A.M. Links: Hugh Hefner Dead at 91, Trump Waives Jones Act for Puerto Rico, North Korea Again Denies Torturing Otto Warmbier

• 

  Gage Skidmore / Flickr.com

  President Donald Trump has begun rolling out his tax plan.

• President Trump will waive the Jones Act for Puerto Rico.
• Playboy founder Hugh Hefner has died at age 91.
• North Korea is once again denying that it tortured Otto Warmbier, the American who died after being held prisoner in that country.
• Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has dissolved the lower house of the Japanese parliament and called for a snap election.
• A U.S. district court judge has ruled against a Kentucky law that requires doctors who perform abortions to first conduct an ultrasound and then describe the image to the patient.

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

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

President Trump will waive the Jones Act for Puerto Rico.

How dare he ruin another good outrage.

[Bee Tagger]

He’s learned his lesson. I see nothing but smooth sailing for him moving forward.

[loveconstitution1789]

“smooth sailing”—–Jones Act. Nice pun.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

“North Korea is once again denying that it tortured Otto Warmbier, the American who died after being held prisoner in that country….and Obama ignored full stop.”

[Domestic Dissident]

So many wasted hyperlinks and hyperventilations, all just to made to look like complete fools once again.

[Citizen X - #6]

You would certainly know what that’s like.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

More expert trolling. The libs went insane!!

[Chinny Chin Chin]

Have I come to the right place for the virtue signaling?

[Don't look at me.]

Can’t fit any more ships at the busted up docks anyway.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner has died at age 91.

I think the internet is going to put a dent in Playboy quite frankly. Hef got out at the right time.

[Conchfritters]

He did that himself when he allowed the boobs to be removed from the magazine a year ago.

[loveconstitution1789]

You said BOOBS!

[some guy]

They stopped publishing interviews with entertainers?

[gaoxiaen]

At last my life is better than his.

[Zeb]

You assume that existence is preferable to non-existence.

[Don't look at me.]

79 more virgins?

[loveconstitution1789]

Because virgins just wait around for some creepy guy to arrive and deflower them….

[Lily Bulero]

The Pope’s attitude towards all of Church history prior to his papacy recalls this statement from proto-robber baron Cornelius Vanderbilt in the 19th century:

wait for it…

[Lily Bulero]

“What do I care about the law? Hain’t I got the power?

(NSFW)

[Conchfritters]

Hey, as long as the priests can remain celibate while being above to touch little boys – – that conduct has been going on under the watch of many Popes.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Commie Pope gonna commie, know?

[Citizen X - #6]

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner has died at age 91.

Until further information comes out, i will assume he died as he lived: surrounded by beautiful, naked 19-year-olds and wearing comfy pajamas.

[Chinny Chin Chin]

I hear he OD’d on viagra

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

beautiful

People always flatter the dead.

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

A former playmate said he made his girlfriends wear matching flannel pajamas, which is totes cool.

[Mickey Rat]

Only the tops, I trust.

[some guy]

So he died as Tyrion Lannister wants to die?

[Fist of Etiquette]

North Korea is once again denying that it tortured Otto Warmbier, the American who died after being held prisoner in that country.

Since the parents refused an autopsy, it makes proving it that much harder.

[damikesc]

Didn’t hear that. Cannot remotely fathom why they’d refuse an autopsy. If it were my child, I’d demand one. That is exceptionally odd.

[loveconstitution1789]

I would bet that there is some secret shit happening here that nobody should know about.

I would put money that Dennis Rodman was approached by the CIA to give them intel from when he goes to North Korea.

[Rhywun]

They probably tell the proles that he’s some sort of oppressed victim of institutional racism. I mean, why else would anyone walk around looking like that but as a form of punishment.

[Citizen X - #6]

Grief makes people behave in ways that seem irrational to outsiders.

[some guy]

Coroner said examination indicated low oxygen supply to the brain caused coma and death. So either he was tortured to death or he tried to kill himself to escape all the torture.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has dissolved the lower house of the Japanese parliament and called for a snap election.

Via flash mob.

[Lily Bulero]

Did someone say Snap election?

[Fist of Etiquette]

I knew it.

[Conchfritters]

Did he use hydrochloric acid?

[Griffin3]

Sick burn, bro.

[Bee Tagger]

North Korea is once again denying that it tortured Otto Warmbier, the American who died after being held prisoner in that country.

Does anything they say matter?

[loveconstitution1789]

Dennis Rodman hardest hit!

