they went to the trouble of cooking the registry, ie checking off names of people who did not indeed vote and added the correct number of ballots that would be harder to detect.

The more people who are in on the tampering, the better a job you can do making everything look legitimate. But the bigger the conspiracy, the more likely it is to unravel.

[mad.casual]

It would be pretty funny if all of this recount nonsense does nothing more than expose Democrat voter fraud.

Reveals passive fraud: cements outcome in opposition to fraud is just as good in my book.

[Flakfizer is Ballet, Jr.]

*clinches fists at sides, squeezes eyes shut*

"Voter fraud is just a myth!"
"Voter fraud is just a myth!"
"Voter fraud is just a myth!"
"Voter fraud is just a myth!"
"Voter fraud is just a myth!"

[Tonio]

C'mon big guy, let's just walk that off...

[Fist of Etiquette]

While vote fraud does occur - a lot - older voting machines can be prone to shitting the bed. Remember that you have poll workers who basically do this job only twice a year, so they may not be experts. Add into the mix a voting public who might do their civic duty but once every four years, it can be an orgy of inexperience on Election Day.

[DJF]

A large part of the "hanging chads" was poll workers did not know they had to clean out the bottom of the voting tables where the chads were pushed into so that once it got full it was hard for people to punch out the chad so it was just pushed in a little but not broken through

[The Last American Hero]

Those poll workers only do this twice a year, but judging by their age, they've been working at the polls since the Taft administration.

[John DeWitt]

Remember that you have poll workers who basically do this job only twice a year, so they may not be experts

Maybe I'm missing what's so complex here. You know what would make this all easier? Show your ID. ID gets scanned. You get your electronic key to use at the voing booth. You vote. You return the electronic key. You get a cute little "I voted" sticker.

That's how they do it in Georgia.

I think it's funny that the same people who talk about we're the only civilized country to 'allow' people to own guns and not provide free healthcare ignore the fact that those same countries require ID to vote.

[Fist of Etiquette]

It's technology. Just like in the sexbot industry, technology can be hard.

[Briggie]

We do this in South Carolina as well. Surprised to hear that many cities in a lot of states still use paper ballots. And people in the northeast and west coast say we're backwards!

[robc]

Didnt read the whole article, but the opening of the Liberland piece fails to prove the point. Equality before the law, is, in fact, equality.

[John DeWitt]

But that doesn't make sense. Some identities are more equal than others.

[Aloysious]

Not sure if serious...

License Plates for Camels in Southern Iran!

"We are going to give identity cards to 35,000 camels during the first phase of issuing licence plates for them," said Mohammad-Sharif Khaleqinia, the secretary of Iranian Central Task Force to Combat the Smuggling of Commodities and Currency in Sistan and Baluchestan Province.

"95,000 animals have been given licence plates since the beginning of the new Iranian year," he added, according to a Farsi report by IRNA.

The traffic of camels in roads of Sistan and Baluchestan during the night causes car accidents, losses and damages.

[Rich]

Will the camels be permitted veiled faces for the identity carding?

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

My camel vanity plate would read EYOFNEDL

[EDG reppin LBC]

Very clever, young man!

[straffinrun]

Nice.

[mad.casual]

Got a nose in your tent? Then your camel needs towing!

Mad.Casual's Camel Towing Service call 1-800-CAMLTOW

(with matching vanity plates, of course)

[Tonio]

Government - always unaware of it's own ridiculousness.

[Lord Humungus]

Meanwhile in Australia:

The moment a massive huntsman spider eats a LIZARD trapped in its web - outside couple's living room window

A huntsman spider the size of a dinner plate has been spotted with a lizard dangling helplessly between its jaws outside a couple's dining room window.

The enormous arachnid was snapped by Melanie Jade Ottaway at her home in Beerwah, Queensland, as she and her partner Troy James, 28, sat down for dinner on Sunday night.

They noticed they'd been joined by a huge huntsman spider - around five inches across - sitting on the glass door to the decking with a gecko trapped in its mouth.

[Slammer]

Damn, is that how all Australian women dress to have dinner at home? NICE!

[Suthenboy]

I wasn't going to click that link until I read your comment.

*commences clicking*

[Cdr Lytton]

Throw another shrimp in the Barbie.

[robc]

In Australia, that is Tuesday.

[Rich]

'We just sat down to have dinner at the dining table and noticed something massive on the glass sliding door,' Ms Ottaway (pictured) said

Oh, Daily Mail -- never change!

[Brett L]

Too British (Anglo?).

[OldMexican Blankety Blank]

Bon apetit!

[chemjeff]

"They noticed they'd been joined by a huge huntsman spider - around five inches across - sitting on the glass door to the decking with a gecko trapped in its mouth."

Well I guess there goes the chance at cheap car insurance in Australia.

[Number.6]

-1 Phil Collins accent

[Fist of Etiquette]

Julian Assange published statements he gave to Ecuadoran prosecutors regarding rape allegations in Sweden.

He just can't stop leaking things.

[Suthenboy]

Since then the proggies have killed all of their credibility regarding rape allegations. If I were to bet money I would bet the accusations against Assange are politically motivated.

[AlexInCT]

Would not take that bet because I think you definitely would win...

This was done to shut him up.

[Darth Squirrel]

I recall reading the accusers' accounts back when the whole mess first started rolling. It was pretty clear that they were both groupies who each thought she was destined to become Assange's Special Someone and went into bunny-boiling mode upon discovering she was just another cheap lay. It was no doubt bad sex, and probably rough sex, but they only decided it was rape after it turned out they meant about as much to him as a fistful of Kleenex.

[Lord Humungus]

Annual atheist campaign draws mixed reviews

This year's American Atheists holiday campaign depicts a mother reading her daughter's text messages to a friend.

In the exchange, the daughter says she's not going to church because she "doesn't believe in that stuff anymore" and her parents "will get over it".

The billboard is different from last year's ad or one currently in other cities that simply encourage people to skip church.

This one appears to target young adults in particular.

According to a statement from American Atheists, "Almost 40% of young people are atheist or non-religious. This billboard campaign is specifically aimed at that growing population, especially those who no longer believe but still occasionally attend religious services or call themselves religious despite their lack of belief."

[John]

The fact that atheists feel the need to evangelize might be their problem. As Carl Jung said, everyone has a god.

[WTF]

That kind of struck me as well. If you don't believe in God, why would you care whether other people do?

[John]

If you really didn't believe in God, why would you begrudge people who found comfort and meaning in believing in one? What difference does it make to you?

The reality is these "atheists" have a god. They just call him "reason" or "science" or worse "government".

[Mike Laursen]

You've really got us atheists pegged. Not only do we believe in the "god" of "science" but we picture him as looking like Ron Bailey.

[Citizen X]

You mean Rick Steves?

[Mike Laursen]

All white guys

[mad.casual]

You've really got us atheists pegged. Not only do we believe in the "god" of "science" but we picture him as looking like Ron Bailey.

Did you help put up the billboard or just assume that when John said 'these "atheists"' he just naturally meant 'all atheists'?

[Citizen X]

It's John. He probably DID mean "all atheists."

[Mike Laursen]

I thought what John wrote was nonsense no matter how many atheists he was talking about.

[SugarFree]

why would you care whether other people do

They are attempting to get those who already don't believe to stop pretending they do just to get along with their jihadi relatives.

It's not conversion, but visibility.

[John]

Atheists aren't visible? Do people not know they can really be atheists? That is interesting.

[SugarFree]

And yet there are still gay people in the closet.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Which brings us full circle to my own billboard campaign from a few years ago. "Atheism: It's soooo gay."

[SugarFree]

But is it gayer than two guys sharing a moped?

[Citizen X]

Not even gay sex is gayer than that.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Jesus looking sternly at two guys riding past on a moped was the graphic on the billboard, coincidentally enough. And it was a butch Jesus, too. Like the Jesus from the Village People.

[Dick N. Bimbose (n?e Cooper)]

It's getting stuffy in there.

[BigT]

Do people not know they can really be atheists?

I am an atheist. I don't care what other people believe. Proselytizing for anything is usually obnoxious.

I went to 12 years of Catholic school and have multiple priests in my extended family.

But discussions of religion are very uncomfortable for many religious people - I have several fundamentalist relatives. They don't like to have their beliefs challenged or to be made to look the fool (evolution). So I don't advertise my atheism and go along with some of the rituals to keep the peace. I mean, who cares?

[John Titor]

My break with my family's religion wasn't much of an issue, but some people have it a lot worse. There's a large Jehovah Witness community around where I grew up. Try being an atheist teenager in that group. Had a couple friends in high school who were effectively disowned and discarded on the street for it. The smart ones rolled with it until they were past eighteen, had enough money saved up, and then got the hell out.

[Lord Humungus]

One of my best friends in high school was a Jehovah Witness. We argued religion all the time back then.

He broke from it during his wife's difficult pregnancy. There was a possibility that she needed a blood transfusion, but in order to get that, he would have to get permission from the local Elders.

Even "breaking away" from the church was difficult.

Last time we hung out, he actually thanked me for those days when we argued and giving an alternative view. I apparently also won a bet that we had made when we were teenagers. The JW's at the time were prophesying an end-of-the-world nuclear war which would bring the rapture. I don't remember making the bet but I said it wouldn't happen in the next twenty years. He owes me $100 or a dinner or something.

[juris imprudent]

The most fundamental human characteristic of all - insecurity. If you don't validate me how can I believe in myself?

[John]

Very true.

[SugarFree]

What more sign of security is there than going to a building each week to have what you already believe repeated back to you?

[robc]

If that is all you* get, you* need to pick a different church.

*not, you you, a hypothetical you.

[SugarFree]

Definitely. And, of course, the people using it as some sort of weird dating service.

The billboard is just trying to clear out the dead wood.

[robc]

Seems like a perfectly normal dating service.

[Mike Laursen]

There is a common construct enabling one to express that thought in English.

[Spartacus]

Yeah, I was raised as a Southern Baptist. Sunday sermons were like a coach's halftime speech: equal parts ass-chewing for your previous failures and motivation to get out there and kick ass.

