Abortion Ban Passes House, Paddock's Weapons Were Modified Semi-Automatics, 120 Jailed in St. Louis Protest: A.M. Links

• 

  Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Newscom

  The World Anti-Doping Agency is removing cannabidol, or CBD, from the list of substances banned in sports.

• A house bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks passed Tuesday.
• One of the abortion ban's supporters, Republican Rep. Tim Murphy (Texas), is under fire for reportedly trying to convince his mistress to get an abortion earlier this year.
• Around 120 people were jailed last night after a protest in St. Louis.
• Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock used semiautomatic weapons that he had modified with a bump stock to perform like a fully automatic weapon.
• Paddock's longtime girlfriend Marilou Danley returned from the Philippines last night.
• "I used to think gun control was the answer," writes Leah Libresco at The Washington Post. "My research told me otherwise."
• How the elderly lost their rights.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

The World Anti-Doping Agency is removing cannabidol, or CBD, from the list of substances banned in sports.

Which is a combo of weed and human flesh?

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A house bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks passed Tuesday.

Was it a difficult delivery?

[Conchfritters]

The dead only know one thing, it is better to be alive.

[loveconstitution1789]

I wish they would have aborted that vote in the House.

[Dr Fallout]

Nah, it was a C-section.

[loveconstitution1789]

Who's crowning achievement is this again?

[Bee Tagger]

Around 120 people were jailed last night after a protest in St. Louis.

There's always next year, Cardinals fans.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...for reportedly trying to convince his mistress to get an abortion earlier this year.

To be fair his mistress might also have been his long lost sister. You just don't know.

[Rat on a train]

Did he threaten to kill her to trigger the danger to mother clause?

[Chipper Morning, Mean Girl]

Motheeeeer!
If you wanna find hell with me,
I can show you what it's liiiiiike,
Till you're bleeeding...

[Conchfritters]

I always wanted to go to a Danzig concert back in the day, but I was too afraid.

[Zeb]

Yeah, you might get punched by Glen. In the video for the live version of Mother, I'm pretty sure he punches someone in the audience.

[Rat on a train]

The audience member was probably a Nazi.

[End Child Unemployment]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfD7agP1yxw
Not sure I'd be so scared to walk Danzig's way after watching this.

[Jerryskids]

A house bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks passed Tuesday.

It's not viable, it'll be terminated in the Senate.

[damikesc]

Most likely. And the GOP will wonder why its base disdains them so and votes against the establishment's proposed candidates. Because lying to voters so blatantly for years shouldn't generate blowback.

[CE]

I'm pro-life, but I don't see how this should be a federal crime. Don't we still have a Constitution specifying what areas Congress has lawmaking authority over?

[Bee Tagger]

"I used to think gun control was the answer," writes Leah Libresco at The Washington Post. "My research told me otherwise."

Prepare to have Twitter tell you otherwise again.

[Citizen X - #6]

Abusively and at great length.

[Chipper Morning, Mean Girl]

I can't believe WaPo published this article.

[reads the comments, feels brain cells screaming in pain]

[Rufus The Monocled]

I have to wade into the comments later.

But not before I prepare an espresso.

[Citizen X - #6]

These masturbation euphemisms are getting pretty abstract.

[Chipper Morning, Mean Girl]

Rufus always prepares his espressos with love.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Not true. Sometimes with corse bitterness.

[Eek Barba Durkle]

That's right...abstract that euphemism...abstract it harder...a little faster...

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

Apostate! She will be purged--with fire!

[CE]

the truth doesn't matter, just a feeling about what is right and what ought to be done

[Michael Ejercito]

That depends on what the question is.

If the question is, "How do we put more black men in prison?"

Gun control is an answer.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock used semiautomatic weapons that he had modified with a bump stock to perform like a fully automatic weapon.

Bump fire mods, your days are numbered.

[Jerryskids]

Don't be blaming the mods, it's the admins that control everything.

[damikesc]

As was pointed out in response to Hillary, if he had a silencer, it would've saved lives. Those things don't work well when the gun gets hot and auto fire does that.

[Bee Tagger]

The World Anti-Doping Agency is removing cannabidol, or CBD, from the list of substances banned in sports.

So you're allowed to eat Mark McGwire now, but will you get busted *his* steroids, then?

[Mickey Rat]

Mark McGuire is a limited resource.