[Bee Tagger]

President Donald Trump has begun rolling out his tax plan.

Yeah, a-tax on the nfl.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A U.S. district court judge has ruled against a Kentucky law that requires doctors who perform abortions to first conduct an ultrasound and then describe the image to the patient.

…and then to issue a mandatory marriage license to the parents if they aren’t married.

[some guy]

and then describe the image to the patient.

“It’s kind of a lump of tissue. If you squint it might look somewhat like a baby. To be honest, this thing is more of a Rorschach test, really. Half the time I just make stuff up because who’s going to call me on it?

[Fist of Etiquette]

President Donald Trump has begun rolling out his tax plan.

But not his tax returns.

[loveconstitution1789]

it took Obama months to roll out his birth certificate with the name of the doctor, so even.

[Bee Tagger]

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has dissolved the lower house of the Japanese parliament and called for a snap election.

Is there nothing they can’t turn into a bizarre game show?

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner has died at age 91.

Old article, but a few examples of some of the fiction and non-fiction Playboy published.

[Rufus The Monocled]

“President Trump will waive the Jones Act for Puerto Rico.”

MONSTER!

DICTATOR!

[Griffin3]

Does he hate hard working longshoremen?

[loveconstitution1789]

Longshoremen will be fine unloading containers from non-USA flagged vessels.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Rep Thomas Massie “GOP voters vote for craziest Son of a Bitch in the race”.

http://www.washingtonexaminer……le/2635744

“I thought they were voting for libertarian Republicans,” Massie said of the Republican voters who had delivered the Tea Party victories. “But after some soul-searching, I realized when they voted for Rand and Ron [Paul] and me in these primaries, they weren’t voting for libertarian ideas. They were voting for the craziest son of a bitch in the race. And Donald Trump won best in class.”

[loveconstitution1789]

Some say Hitlary was the craziest son of a bitch in the race. She lost, so no need to worry about her ever again.

[some guy]

This quote is several months old. Where have you been PB? And can you go back for an indefinite stay?

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

CBS12 Investigates: Sex for Sale

We asked why law enforcement isn’t shutting down these businesses.

“It can be frustrating. I realize to see some of the folks are operating in broad daylight next to businesses. Our task force has taken a lead and since January,” Aronberg said. “We’ve made 21 arrests of individuals who have been engaged in this conduct.”

However, only half were charged with human trafficking.

“You have to catch them soliciting, and then it’s prostitution,” Aronberg said. “It is not necessarily force, fraud or coercion and to get that you need a victim to speak up, a cooperating victim, if you don’t have that you can charge them with other crimes but it won’t be human trafficking.”

Magnum and the news crew are going to save us all.

[Conchfritters]

Fuckin-A these people are stupid. Massage parlors have been operating out in the open in one form or another for like the past several thousand years. Maybe these genius reporters should do a study on why men like blowjobs.

[damikesc]

?A U.S. district court judge has ruled against a Kentucky law that requires doctors who perform abortions to first conduct an ultrasound and then describe the image to the patient.

So, no ultrasound? Just root around the uterus blind? That’s the plan?

[paranoid android]

Or maybe they just stick to the medically necessary parts and leave out the ridiculous attempts at shaming people?

[jcw]

Do you actually believe any of the shit that you spout?

[Don't look at me.]

The way it’s always been done.

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

Alleged leaker Reality Winner said she stuffed NSA report in her pantyhose

After insisting for some time that she printed out the report and kept it on her desk for a few days before disposing of it in a burn bag, Winner caved and acknowledged she hid the document before sending it off to a news outlet, now known to be The Intercept.

“So how did you get it out of the office?” FBI agent Justin Garrick asked.

“Folded it in half in my pantyhose,” Winner replied.

Ban pantyhose-wearing, Crossfit vegans from not only our intelligence services, but from our world.

[Juice]

Reality Winner. Otto Warmbier. Come on. Those are fake names and made up stories.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

The [sighs] in the transcript are magnificent.

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

Blue lives matter…well, not that much. Cop escorting Trump’s motorcade FALLS off his motorcycle and is left in agony on side of highway

[Domestic Dissident]

President Trump will waive the Jones Act for Puerto Rico.

Don’t you feel just a little bit stupid now Matt Welch and all the rest of you professional fake libertarians at Reason?

[paranoid android]

Trump should have stood his ground instead of letting the LIBERAL MEDIA tell him what to do just because there’s some silly “humanitarian crisis” (assuming this whole hurricane thing isn’t another media hoax like global warming or the Grammy Awards). Sad!