[To: Trshmnstr From: Hrod [C]]

Sunday sermons were like a coach's halftime speech

Yup. It's really hard to find an evangelical church that doesn't function like that. God forbid I want to learn about basic theology, I'd have to go to seminary!

[Dick N. Bimbose (n?e Cooper)]

Did the minister wear a visor?

[John Titor]

We aren't talking about political rallies during election season.

[Lord_at_War]

What more sign of security is there than going to a building website each week day to have what you already believe repeated back to you?

[Rich]

If you don't believe in God, why would you care whether other people do?

"Just trying to save your soul from eternal damnation!"

[straffinrun]

Pascal's Nagger.

[Crackers Boy]

They prefer to be called Naggroes.

CB

[Raven Nation]

Based on my rather eclectic listening to skeptical podcasts, it seems to me that many atheists consider anyone who believes in god/s to be irrational in all areas of their lives. In order to have a well-run country we must get rid of all irrationality. Therefore we must get rid of all religion to have a well-run country.

[Swiss Servator]

+1 New Soviet Man

[WTF]

That sounds rather communist.

[BigT]

many atheists consider anyone who believes in god/s to be irrational in all areas of their lives.

There is certainly a correlation. Someone who has faith in unprovable, unobservable phenomena will likely be more gullible on other issues. And often more certain of their opinions, ie less likely to consider alternative arguments. That is not to say there are not religious people who are perfectly rational in other areas.

[robc]

Someone who has faith in unprovable, unobservable phenomena will likely be more gullible on other issues.

That is a cheap shot at climate change activists.

[AlexInCT]

You beat me to it...

Some of the most gullible people I have ever met where the ones that told you they were not dumb enough to believe in religion or such other crazy crap. It always struck me as hilarious how they lapped up some of the dumbest shit possible (collectivism, keynesianism, big government, and so on) otherwise. These also tended to be the ones to buy into scientific consensus and AGW wholeheartedly and act out as if it was their religion and they had to hunt down and kill the heretics.

[Juice]

If you don't believe in God, why would you care whether other people do?

The fewer people who believe in superstition and magic the better, especially when it comes to the law.

[Number.6]

Stamp out all heterodoxy then?

[Gadfly]

But since most of the law is justified by morality, and morality, from a purely naturalistic perspective, is nothing more than superstition, truly achieving this would result in a radical transformation of the law, in implementation, understanding, and purpose, and not necessarily in ways you would like. Not that this is likely, as most people who do not believe in God still believe in superstition/magic of some sort or another.

[RBS]

Well, this should be fun...

[Slammer]

The mom on the billboard is coonified

[Lord Humungus]

I put atheists (which I count myself as one) into two camps:

The Zealots: like a Vegan, they have seen the true light and want to convert everyone to their point of view. Bothersome pests.

The jaded atheist: I've been a non-believer for 35 years now but I don't take offense if someone is religious. I go to family get-togethers and watch, without saying anything, as others pray. I'll listen to my co-worker, who is, frankly, a religious nut but won't argue with him over it. If people fine solace in whatever, then more power to them. It's their decision.

Maybe there is a third - ?

[Crusty Juggler]

The Internet has forced the rise of the condescending atheist, which is the worst atheist of them all.

"I'm going to church on Sunday."

"Lololololololololololololololololololol."

[Mike Laursen]

Hold on now. The Internet has given rise to the condescending X, for any value of X.

[Citizen X]

Yo!

[Crusty Juggler]

Yes.

[Brett L]

My atheism is like my patriotism, I don't go in for all that Star-Spangled Banner singing before sporting games and shit, but I'll stand up and be quiet while they do it. Same with prayers.

[Lord Humungus]

said more succinctly than my babbling.

[VG Zaytsev]

The third type is the remorseful atheist that recognizes that theism provides believers some benefits but just can't believe.

[Apple]

I fall into the second camp. When I first decided as a teenager that I no longer believed in god, I was maybe a little more like the first but I think I got over it pretty fast. In high school I was arguing with a girl about why I thought it was stupid to believe in god and as it looked like I was starting to make some headway, it looked to me like she was scared. So suddenly I thought, "Why the fuck am I doing this?"

Also, I have friends who believe their atheism is some sort of proof of rationality and guards them against falling for stupid shit, but they all believe in other stupid shit. I'm sure I do too, I just don't realize it's stupid yet, and I might never. Who cares?

[Volren]

I am agnostic and have no patience for Christian fundies, but I do find it rather amusing that atheists have their own version of evangelicals and they are just about as annoying as the theist ones.

[AlexInCT]

^^^^THIS^^^^

[Suthenboy]

You might note that in spite of my being a solid atheist I don't evangelize and find those who do more than a little off-putting. Not all atheists are evangelicals.

[CatoTheChipper]

I'd rather listen to a Mormon or a Jehovah's Witness than a evangelistic atheist. In fact, the only true-believer evangelists I ever encounter anymore are atheists. Unlike the theists I have encountered, evangelistic atheists exude an obnoxious smugness regarding their not-so-brilliant insight that something they cannot sense does not exist.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Christmas is a time when people of all religions come together to worship Jesus Christ.

[Certified Public Asshat]

Christmas is a time when people of all religions come together to worship Jesus Christ celebrate Santa, Rudolph, Frosty, and the Grinch.

[Crusty Juggler]

How about the Snow Miser?

[Certified Public Asshat]

No, but I did forget Kevin McAllister.

[Crusty Juggler]

Isn't that ironic? Don't you think?

[Dick N. Bimbose (n?e Cooper)]

Canadians. Doing the jobs American moms refuse to do.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Heat Miser!

[Mr Drew]

He's mister 101

[BigT]

Christmas is a time when people of all religions come together to worship Jesus Christ juice the economy.

[Timon 19]

This is it. It becomes even more apparent when you have been to other semi- to super-wealthy countries with almost no Christians other than visitors and guest workers.

The amount of decoration and celebration of all the secular-ish and pagan-rooted aspects of Christmas that all the "War on Christmas" people like Bill O'Reilly constantly tell us are being trashed (and to some extent, they're right, but they don't seem to realize how non-Christian the aspects they claim to love really are) that I've seen in both the UAE and Turkey is pretty damn funny.

And the famously atheist French, circa 2004-5, at least in Brittany, had more awesome classic crooner music piped in and traditional 'Murican decorations in their malls than any contemporary actual American mall. All BEFORE Thanksgiving, which they obviously don't celebrate.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

This billboard campaign is specifically aimed at that growing population, especially those who no longer believe but still occasionally attend religious services or call themselves religious despite their lack of belief."

I have a real hard time understanding what the end goal is for the New Atheism movement. Is the end goal the erosion of religious belief in society or just more people openly stating they are atheist? Because it sounds like a younger generation being irreligious is logically going to lead to the former regardless of whether they attend a Christmas Eve service for cultural reasons.

[SugarFree]

Visibility in a political sense is the goal. Just like the gay movement and the trans movement, New Atheists are trying to reach that critical mass of "I know a guy at work and he's not a monster."

Libertarianism should have this goal as well. People listen to your ideas if they don't think you are a ranting loon. But I suppose you can see why libertarianism is less accepted than being gay or atheist at this point. And the trans______ are catching up on us really fast.

[Lord Humungus]

So you're saying libertarians should start carrying purses?

[SugarFree]

And demanding that we use any bathroom we damn well please.

[Citizen X]

And we'll all be named Beverly.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Destigmatizing non-belief in religion is a good goal to have but I can't help but feel that they overreach by combining it with an obnoxious progressive culture war agenda. Which ironically makes their greater visibility a liability for their overall image. I guess I'm just saying there's probably better ways to reach people than a billboard campaign, maybe more discreetly and in a manner that lets the person decide for themselves, which I think is a good secular value in of itself. Publicly mocking religion and encouraging familial strife seems counterproductive.

[SugarFree]

I don't think it's really a very good idea either. I don't hide my non-belief or my libertarianism, but I'm not interested in converting anyone by haranguing them about it.

[Zero Sum Game]

I used to hang around the American Atheists site for quite a while.

Most of them have substituted leftist ideology for religion, unfortunately. I'd try to talk to them about libertarian politics but just could not get through the wall, which was interesting because they claim to be so open-minded.

I do agree with increasing visibility as a goal. The problem is, like practically all other leftists, that particular group pushes everyone away who doesn't agree with their politics. It's not a uniting force, it's a dividing one.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Maybe just calm peoplee by associating our beliefs wirh benign things as well.

"As a libertarian I love playing with my dogs."

[BigT]

I have a real hard time understanding what the end goal is for the New Atheism movement.

Remember those polls that asked people if they'd vote for an atheist? Yeah, atheists came in last.

Atheists are more reviled than terrorists because they (we) present a more immediate threat to something more important to many people than life - the afterlife.

[Suthenboy]

I went to an atheist meeting a couple of times. I didn't stick around when all the 'capitalism is the evil', KKKorporations enslave us', and 'Banksters' stuff started getting tossed around like it was gospel truth.

I think everyone can figure out what that means.

[AlexInCT]

Da Tavarish!

[Idle Hands]

Apparently Liberals not only don't read history books, they actively discourage their peers not to read history books:

Can I Go to Great Books Camp?

Liberals have their own activist workshops and reading groups, but these rarely instruct students in an intellectual tradition, a centuries-long canon of political philosophy. Why have philosophical summer schools become a vibrant subculture on the right, but only a feeble presence on the left? The disparity underscores a divide between conservatives and liberals over the best way to teach young people ? and, among liberals, a certain squeamishness about the history of ideas.

Liberals, however, can't afford to dismiss Great Books as tools of white supremacy, or to disdain ideological training as the sort of unsavory thing that only conservatives and communists do. These are powerful tools for preparing the next generation of activists to succeed in the bewildering ideological landscape of the country that just elected Mr. Trump.

[John]

Why have philosophical summer schools become a vibrant subculture on the right, but only a feeble presence on the left? The disparity underscores a divide between conservatives and liberals over the best way to teach young people ? and, among liberals, a certain squeamishness about the history of ideas.