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

Mark McGuire jokes? Is it 1998? Are you still writing for The Magic Hour?

My God.

[Libertarian]

If you think that's old, you really wouldn't like my Lincoln/Ford's theatre joke

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

I've got a *Martha Washington slept here* joke that'll have you spitting out your wooden teeth.

[CE]

The McGwire was a little tough, but I found the Sosa only so-so.

[Fist of Etiquette]

"I used to think gun control was the answer," writes Leah Libresco at The Washington Post. "My research told me otherwise."

"I used to not be a pariah among my circle of friends..."

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

Doing honest research on the gun control issue would certainly make one a pariah in certain circles. You're supposed to just feeeeeeeeeeeeel...

[Get To Da Chippah]

Soon enough WaPo will issue an apology for publishing the editorial, along the lines of "We didn't realize the harm the words would cause..."

[Fist of Etiquette]

How the elderly lost their rights.

That's what they get for not voting reliably.

[loveconstitution1789]

Who are you again?

[TrickyVic (old school)]

Doesn't matter, get off my lawn!

[CE]

That's First of the Equestrians, fastest commenter on the nets.

[Fist of Etiquette]

And in the sheets.

[68W58]

That story really was infuriating-one day some jumped up nobody shows up at your house with a piece of paper and you lose all you had worked a lifetime for.

Seems like a perfectly good example of why the Second Amendment is so critical.

[target]

yes, after a clarification that she would be sending armed men to arrest them if they resisted the taking of their property, all because she called around getting medical information that is supposed to have doctor-patient confidentiality, shooting this armed robber would be the next item on the to do list.

[Citizen X - #6]

Paddock's longtime girlfriend Marilou Danley returned from the Philippines last night.

I believe we've already jumped to the conclusion that she is a Muslim who radicalized Paddock. Case closed!

[John]

I haven't jumped to that conclusion. But, even the freak of freaks Adam Lanze had a reason for what he did, albeit an irrational one. So this guy had some reason for doing this. He didn't just snap. The longer this goes on and the more cagey the police get about his motive, the more I think it was because he was a radical Muslim. Whether that involved his girlfriend or not, who knows.

[Zeb]

I would think that if he was a radical Muslim, he would have made sure people knew it. But you never know, I guess.

It's also possible that knowledge of his motivations died with him. The police could be cagey simply because they have no clue and they are under a lot of pressure to provide some kind of answers.

[John]

You would think so, yes. But you would think he would have let people know whatever his reason and he apparently didn't. Also, maybe he did let people know and the cops haven't let that out yet?

Yes, the police may be being cagey because they don't know. But, they also have a long history of denying the obvious in cases of Islamic terrorism. The FBI tried to claim Orlando wasn't a case of terrorism, even though the guy called a TV station during the shooting and said he was doing this for ISIS. If the will deny that, it is hardly unreasonable to think they are ignoring or hiding evidence this guy had been radicalized in hopes they can find another motive or cover the evidence up well enough to say "we will just never know".

[Citizen X - #6]

Yeah, the police not having an explanation is a lot more believable than the police covering up a secret jihadist attack.

[John]

Really Citizen X? The same police who denied Orlando was a jihadist attack? The same police who called Fort Hood "workplace violence"? Time and again the police have tried to lie and cover up cases of Jihadists attacks. I find it much more believable that they are doing that here than this guy went nuts and left no signs whatsoever why. It is possible that he left no signs that haven't been discovered by now but unlikely. In contrast, the police lying and trying to cover up a jihadist attack is SOP for the FBI in these cases.

[Zeb]

The surprising and hard to believe part would be if they successfully covered up a jihadist attack. They can try to spin it like in teh cases you mention, but they weren't fooling anyone who didn't want to be fooled.

[John]

Long-term yes. But not this near to the shooting. I am not saying the truth will never come out. I am saying the fact that it hasn't yet is strong evidence that the guy did radicalize and the police are trying to avoid admitting that or find another motive.

[Citizen X - #6]

Yes, really, John. Occam's Razor isn't some leftist plot. Until further evidence comes out - which it will - i'm gonna say Paddock's reason was ?\_(?)_/?.

[John]

Past experience trumps Occam's Razor. Occam's Razor is when you have no evidence to go on. Here we do. We have countless examples of the police being loath to admit the motive was Islamic extremism. It is, therefore, more likely that is what is going on here than the default answer of "those things happen'. It is not a leftist conspiracy. It is the proven behavior of police in these cases.