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

The media bullied the little presidential bitch into doing what the leftists wanted.

[loveconstitution1789]

Media tries to make Trump look bad and unsympathetic to Rican’s plight. Trump calls bluff and waives entire Nanny-State law that media was bitching about. Media pauses because they helped Trump dismantle government a bit and didn’t really want that. Trump gets elected (again) because of media’s foolish attempts to control Trump.

xth D chess.

[some guy]

Where x = 1;

[Citizen X - #6]

Why would they?

[Domestic Dissident]

You’re too stupid to even comprehend it, so I’m not wasting my time. I’d be better off explaining it to a five year old.

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

Just face it, double-d, your boy got cucked.

[Citizen X - #6]

That’s an awful lot of words for “i didn’t think that part through.”

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

Everyone called Trump a monster, and he subsequently reversed his position. This makes everyone fools?

[loveconstitution1789]

They’re fools for many reasons.

[loveconstitution1789]

Who’s “They”!?!

What the hell is an aluminum falcon!?!

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

Former wrestling superstar asks fans if it’s OK to have sex with his daughter

former WWE tag team and intercontinental champion Marty Jannetty allegedly posted on Facebook that he and his daughter Bianca have held off having sex but that they no longer will as a DNA test revealed she is, in fact, not his biological child.

The post, which no longer appears on Jannetty’s timeline, stated: “Just did a DNA [test], she’s NOT my daughter. We both held out of sex because you don’t do that, but now we ain’t.”

Jannety, known for his excessive partying away from wrestling and his finishing move the “Showstopper”, went on to describe Bianca as “F***IN HOTT” before asking wrestling fans for their advice, IB Times reported.

You’re welcome.

[Aloysious]

I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know

[Griffin3]

Not clicking. No how, no way.

[John]

If she is over 18, what can you do? She is hot. So there is that I guess.

[John]

This is why I hate social media. It is not that people are any more or less depraved than they always have been. It is that thanks to social media you have to hear about it now.

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

Yes. Also, you’re welcome.

[John]

Yes. Thank you. It can be a love-hate relationship.

[some guy]

Woody Allen did it first.

[Juice]

Trump is thinking, “Lucky bastard!”

[Rich]

President Donald Trump has begun rolling out his tax plan.

Wake me up when “you can submit your return on a postcard”.

[Inigo Montoya]

Wake me up when that postcard simply reads, “Taxation is theft.”

[some guy]

Dear Uncle Same,

I owe you $0.00. Check enclosed.

-Love
some guy

P.S. Wish you weren’t here.

[Jerryskids]

In the wake of the devastation in Puerto Rico caused by Hurricane Maria, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yul?n Cruz — along with other US politicians, including McCain and Marco Rubio, R-Florida — had urged the suspension of the Jones Act in order to speed up supply deliveries.

So the Jones Act is an executive order that Congress has no authority to suspend but has to ask the President to waive? I guess as long as it’s Good Things? the President’s doing, nobody’s going to be so churlish as to ask whether or not he has the Constitutional authority to waive the law. Picking and choosing what laws and what parts of laws you’re going to enforce, making up the law as you go along, seemed to work fine for Obama so I can’t imagine why it wouldn’t work fine for every other President going forward.

[loveconstitution1789]

Technically Congress made the law and the president should enforce it. An Executive branch check to Legislative power is to selectively enforce laws because who will do it, Congress?

The main thing is that these crappy laws are getting attention by the public and as with Trump free publicity during the election, I don’t think the media means to expose all these government excesses, so Congress can repeal them.

its almost as if the lefty media is trying to make Trump look bad by talking about how the Jones Act hurts Puerto Ricans and Trump is not doing anything and then Trump does something. The media is just not used to presidents rolling back government this fast.

xth D chess is all I have to say.

[Domestic Dissident]

Yeah, ideally congress would pass a law specifically granting Puerto Rico a temporary waiver for a specified period of time for the president to pass, but I guess that would take too long for them. They’re far too busy not doing other things in order for them to do this.

It does set a bad precedent for assholes like Obama to try to get away with saying “I’m ‘waiving’ all our immigration laws’ and that sort of bullshit.

[loveconstitution1789]

President Trump will waive the Jones Act for Puerto Rico.
I wonder if Trump will get credit for doing this?

The TDS is strong with some.