Because liberals are illiterate morons?

[Brett L]

Its hard to sell whites are bad when all of the ideas they espouse were fully developed by whites, and mostly by men.

[John]

There is nothing more "western" and "white" than socialism and Marxism. It takes a special breed of retard to espouse the philosophies of various white male European and primarily German philosophers while talking about the need to end the evil white male domination of education and politics.

[C. S. P. Schofield]

Kind of like the way that the people who promote "Afrocentrism" gloss over the demonstrable fact that its origins are rooted in pre-rosetta stone Rosecrucian fantasies about Egypt.

[robc]

Just finished up this week's econtalk this morning.

Interesting that the late 19th century American academics mostly had to get their PhDs in Germany. So were influence by the German movements of the time.

Which is how the progressive movement got started.

[The Last American Hero]

Also interesting was just how depraved Woodrow Wilson was.

[robc]

I already knew that.

[juris imprudent]

I was always amused by Jesse Jackson running down Western Civ. when his rhetoric was the apotheosis of that culture.

[Tonio]

But I thought that critical thinking was a cornerstone of liberalism? [snicker]

[WTF]

That's why they fucking love science!

[Citizen X]

Critical thinking is important for a functional liberalism (qua liberalism).

Liberalism has nothing whatsoever to do with progressivism, except to the extent that it weakened the old shitty authoritarianisms enough so that the progressives could build shiny new shitty authoritarianisms in their place.

[Free Society]

Why have philosophical summer schools become a vibrant subculture on the right, but only a feeble presence on the left?

Because any influential book revered by leftists is often handily refuted within a few years after publication, meaning they have no valid philosophical canon to boast of.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I think it has more to do with the simple laws of the market. Why go through all the costs and bother of a Leftist "philosophical summer school" when your tax-dollars are already paying for around 180 days of regular indoctrination school aligned with your values?

[To: Trshmnstr From: Hrod [C]]

This.

[John Titor]

Marxist notion of historical progress- why discuss the far past when it's inherently less progressive than the present or future?

[Suthenboy]

Why? Simple. If they were even moderately educated in history and philosophy they wouldn't be liberals.

[Number.6]

Expect an 8000-word "Gorillas in the Mist" article in 3-2-1 ...

"I enrolled in a Great Books Camp, and you won't believe what happened next"

[CatoTheChipper]

American progressives must discourage the hoi polloi illiterati of their movement from reading history.

Otherwise, they'd learn that Lincoln was a Republican, Frederick Douglas wanted absolutely nothing from government, Sojourner Truth was an ardent proponent of the inalienable right to keep and bear arms, Margaret Sanger was out to extirpate Negroes, Catholics, Slavs, Jews, and other inferior races, the progressives advocated the minimum wage with the same objective, the progressive Teddy Roosevelt was a white supremacist war monger, the progressive Woodrow Wilson re-segregated the federal government and praised the KKK, etc., etc. They'd also learn about how commies like Fidel and Che really treated gays, blacks, and indigenous people and commies like Lenin and Mao murdered millions. It's not a pretty picture. It is much better to contrast how bad the US compares with Utopia.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Scientists at the University of Vienna say that the frequency of Cesarean-section births is having an impact on human evolution by letting more women with narrow pelvises live.

Does this mean we're going to lose the thigh gap that was so coveted centuries ago?

[Hamster of Doom]

Donald Trump was named Time magazine's Person of the Year.

But Hillary won the popular vote.

[Tonio]

[golf clap]

[Lord Humungus]

Lena Dunham Hits Rock Bottom With Vile Toilet Selfie

The socially aware star and ardent Hillary Clinton supporter never shies away from flashing her bits upon us at every opportunity.

But now Lena has shocked even the most jaded observers, after she shared a snap of herself Monday night slouched on the toilet, underwear pulled down, pouting loutishly at the camera as she presumably performs a bodily function.

The 30 year-old took to Instagram to share this intimate moment with her 2.8 million followers.

In it, she is seen posing with her thighs slightly ajar and her hands between her legs in a suggestive gesture, as she (presumably) relieves herself and flushes away her sorrows about Donald Trump.

[Crusty Juggler]

She's going to take that as a challenge.

[Rich]

Who?

[Juvenile Bluster]

You're going to get yelled at for this, LH, but I'd like to thank you for saving the money I was otherwise going to spend on lunch today. And dinner tonight. And breakfast tomorrow. And on from there.

[WTF]

Why would you click on that link? WHY?!

[Juvenile Bluster]

I didn't. His snippet was enough.

[Lord Humungus]

I'm doing God's work in a bad neighborhood.

[jack sprat]

Darn it, why did she have to do that? Now I'm not going to like her anymore.

[BestUsedCarSales]

wtf, I hate Lena Dunham now?!?!?

[OldMexican Blankety Blank]

What is amazing is that she found another level of "low" available to her. Just existing seems not outrageous enough for her albeit for the rest of the world that is evidence that unnatural things can happen.

[Brett L]

Its gotta be tough that the goofy guy cast to be her boyfriend in Girls has a skyrocketing career and hers is basically on hold.

[I can't even]

On hold? It's over the day Girls is cancelled.

[Brett L]

Isn't Girls over? And I never doubt showbiz people's ability to find a new way to fulfill their "Look at Me!" compulsions.

[I can't even]

It was over for me 10 minuted into episode 1 when I realized it wasn't supposed to be a comedy.

[SugarFree]

Hmm... comments...

A plumper on the dumper, nobody will humper.

[Citizen X]

Okay, which one of y'all wrote that one?

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

Oh, I wouldn't underestimate Dunham. She hasn't hit rock bottom yet. I'm sure she'll find a way to go lower.

[SugarFree]

I think the next step is just a full on pic of her asshole while she's shitting out an Amy Schumer Barbie.

[AlexInCT]

You sir, are evil...

[Swiss Servator]

This you realize only now?!

[Rufus The Monocled]

Bottom line?

She has 2.8 million followers.

[Lord Humungus]

I see what you did there, perv.

[Suthenboy]

"The socially aware star..."

No.

"...as she (presumably) relieves herself and flushes away her sorrows about Donald Trump."

This made me laugh.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A new Bloomberg Politics poll finds 69 percent of Americans are fine with Trump's stated plan to turn his businesses over to his children while he serves as president.

Okay.

[I can't even]

As opposed to continuing to manage it himself?

[The Late P Brooks]

I won't vote for Trump, because 9/11.

I am a Republican presidential elector, one of the 538 people asked to choose officially the president of the United States. Since the election, people have asked me to change my vote based on policy disagreements with Donald J. Trump. In some cases, they cite the popular vote difference. I do not think presidents-elect should be disqualified for policy disagreements. I do not think they should be disqualified because they won the Electoral College instead of the popular vote. However, now I am asked to cast a vote on Dec. 19 for someone who shows daily he is not qualified for the office.

Fifteen years ago, as a firefighter, I was part of the response to the Sept. 11 attacks against our nation. That attack and this year's election may seem unrelated, but for me the relationship becomes clearer every day.

Electoral college member blathers unintelligibly about Trump's "divisiveness". Commenters applaud.

[John]

What exactly has been revealed about Trump in the weeks before the election and until now that would cause someone to rationally change their opinion of him? If you liked Trump in October but somehow just can't stomach him now, the problem is likely you not Trump.

[Rufus The Monocled]

They wouldn't over turn this result would they? I mean, that would be INSANE, no?

[Red Rocks Dickin Bimbos]

The best part was him saying that he's going to take his daughter to see Rogue One for the feelz.

My decision to avoid that SJW Rainbow Brigade shitshow is looking better and better every day.

[Lord Humungus]

65 Million Americans Should Threaten to Not Pay Taxes

Twice in the past 16 years, a Republican candidate who finished second in the popular vote has won the presidency. This year, Donald Trump won the electoral vote with about 46% of the popular vote, while Hillary Clinton received about 48%. If the parties stay this evenly divided, another electoral mishap is more likely than not in the next 20 years.

Most Republicans are quite content with this system. Appeals to fairness have not persuaded them of the need to amend the Constitution to establish direct presidential elections, preferably with a runoff if no one wins 50% of the vote. Nor does the real chance that a Democrat could win the presidency with fewer votes than a Republican alarm them. Even the taunt, "Are you afraid of a direct election? Can't you win a straight-up vote?" doesn't faze them. Democrats must, therefore, pester Republicans where it hurts: the pocketbook.

Is signing a pledge to not pay taxes legal? Yes, if no overt act of conspiracy is involved, and the pledge itself is hypothetical. No one knows when or if it would be carried out.

[OldMexican Blankety Blank]

That's actually not a bad idea and I am sure those 65 million pledge signers will not be labeled a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center this time around.

[straffinrun]

You first.

[Rich]

Ahem. Trump is already first.

[straffinrun]

I can't take a billion dollar loss though.

[Scarecrow & WoodChipper Repair]

Not FoE?

[Swiss Servator]

*narrows gaze*

[Brett L]

They should really talk to Wesley Snipes before they get too far down this road.

[SugarFree]

Sounds good to me. Go for it.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

It's been a month and they're still not past the denial stage. In any case, "taxation without representation" doesn't apply when you directly elect your Congresscritter and Senator.

It's almost like these dumbfucks have never read Article I of the Constitution.

[Tonio]

Why would they? That document is like a hundred years old and was written by white men.

[Cynical Asshole]

"taxation without representation" doesn't apply when you directly elect your Congresscritter and Senator.

Who are these "congresscritters and senators" you speak of? Are you saying we're not some kind of elected monarchy? /sarc

[Swiss Servator]

I thought we were an autonomous collective?

[qjkxbmwvz]

Everyone that I voted for lost. Where's my representation?

[Jordan]

So Donald Trump has gotten progressives to value limited government, guns, and secession, and now he's gotten them to hate taxes?

Stop giving me reasons to like him!

[Cynical Asshole]

They'll go back to their previous views on all of those things once the right Top Man Person is elected president.

[Chipwooder]

Hah - aren't these the same people who incessantly lecture us about how taxes are our rightful obligation to the state and the price of living in a society?