Is it a leftist conspiracy to doubt the police when they say a police shooting was "fully justified"? I don't think so. Same thing here.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

I think it was revenge for Seth Rich.

[Domestic Dissident]

Someone or something radicalized the guy, and it was almost certainly either someone sympathetic to the jihadis, or the election of Trump that pushed him over the edge.

I've seen some people on the internet with the theory that it's payback for his father being arrested 57 years ago, and then rearrested 40 years ago after escaping prison. But the idea that he's finally getting his "revenge" for his father by killing innocent people decades later strikes me as being far less plausible than that it was someone or something that affected him much more recently in his life.

And then of course there's the little matter that ISIS has claimed he did it for them, a fact which of course a;; the Islamophilic liberals like Citizen Crusty, Zeb, and most of the "mainstream" media handwave away because they desperately don't want to believe it.

[John]

The problem with the "he was mad about getting dumped by his girlfriend" or "he was angry about his father" theories is that the concert was the wrong target for that. The loser in Charleston thought black men were taking white women from him and shot up a black church. He didn't go shoot up a Toby Keith concert. If the guy was pissed about his father, he would have shot a bunch of cops or FBI agents or judges. If he was angry about his girlfriend dumping him, he would have killed her or maybe targeted other Asian women.

As I said above, even the freak of freaks Adam Lanza had a reason for targeting that school that made sense inside his warped sense of reality and rationality. This guy did too.

[Citizen X - #6]

Simple Mikey trusts that ISIS would never lie to take advantage of a mediapathic spectacle! If there's other evidence that Paddock went full jihadi, then i'll believe it - i'm not going to go solely on the word of a bunch of murderous medieval assholes, though you can if you want to.

[Zeb]

Right. It's much better just to make shit up and then believe that. Actual evidence and facts are for liberal fags.

Why would you believe ISIS?

[Domestic Dissident]

Because ISIS has a lot more credibility than you do.

[Citizen X - #6]

Because ISIS has a lot more credibility than you do.

Simple Mikey, ladies and gentlemen!

[Zeb]

So, you have to choose between what I say (which has been pretty much nothing one way or another, if you've been paying attention) or ISIS? Those are the only sources of information available?

[Brendan]

When I heard Philippines, I thought of Terry Nichols and the weird coincidences surrounding him - apparently he and Ramzi Yousef were in Cebu City at the same time before the OKC bombing. Yousef made multiple calls in the months before WTC bombing to the Filipino neighbor and friend to Nichols' wife's cousin in Queens.

Link

Even if Nichols didn't ever actually meet Yousef, they seemed to have some common connections.

It's tenuous at best, but still interesting.

[Episteme]

I had presumed that she was a fully-automatic weapon disguised in a lady suit?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Around 120 people were jailed last night after a protest in St. Louis.

Around two dozen more and it would have gotten gross in that cell.

[Citizen X - #6]

Numeracy puns, Eugene? Really?

[Fist of Etiquette]

I've decided to class up the joint.

[Lily Bulero]

Have fun in the Augean Stables, Hercules.

[Chipper Morning, Mean Girl]

I think H&R is more akin to the Cretan Bull.

[Citizen X - #6]

Some kind of bull, anyway.

[Citizen X - #6]

Gotcha. When are you planning to start?

[Mickey Rat]

Mr. Bilbo approves.

[Citizen X - #6]

How the elderly lost their rights.

According to my grandparents, it's because FDR didn't make it to his 8th term.

[Conchfritters]

They would complain, but... what were we talking about again?

[Chipper Morning, Mean Girl]

Shhh, Matlock is on.

[loveconstitution1789]

Is the way to the Country Kitchen Buffet?

[Episteme]

According to my grandparents, it was just because of FDR.

[Bee Tagger]

How the elderly lost their rights.

More like A.A.R.G.H., right?

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

Pirate jokes? Really?

My God.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

They wouldn't write out AARGH, they'd just say it.

[Brandybuck]

Maybe they were dictating.

[Lily Bulero]

"Around 120 people were jailed last night after a protest in St. Louis."

After demonstrators blocked a highway.

[Conchfritters]

I actually go out of my way to try and not piss off truckers, but then again I drive a Honda. These fuck wads were on foot?