I mean come on: EO repeal 2 for 1, Gorsuch, waiving Jones Act, tax reform, slowed our foreign intervention fervor, Betty DeVos, cut illegal immigration, Immigration plan for America instead of illegals, symbol to check PC culture, got rid of Comey, economy going up (presidents get credit when they probably shouldn’t), cut business regulations, moved to withdraw from TPP and NAFTA and Iran nuke deal, stands up to North Korea’s threats, push keystone pipeline completion, mostly steers the USA away from Climate Change hysteria, etc.

[paranoid android]

Dude, it isn’t some great act of courage. It was utterly routine and done without a second thought by past presidents. He doesn’t get credit for initially being willing to let people needlessly suffer with the explicit excuse that it appeases business interests in the shipping industry, then belatedly changing his mind after a backlash. I mean, maybe if it causes someone to take a look at this thing and push for full out repeal of the law but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards yet.

Basically, when you shit the bed, you don’t get “credit” for attempting to wipe a little bit of it up afterward.

[loveconstitution1789]

Trump did not make Jones Act law.

I don’t think courage is a basis for determining political “credit”. Politicians tend to be uncourageous shitheels but they still get credit for giving people ObamaCare, etc.

Trump probably didn’t even know about the Jones Act because its one of many inane laws on the books. I had forgotten about it since I lived in Puerto Rico years ago. The media brought it up or his cabinet brought it up first when the hurricanes hit P.R. Trump waived the requirements and its up to Congress to repeal the law.

[John]

The Jones Act is decades old and virtually unknown outside of the shipping industry. It only makes the news when a disaster reveals its stupidity and it has to be waived.

[loveconstitution1789]

Obama did not waive Jones Act in 2010.
Thanks Obama!

[Rebel Scum]

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has dissolved the lower house of the Japanese parliament

You know who else?

[Inigo Montoya]

And he promptly and openly revealed he did this, thus earning the nickname “Honest Abe.”

[Rebel Scum]

Yvonne Felarca strikes again.

An infamous “anti-fascist” teacher was arrested again Tuesday in Berkeley after an Antifa “Victory March.”
Police in riot gear arrested Yvonne Felarca, a Berkeley middle school teacher and Antifa activist, for resisting arrest and battery, according to Campus Reform. Felarca spearheads the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality by Any Means Necessary (BAMN)…Felarca was previously arrested in July for inciting a 2016 riot, participating in the riot, and assault by means of force likely to inflict great bodily injury, reported CBS Sacramento. The teacher appeared on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” defending her successful endeavor to shut down conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos’ February Berkeley speech.

Who’s the fascist, the fascist or the anti-fascist?

[Palin's Buttplug]

Dees Boys is Masegenated!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3eTSbC3neA

[some guy]

Fact: 98% of assaults on fascists are carried out by other fascists. Why won’t the cops do something about all this fascist-on-fascist violence? It’s tearing our communities apart!

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

A grocery store wanted to sell beer. A well-organized neighborhood made its best attempt to stop it.

The grocery store applied for a liquor license earlier this year, but residents argued it would bring competition to locally owned businesses. They also opposed alcohol taking coveted shelf space that could be used for food at a cramped store.

Receiving a liquor license is a multistep, bureaucratic process.

First, a company must apply with the city’s Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration. The administration determines whether the establishment meets qualifications and publicly posts the application, giving a deadline for the community to protest the application.

If the local ANC or neighborhood association decides to protest ? and the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board determines that the protest has standing ? the parties enter into a mediation phase. If they can’t reach a settlement, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board hears arguments and decides whether to issue the license.

This is what passes for a free market, people.

[Rhywun]

And the resistance, residents say, was never just about the booze.

Yeah, I figured that out without even reading the story.

“How about we just close the store and leave it empty, ungrateful snots?”

[Don't look at me.]

They are so fearful of competition they won’t even open their own stores.

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

The Repressive, Authoritarian Soul of “Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends”

Enjoy, friends.

[Citizen X - #6]

BRB, reexamining my childhood

[lap83]

Henry, the curmudgeonly train, is afraid to come out of his tunnel, because “the rain will ruin my lovely green paint and red stripes.”

Realizing that the day’s workflow is irrevocably disrupted, Fat Controller decides that Henry must be punished?for life. “We shall take away your rails, and leave you here for always and always,”

Sounds fine to me.

In the U.S. version, this voice-over is tweaked so that Henry’s fate seems temporary. But the original version is still on YouTube, and it’s comically bleak. As one commenter writes, “What moral lesson are kids supposed to learn from this? Do as you’re told or you will be entombed forever in the darkness to die?”