[Lord Humungus]

+1 Social Contract

[TheZeitgeist]

All 65 million Hillary voters are taxpayers?

[Griffin3]

- 47%

[Griffin3]

Actually, The 47%: Who They Are, Where They Live, How They Vote, and Why They Matter

In 2008, Obama lost Georgia by 5 percentage points but he won 70% of voters who earned less than $30,000 -- which is precisely the demo most likely to owe no federal income tax. Obama lost Mississippi by 14 percentage points, but picked up 66% of voters who earned less than $30,000.

[Red Rocks Dickin Bimbos]

-1 gas tank to fill and mortgage to pay.

[John DeWitt]

If the Republicans won't help amend the Constitution so that America can resume being a democracy

Resume?

[Zero Sum Game]

Quite a few libertarians have been suggesting this as a tactic for a long time now. Funny that the proggies discover it amidst all the tears.

If only they'd start listening to us about the damage government does to people and why it should be made and kept small permanently.

They're not sincere, of course. They'll never stop believing in the power of compulsion by force to do "good" in the world, and unintended consequences are a convenience that they can pin on the other guy (fucking kulaks, dissidents, and greedy capitalists out to undermine everything).

[Palin's Buttplug]

Jeff Sessions' Coming War on Legal Marijuana

There's little to stop the attorney general nominee from ignoring the will of millions of pro-pot voters

As a U.S. Attorney in Alabama in the 1980s, Sessions said he thought the KKK "were OK until I found out they smoked pot." In April, he said, "Good people don't smoke marijuana," and that it was a "very real danger" that is "not the kind of thing that ought to be legalized." Sessions, who turns 70 on Christmas Eve, has called marijuana reform a "tragic mistake" and criticized FBI Director James Comey and Attorneys General Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch for not vigorously enforcing a the federal prohibition that President Obama has called "untenable over the long term." In a floor speech earlier this year, Senator Sessions said: "You can't have the President of the United States of America talking about marijuana like it is no different than taking a drink? It is different?.It is already causing a disturbance in the states that have made it legal."

http://www.politico.com/magazi.....ana-214501

[Rich]

"Good people don't smoke marijuana,"

"except, of course, you, Mr. President."

[John]

You know what would stop Sessions? Obama reclassifying marijuana off schedule III. Or it would at least slow him down. Why doesn't the Chocolate Jesus do that?

[Rich]

This. "Intercepted!"

[Palin's Buttplug]

Yes, it is Obama's fault.

If Obama reclassified wingnuts would howl about his unconstitutional power grab.

[WTF]

Pay your bet, fuckstain.

[Rufus The Monocled]

John's point is if he's such a man of the people and is enlightened, this subject is precisely a chance for him to prove it. And you know this is right and yet you STILL act like an idiot and scream 'wing nuts!'

[(((Renegade)))]

When all you got is spittle flecks, the world is a video screen.

[Groovus Maximus]

It's the lithium. It makes him drool.

[juris imprudent]

Stupid here almost has a point, given Obama's mendacious insistence that rescheduling requires Congressional action.

[OldMexican Blankety Blank]

Muslims don't smoke marijuana. That's why.

[(((Renegade)))]

Hashish.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

The religion that had an order of warriors NAMED after marijuana doesn't smoke it??

The hashashin would like to have a word with you...

[Heroic Mulatto]

To be fair, the term "hashashin" has its origins in a Sunni slur against Shia Ismalis, basically calling them criminals and dope fiends.

[Citizen X]

And, it's possible that the word "assassin" actually originates from the word "assassiyun," which means "fundamentalist."

[Swiss Servator]

Or a plea to be rogered "Ass... Ass... In!"

[Citizen X]

Reason actually covered that, like, two weeks ago, shreek. Late, stupid, and dishonest is no way to go through life, son.

[Swiss Servator]

It is all he has got.

[Lord Humungus]

Journalists Struggle To Define 'Fake News' Even As They Declare War On It

In the weeks following Donald Trump's unexpected victory in last month's election, liberal journalists have launched an all-out assault on "fake news," which some have blamed for the disconnect between political journalists and everyday Americans.

But many of those same journalists seem unable to agree on a consistent definition of what "fake news" is, oftentimes pushing leading conservative and alternative media organizations that provide ideological balance in the public forum under the same "fake news" umbrella alongside websites whose entire purpose is generating viral hoaxes.

Left-leaning BuzzFeed News' coverage of "fake news" ? which has been subject to accusations of misleading the public in service of a narrative ? has focused on hoax websites run by teenagers in Macedonia pushing out lies like "Pope Francis endorses Donald Trump.

[Juvenile Bluster]

"Fake news" is going to be a media buzzword that never actually is defined but is going to be used from now until they figure out a new meaningless buzzword.

[Palin's Buttplug]

It is not hard to spot fake news.

Pizzagate was fake news that some gun toting asshole believed when he pointed it at some employee in a pizza joint and demanded to uncover the Clinton child sex ring. Nine million idiots "shared" that shit on Facebook.

[Slammer]

Or the NYT reporting Hispanics surging to the polls, the 'blue wall', Texas turning blue, the Repubs losing statehouses all over the country, Trump's rallys were 'sinister', and the stock market plunging because of Trump? That kind of fake news?

[WTF]

Or maybe the kind of fake news where shreeky lies about paying off a bet he lost.

[JWatts]

The stock market will never recover! Never.

http://www.nytimes.com/interac.....ic-fallout

[straffinrun]

Jason Blair.

[Number 2]

Or how about the stories about Obamacare's success?

[Number.6]

Oh, it's been successful alright. Just not in the way the rubes thought it would be ...

[CatoTheChipper]

+2% growth rate in GDP

(not so impressive, though, with 0.8% growth rate in population and a doubling in national debt)

[CatoTheChipper]

+ 97% consensus

+ 98% probability of a Clinton win

[Dick N. Bimbose (n?e Cooper)]

I'd Rather not talk about fake news.

[Swiss Servator]

More of this?!

*narrows gaze*

[Brett L]

Remember that genius who shot up the National Family Council because SPLC said they hated gays? Fake news, right?

[Rufus The Monocled]

Boardroom going over fake news stories:

Journalist 1 (biting into pizza): Oooo-kay. UVA rape story. Fake or not?
Journalist 2: She meant well.
Journalist 1 (piece of pizza falls onto blouse): Not fake. But this stain isn't! Moving along....

[OldMexican Blankety Blank]

"Aside from not actually being a country," Liberland? the liberty-loving utopia project on the banks of the Danube?"is also beginning to seem not all that free," writes Morgan Childs in GQ.

Read below what Childs' definition of "liberty" is by the apoplexy attack after writing this quote from the leader of Liberland, referring to women's equal rights:

"It's equality before the law and before the law only."

You see, liberty means equal pay.

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

There was some other scrappy country that started with the idea that liberty was largely reducible to equality before the law...

[Microaggressor]

Somalia?

[Lurk Diggler]

As fake-news websites grow in influence, and people on the president-elect's transition team spread ludicrous and dangerous claims. It's crucially important that the agency charged with investigating terrorism be able to tell the difference between what is a joke and what's not.

These two sentences occurred one after another. We need to investigate fake news! No, not me you idiots, everyone else!

[Spartacus]

Yep, no administration ever before has attempted to smear a news source with a "fake" label.

[CatoTheChipper]

The legacy media reports a narrative that Trump voters are, to a man, a racist, misogynist, homophobe, Islamophobe, cis-gendered, transphobe, anti-Semitic, white-privileged basket of deplorables that is so insanely stupid that it falls for fake news.

Meanwhile, the legacy media goes on feeding frenzies over bogus campus rape statistics, the Duke lacrosse team, weapons of mass destruction, mobile chemical weapons labs, chemical weapons attacks, Libyan genocide, Ebola epidemics in the US, MS-Word documents dated 1973, a surge in white supremacy group membership and militancy, Russian hacking, etc., etc. And, all the while, the legacy media was downplaying the fact that Obama kept Guantanamo open for business, used drones to bomb more countries than Bush, escalated the Afghanistan War without success, re-entered the Iraq War, created chaos in a Libyan War without congressional approval, escalated domestic surveillance beyond even Cheney's fantasies, upended about four centuries of mortgage finance law, bailed out Wall Street cronies, used the IRS to punish political adversaries, etc., etc.

Sure, Alex Jones is a lunatic and RT is Russian propaganda ... but I'm beginning to wonder whether they're really less reliable than ABCCBSNBCMSNBCFOXPBSNYTWAPONPR.

[Lord Humungus]

Mum gives birth to her own GRANDSON in surrogate baby joy after cancer left her daughter infertile

Devoted mum Julie Bradford has admitted nothing was going to stop her having a?? ?surrogate baby for her cancer-stricken daughter.

The hairdresser, 45, bravely stood in for Jessica Jenkins, 21, after she was told she would never be able to have children.

Devastated Jessica opted to have her eggs frozen after becoming one of the youngest women in Britain to be diagnosed with cervical cancer when she was just 18.

Now, three years later, Julie has given birth to her baby grandson Jack.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror, proud Julie said: "Any mother would do this for their child. It was never in question from day one. He's a Christmas miracle to us.

[Tonio]

That's pretty heartwarming.

[Jerryskids]

In case I missed the Brickbat: "I've never been cursed, physically abused, beaten and treated like a slave as I was two days ago," Lanier said, breaking down as he described how he landed in handcuffs and in a hospital. "For somebody to grab me by the neck in the supermarket, and I'm telling you, 'I'm one of you,' and you disrespect it ? it was like you're just another black dude."

I'll see if I can work up an atom of sympathy for this ex-LEO breaking down in tears over how he was treated just as if he were a Mundane.

[Tonio]

Jer, the preferred LEO term for the little people is "Civilian."

[WTF]

Which always pisses me off, because LEOs are civilians.

[Swiss Servator]

While I was on Active Duty, we always referred to the "civilian police" as opposed to our MPs.

[Pat (PM)]

Both houses of the Ohio legislature have approved a measure that would ban abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected

Don Johnson approves

[Hamster of Doom]

So Denzel Washington said some things.