So Henry should only have to work when it’s nice out and otherwise come and go as he pleases. One problem… he’s a goddamn train, not a postal worker.

[lap83]

Also, this is why smart libertarians don’t dress their orphans too nicely, so they won’t be afraid to get dirty in the mines.

[Rhywun]

Do as you’re told or you will be entombed forever in the darkness to die?

Yes, literally. Also, wolves can literally blow your house down and witches literally stuff bad children into the oven.

[Stormy Dragon]

Thomas The Tank Engine Crash Compilation

[Rebel Scum]

Michelle Obama: F*ck you and your wrong-think you self-hating women, you.

Speaking in Boston on Wednesday at a marketing conference called Inbound, former First Lady Michelle Obama had some choice words for women who voted for Donald Trump instead of Hillary Clinton in 2016. During the Q & A, Obama was speaking of how she stayed true to her “authentic self,” adding, “Quite frankly, we saw this in this election. As far as I’m concerned, any woman who voted against Hillary Clinton voted against their own voice.”

She continued, “What does it mean for us, as women, that we look at those two candidates? and many of us said, ‘That guy? He’s better for me. His voice is more true to me.’ Well, to me, that just says you don’t like your voice. You like the thing you’re told to like.”

I, for one, welcome the wookie to torpedo any chance she may have at public office.

[Palin's Buttplug]

She never had a chance for the redneck vote anyway.

[Rebel Scum]

Nothing about what she said pertains to “rednecks”. It is about her treating women as if they don’t have agency and legit reasons for voting the way they chose. She is also treating women as a collective monolith whose votes were owed to Hilldawg. I wouldn’t have to explain this to you if you were not such a disingenuous hack.

[loveconstitution1789]

Because the messages she spews are racist and sexist lefty garbage? You’re right, the rednecks don’t want to vote for some racist and sexist piece of shit like Michelle Obama.

[Domestic Dissident]

Imagine how many double-scoops she has probably shoveled into that big fat ass in the last ten months.

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

In what universe does she have a big, fat ass?

[loveconstitution1789]

She got badonkadonk!

[some guy]

You like the thing you’re told to like

So women should like Clinton because you told them to like her?

[Mickey Rat]

Except Hilary ran largely on being a woman. Women who voted for Trump rejected whi they were told to like. Michelle Obama’s reasoning here is dependent on some creepy group identity assumptions that women must have tbe same interests and therefore the same politics.

[Citizen X - #6]

Collectivists gonna collect.

[Rhywun]

creepy group identity assumptions

The Left in a nutshell.

[lap83]

“Quite frankly, we saw this in this election. As far as I’m concerned, any woman who voted against Hillary Clinton voted against their own voice.”

Condescending bitch, don’t you have a permanent vacation to be on?

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

Florida Mom Outraged School Stopped Her 6-Year-Old Son From Kneeling During Pledge of Allegiance

submit to reddit

A Florida mom is speaking out against the elementary school her 6-year-old son attends after he kneeled during the Pledge of Allegiance on Monday.

Eugenia McDowell told ABC News that she had no idea that her son was going to kneel, something likely inspired from the ongoing protests at NFL games during the national anthem.
Also on Mediaite
Chris Cuomo: Trump Sounds Like He’s Telling NFL Owners ‘Control Your Dog’

According to McDowell, her son was ” publicly admonished” by his teacher.

In a text informing the mother, the teacher said “I knew where he had seen it, but I did tell him that in the classroom, we are learning what it means to be a good citizen, we’re learning about respecting the United States of America and our country symbols and showing loyalty and patriotism and that we stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.”

“What that said to me was that him taking a knee was the exact opposite- he was disrespectful of the country. He was being disrespectful of the flag,” McDowell said.

Her son alleges that the teacher told him to “stand up” and to “stop it.”

I believe the son’s version. Also, stop it everyone, you’re stupid.

[John]

No one even knows what they are kneeling about anymore. Originally, Kapernick was protesting police brutality. Okay, but now it seems to be about “inequality” whatever that is. I bet you a hundred dollars that if the media had asked the various NFL players that kneeled last weekend what exactly they were protesting, none of them could have given a coherent answer. It is amazing how fast this whole thing slipped into comedy.

[jcw]

People do things every day that have no coherent explanation or answer. I’m not sure why this one is such a big deal.