"If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you do read it, you're misinformed..."

Ha.

[Pat (PM)]

With no apologies to Samuel Clemens

[straffinrun]

No kidding. That's verbatim.

[John]

Way to go Denzel.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Booya!

[The Late P Brooks]

Donald Trump was named Time magazine's Person of the Year.

"You are not a person, Mr. Burns. You are an experience!"

*From A Thousand Clowns: an excellent movie.

[Aloysious]

Why?

Soulja Boy and Shia LaBeouf are now in a full-on rap feud

The Transformers star is now apparently embroiled in a feud with rapper Soulja Boy as a result of a rap track called "Zapruder" that LaBeouf sent to Charlamagne Tha God, co-host of radio's The Breakfast Club. Rapping inexpertly over a spare beat, with a flow somewhat reminiscent of Tyler, The Creator, LaBeouf insults several prominent figures in the rap world, including Drake, Lil Yachty, and, yes, even Soulja Boy himself. The reference to the "Crank That" hit maker is brief: "He's a kow tow trick/Him and Soulja on that shoutout shit."

[Pat (PM)]

How can two people who can't rap be in a rap war, exactly?

[tarran]

How can two people who can't rap be in a rap war, exactly?

REmember the sword fight scene in "Mom and Dad Save the World?". It's like that... but rapping.

BTW, rap wars are not the same thing as rap battles.

[Suthenboy]

How? You have never heard of a cripple fight?

[Brett L]

Who?

[SugarFree]

That's why.

[Brett L]

Reminds me of a headline the other day: "David Duke Responds to Jenna Jameson's 'Huge Crush' on Bibi Netanyahu."

My thought: Has there ever been a story I care less about make the aggregators?

Well, here's a story I care the same about.

[Crusty Juggler]

Soulja boy off in this hoe
Watch me crank it
Watch me roll
Watch me crank that Soulja boy
Then Superman that hoe

[Rufus The Monocled]

Like de Grasse, I don't get Drake's popularity either.

Bah. I don't get a lot of people's popularity!

/waves fist at clouds.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

Only Mongolians should be allowed to rap. They're the best at it.

[Hamster of Doom]

I'm not even sure what's going on here, but this bright spark holds the Holbert C. Harris Chair of economics at George Mason University.

Support a voluntary temperance movement for zero alcohol, zero drugs. No exceptions. Make these commodities less socially available, less widely advertised, less diverse in supply, and less glamorized on television and in the movies. Take away the demand, and along the way praise Islam and Mormonism for their stances on this.

It got even better after that.

[Brett L]

Wait, is he repackaging Straight Edge for the Squares?

[SugarFree]

Straight Edge always was for the squares.

[Pat (PM)]

Obviously I'm not a real libertarian (because there's no such creature), but I don't see anything wrong with people shunning what they perceive as vice, and even going so far as advocating for others to do the same, so long as participation is voluntary.

[Tonio]

You as a libertarian will not seek to use the state to enforce that, but you will quickly find yourself in the company of the worst sort of statist prohibitionists.

[Pat (PM)]

I'm no teetotaler myself (although my habits wouldn't qualify me for a Reason subscription), I just don't have a problem with people who are. I have familial ties with a lot of alcoholics and drug abusers, so I can see the value in an over-emphasis on restraint rather than indulgence. Up until somebody starts calling for laws to be passed, I say let a thousand moral scolds bloom.

[Brett L]

He's trying to advocate for a pragmatic Democratic plank on white rural (low-skill) voters. Plank 1 is to acknowledge that having a job is emotionally more rewarding (and losing a job more damaging) than telling low skill workers to pick up their welfare check at the local voc-tech, where they will be taught to be semi-skilled workers. Plank 2, which you quote, is to advocate for voluntarily addressing the drug and alcoholism problems, while also attempting to expand the rural white low-skilled workers cultural horizons by showing that Muslims and Mormons have those views already. (In case he doesn't know, so do Southern Baptists, which is probably why it became so popular in the 20th century in the Southern US.)

[Tonio]

"Muslims and Mormons..." LOL

[Pat (PM)]

Good name for a band.

[Number.6]

fx: holds up jigger of Victory Gin!

#6: "Sl?inte!"

[Rich]

Hmm, haven't seen Lobster Girl lately.

NSFW. Numbers 1 and 4 are my favorites.

[Brett L]

Number 3 looks like a drugged up runaway doing her first porn shoot. Not sure which eyes are deader, hers or the fish's.

[Pat (PM)]

Also looks like Anthony Kiedis circa 1991, which isn't a good look on a woman (or a man).

[Pope Jimbo]

The way #4 is holding the fish, it is impossible to tell how big it actually is. Why would that be your favorite?

#8 is a real pig. That's my favorite.

[Rich]

#4's fish is as cute (and as large) as a baby seal, that's why.

[Private Chipperbot]

I'll settle for #12 then...

[Suthenboy]

That is one nasty, stinky fish. What the hell?

[Pope Jimbo]

From what I have heard, carp are huge in Europe because they are the only game fish that has survived the fishing pressure and pollution.

I used to belong to a club named Club Carp. We spent many lazy afternoons down on the Mississippi fishing the Queen of the River and getting real drunk. Lots of fun.

Carp get a bad rap in the US because they taste like shit and we have so many other options. They are smart, strong and a lot of fun to catch on a rod and reel.

[Brett L]

Carp get a bad rap in the US because they taste like shit and we have so many other options. They are smart, strong and a lot of fun to catch on a rod and reel.

That's what I told the cops when my neighbor had me arrested for fishing his goldfish pond.

[Number.6]

Hunkered down there in your little blue jacket, with a pointy red hat and long white beard ...

[Palooka_Joe]

#12 should be captioned "It's a living"

[Fist of Etiquette]

"Even a cursory investigation or application of common sense would have shown my tweet to be a joke," writes Nick Baumann, a Huffington Post journalist being investigated by the FBI over a joke tweet.

So was the fake news vigilantism's real purpose to de-legitimize stories that reported actual leaked memos, by adding fabricated ones into the mix to suggest to readers that none were real?

[Crusty Juggler]

Hold on, I need to sit down and read that again..

[Fist of Etiquette]

I knew you would. I didn't feel like rewriting it to make sense to people WHO DIDN'T READ THE LINKED ARTICLE.*

* Warning: Reading linked article does not guarantee comment coherence

[Groovus Maximus]

Denial's yelling again, Fist.

[Crusty Juggler]

I don't read the links, the links read me.

[Pope Jimbo]

The Horror!

A woman accidentally breastfeeds a newborn at the hospital. Lawsuit hilarity ensues.

Her attorney, Wayne Jagow, declined to discuss specific facts of the case, but said they decided to sue after negotiations for a settlement failed.

"My client had no desire to bring herself into the limelight again by starting a lawsuit, but really had no choice as our statute of limitations was up," Jagow said in an e-mail. "We had attempted to get some sort of dialogue going with Abbott/Allina over the last year to handle this quietly and they simply refused."

[Zero Sum Game]

As adults we drink the milk of cows and we never stop to think about whether it should have come from the right cows. Could we have been tricked and different cows were substituted for the ones we've always trusted? Could there have been an unconscionable mix-up at the farm?

I demand a full investigation.

[Cynical Asshole]

Donald Trump was named Time magazine's Person of the Year.

That sucks because one of the arguments I've been planning to use to refute the "Trump is America's Hitler" meme is that Hitler - in addition to the cult of personality - also had the fawning adoration of the media, academic, and cultural elites of his day at least right up until he invaded Poland. One of my talking points I was going to use was that Time magazine even named Hitler "Man of the Year" in 1938. Oh well, guess I can't use that particular talking point anymore. Although I think the general thesis - that in order to become a no shit dictator Trump would need the elites on his side - still holds.

[Juvenile Bluster]

"Man of the Year" isn't "Best Man of the Year." It's for whoever had the greatest influence on the world for that year. Bin Laden would've been it in 2001 if not for the screaming hordes lambasting Time for even thinking of it.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Yes, 'but person or man of the year' has a certain 'great person' ring to it. It's how people perceive it.

'Hey, you man of the year, drink!'

[Cynical Asshole]

Very true. It's supposed to be whoever had the most influence on world events or something like that, and Hitler in 1938 and Trump this year certainly fit the bill. As did Bin-Laden in 2001, for that matter.

Although Hitler really did have a lot of support from "right thinking people." A lot of the intellectual elites of the day were all about fascism as the "third way" between capitalism and communism, and many were more than willing to fellate Hitler for Germany's seemingly miraculous economic recovery. Although for a lot of them their true fascist crush was Mussolini.

[Free Society]

Donald Trump was named Time magazine's Person of the Year.

I'm sure no one's done this yet but..... you know who else?

[Pat (PM)]

Vladimir Putin?

[Free Society]

Actually if Time Magazine was smart about ratcheting up their leftist cred, they'd have named Putin Man of the Year to really get the point across that the left isn't REALLY losing everywhere in western civilization, it's just Putin rigging elections!

[Groovus Maximus]

Putin is not considered a Progressive Lefty in Russian politics, actually.

[Free Society]

I know. I'm saying that they've been spending the last however many months claiming that Trump was only doing as well as he was because of Putin's interference. Many said the same thing of his eventual victory. Now Angela Merkel and leftists in Europe are using the same exact talking points about their own diminished popularity and rise of right wing opposition. So really, according to that narrative, it should be Putin on the cover of Time Magazine as Man of the Year.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Putin is not considered a Progressive Lefty in Russian politics, actually.

Few communists in the old world are.

[Groovus Maximus]

He's not a Communist either, strictly speaking, Paul. Most of Eastern Europe (and Western, frankly) has all that Euro-Flavoured Democratic Socialism as default, especially for social and medical concerns, but overall, Putin is not overtly hostile to the notion of Free(er) Markets, though The Hutts Oligarchs like the cozy, Crony-Say-So they enjoy behind the scenes.

[Juvenile Bluster]

You?

[Tonio]

The Computer?

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

The Computer?