[John]

I have this weird idea that political protests should be about something and the people doing the protesting should understand what that is. Generally, I have found that to be the case. Just because people sometimes do irrational things or get involved in movements for reasons they cannot explain, doesn’t mean they always do that or that a protest movement that seems to have no articulable end or purpose any less remarkable.

[jcw]

That’s fine. I know that there are many political protests that people participate in that have no clue on what’s happening.

Occupy Wall Street
March for Science
Woman’s Equality Day
People’s Climate March

Those are just the few recent ones. I remember interviews with people at OWS who had no idea what the movement was actually about. Also, the movements themselves are pretty difficult to define in any “coherent” way.

[Domestic Dissident]

You’re right that it started off as a protest against police brutality (which while awful has substantially declined over the last 30-40 years, but that’s for another day), but last weekend it seemed to morph into a protest against Trump, which was inevitable once he opened his big mouth and got involved.

Unfortunately for the NFL, most of America is quite able to distinguish between Trump or a rogue cop and the country. Their form of protest isn’t just a middle finger to the cops or to Trump, it’s a middle finger to all of mainstream America, and the overwhelming majority of the country gets the message loud and clear.

[creech]

Google Malcom Jenkins interview with Anderson Cooper. Here’s an Eagles player that seems to have a more articulate view on why he is protesting on Sundays. What’s missing, perhaps, is an acknowledgement that some cops are assholes to white people, too, and the justice system needs plenty of reforming (e.g. men of all colors getting screwed in divorce, nonsense sex registries, etc.)

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

I did tell him that in the classroom, we are learning what it means to be a good citizen, we’re learning about respecting the United States of America and our country symbols and showing loyalty and patriotism and that we stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I stand with McDowell.

[lap83]

Dammit, if we have to do public schools, can we at least let them go remotely? I know it would be a difficult transition with fewer things to get outraged about but we’d all be better off in the long run

[Rebel Scum]

More actual fascists.

In the wake of the largely media-driven “white supremacy” hysteria, Bray has become somewhat of a media personality, with dozens of national news outlets turning to him for information about antifa. According to the Washington Post, all of the media attention is making administration officials at Dartmouth a bit nervous. “Dartmouth officials are unsettled,” according to the report. “Bray has made no secret about his belief that violence is, in some circumstances, justified. In turn, the university has sought to distance itself from him.”

In a recent appearance on CSPAN, Bray defended antifa’s violence against fellow Americans by calling it “preemptive self-defense.”

Otherwise known as “assault and battery”. This term could have been coined by ‘The Onion’…

[John]

I am re-reading the book The Making of the Atomic Bomb right now. It is one of those books that is so good and so dense, you can read again every few years and still enjoy it. The first quarter of the book is a history of nuclear physics from about the turn of the century. The part I was reading last night talked about the rise of anti-Semitism and fascism in Germany during the 1920s and 1930s and its effect on Einstein in particular. Begining in the early 20s student groups accused Einstein of practicing “Jewish Science” that degenerated the German race. They started showing up and disrupting his lectures. It became nearly impossible for him to give a public lecture.

If you replaced “Jewish Science” with “Western Culture” and talked about how Einstein’s work was sexist and racist rather than harmful to the German race, there would be no difference between what happened to Einstein and what is happening to speakers and academics today. Not only was the language and insane logic the same, the tactics are exactly the same.

But it is everyone but them who is “fascist”.

[Sevo]

“I am re-reading the book The Making of the Atomic Bomb right now. It is one of those books that is so good and so dense, you can read again every few years and still enjoy it”

I can easily add a bunch to that list, but “Dark Sun” certainly qualifies, too.
But they could have saved some paper and left off Rhodes SJW moralizing.

[some guy]

So, I’d be justified in violence against Bray as a form of preemptive self-defense against his desire to limit everyone’s (and therefore my) freedom to speak?

[Sevo]

How NOT to get your message across:
I’m convinced there is some real concern regarding over-use of antibiotics in farm animals, and therefore see non-coercive methods of reducing it as a good idea. But if you are going to do so, you’d better make sure your message isn’t muddied:

“Chipotle, Panera get A’s as report grades fast food chains on antibiotics use”
[…]
“Chipotle and Panera Bread are the only chains out of 25 that received A’s for their policies on chicken, pork and beef.”
http://www.sfchronicle.com/foo…..230720.php

Picking a restaurant chain most famous for poisoning its patrons says there’s something wrong with your selection method.
Back to the PR folks for a re-think, here.

[Don't look at me.]

Oddly enough, it was bacteria that was making people sick.