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

*sigh*

[OldMexican Blankety Blank]

Scientists at the University of Vienna say that the frequency of Cesarean-section births is having an impact on human evolution by letting more women with narrow pelvises live.

I am sure these scientists wives or girlfriends will not have problems with these scientists' casual use of the verb "letting" [assuming that is how they put it].

[Rich]

"It's nature's way of telling you something's wrong."

[Groovus Maximus]

I wasn't aware, "Cesarean-section births....letting," was in any way sexist, Old Mex. Would you prefer, "C-sections....permitting," or "C-sections....allowing," Howsa 'bout, "C-sections....facilitating." (Psst, these are all synonyms and refer to C-sections)

Next, you'll bitching about the, "Men-," in "Menstrual," and "Menorrhea."

Jeebus, Old Mex, WTF happened to you?

[John]

Aren't C-sections over used due to liability concerns? It is my understanding that a lot of women get C Sections that really don't need to have them.

[Groovus Maximus]

*sigh* That really depends on both the case actually presented WRT patient preference, and physician preference, TBH, John.

*Overused* is a somewhat misleading term, but there is a limit to how many C-sections should be performed on a particular patient. That said, Dr. ZG's opinion is no more than two because of adhesions that form on the peritoneum and the inner layers of connective tissues in that particular region (the type of incision is called a, "Pfannelstiel incision," AKA, a "Bikini Cut."

No more than 3 C-secs are recommend because of the build up of adhesional scarring.

Our son was firstborn and a natty delivery (with my wife directing all traffic, as I understand - I was barred from the L&D room proper.)

The twins were C-sec, and I was present and scrubbed in for that one.

[SFC B]

On my wife's side of the family there is a cousin and his wife who are both doctors, and he is one of the OB/GYNs for the hospital they work at. His hospital is prohibiting him from being involved in the delivery of their child, apparently because of the liability concerns as well as some rule they have about conflict-of-interest with him

[Free Society]

A lot of the CATO types are adopting leftist talking points in piecemeal.

[Zeb]

Seems like par for the course from OM.

I don't know if it's an ESL thing or what, but he does get hung up on certain word choices sometimes.

[Aloysious]

I'm sure LH already beat me to this one, but I have to share anyway. This woman is a catch.

Belching shirtless woman says deputy is 'sexiest thing'

STUART ? A belching shirtless woman who told a deputy he was the "sexiest thing" she'd seen was arrested after investigators say she was in a traffic crash, according to an affidavit.

When a Martin County Sheriff's deputy arrived at the Nov. 24 crash in the area of Southeast Indian Street and Southeast Dixie Highway in Stuart, he noticed Jamie Schmude, 30, behind the wheel of the crashed four-door vehicle.

She had no shirt on, and her unbuttoned jeans were lowered to her thighs. The vehicle smelled of booze. Schmude slurred her words, mumbling incoherent sentences.

[(((Renegade)))]

Crusty would. With glee.

[Swiss Servator]

Future Mrs. Crusty?

[straffinrun]

I like girls that can lower their buttoned jeans to their thighs.

[Swiss Servator]

NOT THICC!

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

She had no shirt on, and her unbuttoned jeans were lowered to her thighs. The vehicle smelled of booze. Schmude slurred her words, mumbling incoherent sentences.

Must be a hit n run commenter.

[Spartacus]

Looks like Florida Man has found his soulmate.

[Citizen X]

Maybe. How many children/exotic wildlife were in the backseat of her car at the time?

[Rich]

It's crucially important that the agency charged with investigating terrorism be able to tell the difference between what is a joke and what's not.

But only *that* agency, right? RIGHT?!

[C. S. P. Schofield]

"Donald Trump was named Time magazine's Person of the Year."

Considering some of the other winners, he should sue for defamation of character.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Why is the donation bar still up? I would have taken it down never to be discussed again. How much is that anyway?

[The Late P Brooks]

Most Republicans are quite content with this system. Appeals to fairness have not persuaded them of the need to amend the Constitution to establish direct presidential elections

Some people are not consumed by bizarre fantasies of "fairnesses".

[Suthenboy]

Or mob rule.

[Rufus The Monocled]

"Even a cursory investigation or application of common sense would have shown my tweet to be a joke," writes Nick Baumann, a Huffington Post journalist being investigated by the FBI over a joke tweet."

Don't laugh at Europe and Canada, America.

YOU'RE JUST AS RETARDED.

[Free Society]

Scientists at the University of Vienna say that the frequency of Cesarean-section births is having an impact on human evolution by letting more women with narrow pelvises live.

In a thousand years, pussies will be so tight. Can't wait to grab a few.

[Pat (PM)]

Technology obviates birthing hips. HM hardest hit.

[Lord Humungus]

Dropped car off at dealer to do some 60k mile maintenance work. Car ran/steered fine.

The dealer wanted a shitload of work done for too much money.

Anyway, we refused and decided to take the car elsewhere.

My wife went to pick the car up today. As she started to drive she noticed the steering was acting really funny, and the car was making clunking noises.

Long story short: the dealer hadn't tightened the lug nuts on the front driver tire!

[tarran]

Are you going to return with your whole gang to exact vengeance?

[Tonio]

Gang? Hell, he could get a payday out of that. Call your lawyer.

[Lord Humungus]

My wife is my lawyer.

Good for those cut-rate divorces 😉

[Brett L]

You know she can't represent you in CA if you're still having sex.

[Pat (PM)]

if you're still having sex.

He already told you, he's married.

[SFC B]

So resentful.

[esteve7]

Dealers suck. I found a great mechanic in San Jose and will never go back.

The dealer told me it would be an hour labor to replace the headlight, because you have to take off the bumper. Ok I said, how about replacing both at the same time then. "That'll be two hours labor"

"What??? You already have done all the work, just pop the other light in"
"It's two hours"
"Fuck You"
/hangup
/never going there again

[esteve7]

*my mechanic did both and it took him 20 minutes

[John]

The problem with dealers is they can't use OEM after market parts. They must use parts from the manufacturer and those are always twice or more the price of OEM. Dealer labor rates are often not any more expensive than independent rates. But the parts prices are outrageous.

[Lord Humungus]

Yep - had the front bushings done on my wife's Mini for 1/3 the price that the dealer was asking. Later on we got the front brakes replaced for 1/2 of what the dealer quoted.

[kbolino]

OEM = Original Equipment Manufacturer

Are you saying that dealers can't use OEM (???), or they can only use OEM but have to go through the vehicle maker as an intermediary to do it?

[John]

As I understand it OEM is a standard. If you buy OEM parts they are made by someone else to the standard of the original. But that is not the same as parts made by the car manufacturer.

[Number.6]

Usually, those 'parts made by the car manufacturer' were made on the same production line as the OEM parts, The difference often lying solely in the packing material, a barcoded label and sometimes, a name included in a casting/molding.

[kbolino]

I know computer parts better than auto parts but it was always my impression that OEM = made by the same people who made the part originally (which is often *not* the vehicle maker in this day and age) while everything else was "aftermarket" even if built to the same specs as the original equipment.

[mad.casual]

Agreed, from experience in car and other engineering circles, the phrase 'OEM after market parts' is oxymoronic or contradictory to me.

That is to say, either the parts are OEM (made by original engineers or to their specification) or they're aftermarket; made to be purchased after the original parts have already been purchased.

Doesn't detract from what John was saying overall though. Dealers use OEM parts that are sold at a premium.

[Rufus The Monocled]

The worst part about dealers is you have to make an appointment and it becomes a whole ordeal with them just to change a light bulb. Big production with them.

I have a mechanic and go to him. He slots me in when I need him. No hassles. And if he has to keep the car he just gives me a courtesy car.

[mad.casual]

My experience has been the exact opposite.

The dealers are more than ready to accept people as they walk in and quote you times for service in a progressive and/or running fashion. Soda machines, donuts, desktop workstations, wifi, the whole 9. Rental cars are never a problem. The one's I use routinely are like this because they're attached to the actual dealership and, as John pointed out, are rather literally selling premium parts and (perks aside) the same or similar service. They have 8-12 bays and are always looking to keep them filled.

Mechanics, OTOH, are routinely shitholes and *might* have coffee. Typically 3-4 bays so, always under-staffed, under-equipped, and backlogged. While they can arrange a rental car for you, it's usually a bit of window dressing as they're keeping your car at least overnight for 2-3 actual hours of labor and they don't want you calling wondering where your car is.

Mrs. Casual bought a pre-paid service plan that worked out to about $10/mo. over the life of the vehicle and covered pretty much everything that wouldn't be considered an accident. She loves it. The kids love to go, get a soda, watch the cars, and play on the internet. I'm left with one less car to work on and no kids. I wouldn't get it myself as I like to turn a wrench but I can see how, if you loathed car ownership like some of the self-driving advocates do, it'd be heavenly.

[mad.casual]

By 'running fashion' I guess I mean real time. "It makes a noise when I drive."-type crap gets broken into 15 min. to get it on the lift and get the tire(s) off and we'll go from there...

I suppose mechanics, frequently being the cheaper option, get into the situation where the car making a noise means they get it on the lift and a wheel falls off or some similar sticky proposition more often.

[Rhywun]

Angela Merkel endorsed a prohibition on full-faced veils in Germany "wherever it is legally possible."

You know Germany is swirling down the toilet when the best they can come up with is "be more like France".

[That's A Bingo!]

We need to make Germany great again.

[Rhywun]

What isn't great about removing the freedom of women to dress themselves?! It will totally stop young males from raping and exploding the natives allow the natives to pretend not to notice all the new arrivals.

[Free Society]

Merkel is just throwing red meat to the conservatives in her base to keep them from going to the AfD. A pointless exercise. She can toss all the red meat she wants, but of all the attacks, gang rapes and other shenanigans that the Muslims are well-known for, they will all be harder to hide right before the election and word will get out about the latest atrocity committed by some Muslim migrants right before the election that will sink her prospects.

[Florida Hipster]

I can't remember who recommended "Democracy: the god that failed", but thank you. I read the first 200 pages last night and enjoyed the theories of time preference for consuming by democratic leaders. Where he lost me was on restricted immigration and insisting libertarians must be social conservatives for libertarianism to work. I'm look forward to finishing tonight.

[Free Society]

It was I, I think. I've been recommending that book to everyone and their mother. Don't ask your mom about me, by the way.

I don't think he was claiming social conservatism is a necessity, but stressed that it's a reflection of low time preference and libertarians ought to be low time preference oriented people to be successful. I'm sure you could compensate for hedonism in one aspect of your life by being more low time preferential in other aspects.

[Florida Hipster]

Thanks again. Interesting read.

[Free Society]

I'm glad you dig it.

[Emmerson Biggins]

That is a cool book. I don't think you have to agree with all of it to appreciate the mental exercise of following along with him.

[CatoTheChipper]

Reading "Democracy: the god that failed" definitely caused me to question the inherent goodness of democracy to which I had been indoctrinated in government schools.

However, the 2016 election season was even more profound. Sure, Trump v Clinton.

But, also, the Texas Railroad Commissioner's race (the office regulates the oil & gas industry, not railroads.) The GOP candidate was twice-named as the worst legislator in the Texas Legislature by Texas Monthly magazine. Once for amending legislation to his nearly exclusive personal gain. Once for just being a jackass. The Democrat was an octogenarian retired school teacher whose only qualification was that his last name is similar to that of a famous family in Texas Democrat politics. He'd never held office and was against fracking. The Libertarian was a PhD in petroleum engineering, a retired full professor of petroleum engineering at UT Austin, and had about thirty-five years of experience in the industry. The Republican won handily. The Libertarian got 5% of the vote.

[The Late P Brooks]

I've got Bloomberg News droning in the background, as usual. They are talking to some "defense analyst" about Trumponomics. How will Trump's tweets about Boeing play out? Also mentioned: Trump vowed to end the defense sequester and open the floodgates of Pentagon spending.

No mention of the big WaPo story about the Pentagon's own research into their incredibly bloated and inefficient spending habits.

[Hyperion]

"Angela Merkel endorsed a prohibition on full-faced veils in Germany "wherever it is legally possible"

Please, Germany, vote out this horrible woman. She's an idiot. Her brilliant plan is let, no not let, invite hordes of 7th century barbarians to invade your country, then do insulting stuff to them. Just ban Muslims from praying to their invisible sky god while you're at it. What could possibly go wrong?

[John]

I have come to the conclusion that, though she didn't intend it, Virginia Postrel has become a nefarious influence on liberty. I think there is a lot of truth to the idea that politics is largely divided between the forces of dynamism and the forces of stasis. That idea, however, has its limits. Since the publishing of her book Libertarians have gradually started to confuse change and technology in particular with freedom and conclude that technology necessarily makes us more free. This is a very bad tendency among Libertarians. It is one thing to say "the government should not stop technological change". It is quite another thing to say "technological change must be embraced in the name of freedom". And that unfortunately is how many Libertarians are interpreting her ideas.

To give an example of what I mean, consider smart phones and digital music. I am now able to hook my smart phone to my car stereo and listen to a huge variety of music at the touch of a button. This is a much more convenient than the old system of CDs. Many Libertarians would say this is an example of technology making us more free, because I am now free to listen to such a greater variety of music. No, I am not more free. I could always listen to whatever music I wanted. It is just easier now. And ease is not freedom.

[John]

In fact, I am less free now than I was when I was using CDs. The CDs were mine and no one could prevent me from listening to them without physically taking them from me over my objections. Moreover, no one knew I even owned the CDs unless I told them. Digital music in contrast is entirely different. I don't really listen to anything I want. I listen to what Apple allows me to listen to. A few years ago Apple put an entire U2 record on my phone without my permission. It could just as easily erase any music it found objectionable. If Apple decided music on my phone was offensive or was held in violation of copyright law, it could erase it off my phone and there would be nothing I could do to stop them. So, I am not more free with the phone. It just more convenient and for the moment Apple gives me a long leash. I have still traded freedom and privacy for convenience. That is not a bad trade for the moment. But it is not a trade that made me more free. The technology actually made me less free. And many Libertarians seem to forget that and embrace all technology and technological change as being good because your ideas have caused them to think all change and advancement is the same as freedom.

[(((Renegade)))]

That has nothing to do with the format and everything to do with what phone you chose. I have a few terabytes of digitized music which resides safely on my home server and several backup drives.

[Pat (PM)]

My library in MP3 format fits on a single 64GB microSD card in my phone, and works even if I have no data connection (which is about 90% of the time, since I rarely use mobile data). It's mirrored on my home PC and a small SoHo server as well. It's fully possible to own your own media still.

[(((Renegade)))]

Real Men use FLAC or WAV, not that MP3 shit.

Actually, I do store MP3 versions on my phone because that's good enough for driving or hiking. But it's all taken from lossless files.

[Pat (PM)]

I recently turned 30. The tippy top range of my hearing is about 17.5k. I listen to music almost exclusively on either stock Hyundai speakers or a pair of decent but not extravagant reference headphones from my days as a live sound tech. For my usage scenarios, 320 mp3 might as well be uncompressed 192/24.

[kbolino]

Lossless is fine for archival and mixing* but LAME-encoded VBR MP3 at an average bitrate of 160kbps has been shown repeatedly to be indistinguishable to a listener's ears from a CD-quality uncompressed original. Similar results for other formats (AAC/MP4, Ogg Vorbis), at about the same bitrate, although the encoders don't have to be as fancy as LAME.

* = Actually, CD-quality audio isn't the best for mixing even if uncompressed, but good luck getting higher-quality masters from the recording companies

[John]

Very true. But even that is not totally secure. And my point is not that digital music is bad. It is not. My point is that it is not the same as freedom. It doesn't give us freedom. It gives us convenience sometimes at the price of our freedom sometimes not.

[(((Renegade)))]

Well, it's certainly possible that a group of armed government thugs could kick my door down and confiscate my server. But they could do that to my LPs and CDs. The point is that Apple or Microsoft or the like cannot do so. They may control my phone, but not my data (and that's all music is, data). So there's no freedom tradeoff that I can see outside of their specific devices.

[John]

They wouldn't do that. But what is possible is some nefarious government organization would come on your server and make sure you didn't have anything bad on it and erase anything they didn't like. So unless you keep your server totally off line, it is not really safe.

So to be more clear, my issue isn't with the digital music format. It is with connectivity. If a device is connected to the outside world, it can be controlled. The internet of things is a very bad idea for this reason.

[(((Renegade)))]

I would agree with the last, but for a different reason. I'm less concerned with control than with privacy. Every time we see an ad on TV for one of those gizmos that you can voice command or ask it to search for something on the internet, my wife shudders and asserts, "We are NEVER going to have one of those in OUR house."

Of course, she is computer-literate to an extreme, privacy-obsessed, and one of those things which we know doesn't exist (female libertarian).

[John]

I agree with you. i just see privacy and control as kind of one in the same. They can only control it, if they know I am doing it.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

It is quite another thing to say "technological change must be embraced in the name of freedom". And that unfortunately is how many Libertarians are interpreting her ideas.

Technology has always been a double-edged sword. But the point is that capitalism is a necessary ( but not sufficient, mind you) condition for freedom and technological progress is the end result of capitalism.

For this reason it is morally imperative to permit the free exchange of ideas, goods, and services. That doesn't mean abandon ethics and values. Actually quite the contrary, it means our values must be that technology should be used for good, which is the improvement of yourself and by extension the quality of life for the human race.

The solution is to be vigilant and always guard our freedoms as mankind progresses.

[John]

The solution is to be vigilant and always guard our freedoms as mankind progresses.

Sure. But part of being vigilant is to maintain analog technologies and means of doing things that are more immune from government control. It would be very foolish to say that we should get rid of cash in the name of progress and efficiency and then rely on our vigilance to keep the government from abusing that. Governments can never be trusted not to abuse the powers available to them and you should never rely on winning the political fight or market forces saving you.

[Zeb]

The big thing with digital music is that you don't have the legal right to re-sell it, which you could do with physical media like CDs or LPs. If you can't sell something, you don't own it.

[John]

Another example is electronic banking. Electronic banking is wonderfully convenient and efficient. it has made us wealthier and our lives easier. It is also likely the greatest threat to our freedom today. I have worked in and around law enforcement for over a decade. I can assure you cops hate cash. Central planners hate cash. The forces of central control very much want to ban cash and go to a truly cashless economy. Moreover, they are trying to achieve that not by passing a single law outlawing cash but slowly pushing society and the economy to make cash less and less useful and used with the goal that it will die out on its own. I shouldn't need to tell you the enormous dangers of a cashless society. In such a society, our money and means to live would become just like the music on our I-phones, totally at the mercy of the government and usable only with the government's permission. The only thing that stands between us and such a society is that thin green line of untraceable and uncontrollable analog technology known as hard currency. Libertarians should be doing everything they can to preserve cash and ensure merchants take it and people still use it. Instead, Libertarians are largely oblivious to the dangers and embrace more and more electronic commerce in the name of efficiency and advancement.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Of course they hate cash. Anything they can't control they hate.

My father never owned a credit card. He used cash all the time. Even when he bought cars.

[bacon-magic]

Well...your father was Italian, capiche?

[Pat (PM)]

A lot of libertarians have been advocating distributed ledger and blockchain technologies that marry a lot of the advantages of cash with a lot of the conveniences of electronic banking.

I think your point stands that technology is not liberty and liberty is not technology, but I'm not so sure that technological utopianism is as widespread in libertarian circles as you are suggesting. Ron Bailey is not a good example of the average libertarian. As a tool, technology has been put to use in ways that make us significantly more free and in ways that make us significantly less free since we discovered fire.

[John]

Things like block chain are good but they are limited. Anything online or digital is vulnerable to government control and hijacking. Old school analog technology is often the only full proof way to keep the government out of something. Think of it this way, the government goes to great efforts to control and prosecute child porn on the net. And they are effective enough at it, you really have to be a nut to go anywhere near it on the net. Even though lots of criminal enterprises are doing their best to set up a dark net and make it safe, it isn't working.

That is not to say that child porn is good. It is not. My point is that if they can do it to child porn, they can do it to bitcoin or anything else. Ultimately, hard currency in your pocket that is accepted by a wide range of people is something that the government can never control in the same way they control things that are digital, if for no other reason that it doesn't leave a digital paper trail the way anything done electronically does.

[Number.6]

Which is of course why policies such as civil asset forfeiture are so cherished by government agencies. Their very existence is intended to chill peoples' willingness to participate in cash transactions.

[John]

Yes. The danger of those programs is not just that the government is out robbing people. It is also that the larger goal of those programs is to destroy cash transactions and make it easier for the government to control us. The thought of fully cashless society should terrify you. It would give the government the power to track and control every single cent you earn or spend. It would give the government the power to completely exile you from society and leave you penniless and utterly destitute at the push of a button.

[Pat (PM)]

You're not wrong, but I think this is fairly obvious, common-sense stuff and the only people who believe otherwise are the especially pollyannaish variety of technological utopians (like Bailey; maybe Peter Thiel). It's also for that reason that I expect there will always be "analog" currency, even if it bear Uncle Sam's seal. Even in the Soviet bloc where you could be summarily killed for it, there was a thriving black market and all kinds of alternative currency. Tide laundry detergent was supposedly gaining traction as a currency for drug transactions here in the US a few years ago. "Life finds a way".

[Pat (PM)]

Should read: even if it *doesn't* bear Uncle Sam's seal

[(((Renegade)))]

Anything online or digital is vulnerable to government control and hijacking. Old school analog technology is often the only full proof way to keep the government out of something.

Have to disagree partially. Online or cloud? Yeah. But digital in general? No more so than analog, and maybe even less so in that it can be robustly encrypted. If they can take your hard disk, they can take your kiddie magazines; analog is no protection.

The key is "physical media."

[John]

You are right. As I say above, it is not the format it is the connectivity. Anything connected to the internet is vulnerable to control. My old school CDs are digital, but they are not vulnerable to control the way my smart phone is because they are not connected to anything.

[Pat (PM)]

Was going to post something similar above. The argument about the government snooping out your home server (which needn't even necessarily be connected to the internet, which would make it immune to such snooping) could just as easily apply to your locked front door. A sufficiently motivated government that wants to steal your stuff will always be able to do so. A healthy baseline level of paranoia is good to have regardless of whether your valuables constitute hand-scribbled papers locked in your filing cabinet or encrypted text on your home PC.

[(((Renegade)))]

The difference is that they may be able to steal your computer or your data, but if you do things right, they're unlikely to be able to unencrypt it. So going digital actually increases security.

[John]

Encryption is vital. But I worry that there is such thing as secure encryption that the government hasn't put a back door in.

[Lord_at_War]

John- I agree. I might have had a good year selling pot back in 1995. I managed to get a lot of my profits into mutual funds within two years. Wouldn't even try it today...

[Number.6]

I've have been, and still am quite confident that there's an impending tipping point at which either a manufacturer or some significant constituency of mainstream technology consumers change their stance from a reactive view of security to a proactive one.

The catalyst may be something like a Wikileaks dump that gains traction, illustrating a program which actively captures everyone's data in a way that can't be hand-waved away with responses such as "I'm not breaking the law, why should I be upset by all my conversations being stored in Utah", at which point a major manufacturer decides to make security 'done properly' (i.e. halfassed, but seemingly seriously) a unique selling point of their product.

Peer to peer email and messaging, 'dark' DNS, PFS, peer-hopping VPNs out of jurisdiction - all exist NOW, but they're a pain in the ass for non-geeky users, and they have to coexist with social networking which - by design - is insecure. Imagine a device that makes it *easy* to channel all your traffic to facebook, when you want to be a narcissist, but via peer-to-peer infrastructure at all other times.

Capture of actionable metadata then becomes far more complex and time consuming - usually requiring physical access to the device, which even then, would yield far less information than is available at the moment.

[Number.6]

I personally shun Tor, and inconvenience myself by trying to maximize my anonymity and behavior, purely because if enough people do the same, we undermine the ability of PRISM signatories to surveil the public, which I believe is a public good.

[Brett L]

At this point, I believe Tor to be either thoroughly penetrated or so dangerously compromised by exposed exit nodes that it isn't much good.

[Number.6]

It's been compromised for a very long time. Personally, I could be convinced that it was designed with the intent that it should be compromised, but I have to go - my tinfoil hat needs to be realigned to keep the Bilderberger transmissions out.

[CatoTheChipper]

As a Coinbase customer, I'm here to tell you that the blockchain isn't necessarily anonymous like cash is.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

If Time really wanted to troll Donald Trump they would have listed Julian Assange as Person of the Year.

Alternative if they wanted to troll Hillary they would have named Anthony Wiener or James Comey.

[Tornado35235gsg35423ttg3gt3g3g]

Krugabe melting down

http://twitchy.com/dougp-3137/.....lary-lost/

[Tornado35235gsg35423ttg3gt3g3g]

So he hand waves the liberal elite is to blame only to proceed with "liberals have given you all this stuff so why don't you love us"

[Tornado35235gsg35423ttg3gt3g3g]

Summation...it isn't liberal arrogance but here let me be arrogant!

[Free Society]

Another answer -- which you know is partly true -- is anger that liberal elites don't respect ordinary folks' prejudice. 11/

There it is. Krugman Gold.

[John]

If Trump succeeds in taking the government's foot even slightly off the economy's throat, the economy is going to improve a bunch. When you think about the amount of willful damage Obama has done to the economy, it is amazing it hasn't completely crashed. It won't be that hard to get it to boom. If that happens, people like Krugman are going to end up in rubber rooms. All they have is the smugness that comes with the certainty of being right about everything. if it turns out the other side is right about something and especially if Trump is right about something, I think a lot of them won't be able to handle it.

[VG Zaytsev]

They'll fall back to whining about the inequality of a booming economy.

[John]

That is thin gruel though. They did that under Reagan and it didn't work very well. They were fucking miserable and crazy under Reagan. More so than they usually are.

[Tornado35235gsg35423ttg3gt3g3g]

Now krugman is worried about deficits and trumps infrastructure spending package lol

[John]

The same guy who a few years ago was advocating for Obama minting a trillion dollar coin and thought that the problem with the $900 million stimulus was that it was too small. Now he is going to be all about the deficit. What a nut.

[Tornado35235gsg35423ttg3gt3g3g]

Did you see the one where he was talking about jews?

Also contra krugman is great btw

[WTF]

If Trump succeeds in taking the government's foot even slightly off the economy's throat, the economy is going to improve a bunch.

And the left will explain that Trump deserves no credit when it is all just evidence that Obama's policies are finally bearing fruit.

[Tornado35235gsg35423ttg3gt3g3g]

yep lol while simultaneously saying the republicans were obstructionists that didnt let him get anything done?

[CatoTheChipper]

There are two things that kept the economy from crashing and burning: #1 fracking cut energy prices by 60% and a distant second, continuing economic benefits of IT.

Obama deserves exactly zero credit for keeping the economy from completely crashing.

[CatoTheChipper]

Trump voters are so stupid that they think the progressive elites who want to help them are arrogant.

Well, they are also a basket of racist, misogynistic, etc., etc. deplorables, so there's that, too.

[wef]

"having an impact on human evolution" - watch out, or soon we'll be hearing something about how welfare, eye glasses, EpiPens, and so on are having an impact on human evolution.

[Lord Humungus]

You know who else wanted to have an impact on human evolution...

[wef]

Margaret Sanger?

[Number.6]

STEVE SMITH?

[(((Renegade)))]

Lucy?

[bacon-magic]

Ghengis Kahn?

[AddictionMyth]

The most frightening thing about Nazis is that they are completely devoid of a sense of humor.

[Lord Humungus]

Sounds like a potential Hit'n'Run get together:

Alleged Sigma Pi hazing involved induced vomiting, a cage and anti-Semitic imagery

Photo and video evidence allegedly depicting rituals of the Fall 2014 and Fall 2015 pledge processes for the Sigma Pi fraternity at Hofstra University show pledging members were made to chug milk and vomit on one another, stay locked in a small cage and kneel blindfolded while their bodies were covered in hot sauce, among other hazing rituals performed at an off-campus residence.

[(((Renegade)))]

I had dinner last week with Swiss Servator, and this is exactly what happened. There was also waterboarding, but that's a story for another day.

[Swiss Servator]

That wasn't hot sauce!

[Heroic Mulatto]

Is the "anti-Semitic imagery" merely a swastika? Because if so, someone should clue the ADL on those nefarious Buddhists!

[Chipwooder]

ah, the ol' gallon challenge. We did that one in the Marines. I say with pride that I lasted the longest - think I drank more than three quarters of that milk before puking it out.

[AddictionMyth]

I'm curious to know how Trump will float a veil ban proposal of his own. Maybe drop a tweet about how his protesters were wearing masks, and how just so wrong that is.

[Hyperion]

Hey shreek, I see you woke up Tony.

[AddictionMyth]

"He ganged up on us with his sockpuppets, Melania - and made us cry!!!"

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

Scientists at the University of Vienna say that the frequency of Cesarean-section births is having an impact on human evolution by letting more women with narrow pelvises live.

That's... not really how evolution works.

[GILMORE?]

Yeah, as long as the baby lives, all the 'death via birth' problem results in is a Single-Use female.

i don't really get how that's supposed to be an evolutionary mechanic.

[TheZeitgeist]

Yeah, as long as the baby lives, all the 'death via birth' problem results in is a Single-Use female.

i don't really get how that's supposed to be an evolutionary mechanic.

Cindy the narrow-pelvised rolls one rugrat and punches out, leaving said rugrat's fate to chance.

Laura the wide-pelvised swinger has ten rugrats without a hitch, and lives to old age helping the brood.

That's order-of-magnitude evolutionary advantage over time.

[incognitoburrito]

Re: FBI investigation

It makes me tickle-me-pink when a liberal cuck experiences the blowback of the free speech policing that they advocate for so strongly.