[Lily Bulero]

Truckers have hearts of gold - haven't you seen Smokey and the Bandit, Parts I and II?

[Conchfritters]

I still have a CB in my Honda and listen to channel 19 when on long road trips. Those guys are super understanding of protesters who block the highways and delay them for hours to highlight an incident that literally has nothing to do with them.

[Lily Bulero]

"So you're saying the convenience of truck drivers matters more than BLACK LIVES?!?!?!?!?!"

[damikesc]

"So you're saying the convenience of truck drivers matters more than BLACK LIVES?!?!?!?!?!"

They don't seem to matter much to other black folks...

[Episteme]

Perishable Vegetable Lives Matter

[John]

I am sure they are happy to lose money and time as their contribution to fighting the man. At some point, someone is going to run a bunch of these dumb fuckers down and a jury and going to let them walk for it. It will be high comedy.

[Lily Bulero]

The videos I've seen didn't result in the driver going before a jury, IIRC.

[Chinny Chin Chin]

If someone runs a bunch of those dumb fuckers and a jury lets them walk, there will be riots.

That might lend a certain pathos to the high comedy.

[John]

There won't be riots. No one gives a shit about the protestors.

[Zeb]

No one gave a shit about Michael Brown before he got killed. Yet here we are.

[John]

Lots of people give a shit about someone murdered by the cops. The reason is that they want an excuse to hate the cops. The protesters are different in this case Zeb. They won't be murdered by cops most importantly. Also, they are often mostly white. No one in the black community is going to riot over a dead cracker.

[Zeb]

You may be right. I hope we don't find out. And I doubt we will. If getting held up by these idiots is a big time and money loser, going on trial for running down some protestors on the highway is way more of one.

[Lily Bulero]

"reportedly trying to convince his mistress to get an abortion earlier this year"

If that's true, voters can replace him with an actual prolifer.

Meanwhile, he can at least avoid condemning other babies to the fate he desired for his own child.

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

Did Trump Mix Up the Air Force and Coast Guard During His Puerto Rico Visit?

President Donald Trump lavished the Coast Guard with kudos during his Tuesday visit to storm-ravaged Puerto Rico, piling on the praise until being politely informed he was actually addressing a representative of the Air Force.

"A lot of people got to see the real Coast Guard during this incredible trouble, and especially I think here and in Texas was incredible what they did. So thank you all very much.... We appreciate it. Really appreciate it," Trump said during a briefing on hurricane recovery efforts held at the Luis Mu?iz Air National Guard Base.

"Would you like to say something on behalf of your men and women?" the commander in chief then asked.

"Sir, I'm representing the Air Force," came the response.

The following line is from an official White House transcript: THE PRESIDENT: No, I know that.

lol

[BestUsedCarSales]

What's sadder is he's been president for months and still no one has told him the Coast Guard is just a myth.

[loveconstitution1789]

The Coast Guard is the brown water navy.

[loveconstitution1789]

"...held at the Luis Mu?iz Air National Guard Base."
So this "Air Force rep" was actually a Puerto Rican Air National Guard rep- not Air Force.

Trump could never have meant military folks saying something on behalf of other military folk.

TDS all the way down.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

Maybe he was just pitting the Air Force against the Coast Guard. Generating some productive rivalry, y'know?

[loveconstitution1789]

I tend to default to assuming TDS, since that is what the media is all about these days.

Making conflict out of nothing.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Rex Tillerson called Trump a 'moron' as he considered resigning as Secretary of State

Just days earlier, Tillerson had openly disparaged the president, referring to him as a "moron," after a July 20 meeting at the Pentagon with members of Trump's national security team and Cabinet officials, according to three officials familiar with the incident.

https://goo.gl/s63HWt

[Jerryskids]

I see where Netanyahu is backing a bill to annex some of the settlements around Jerusalem into Jerusalem proper - this has of course "sparked criticism" as the NPR newsreader sonorously reported. It's not as if the critics who hate Jews and hate Israel are going to criticize Israel no matter what, it's Israel's fault for instigating this latest round of anger by provoking the Arabs with their continued existence.

[Lily Bulero]

Certainly, Israel (if it has sense) will hold onto the territories it conquered in war so long as other countries and groups persist in being at war with them.

Every other power which controlled Jerusalem did so without restriction - Israel probably thinks why can't we do so, too? And that means designating the expanding Jerusalem as an integral part of Israeli territory, not just an occupied area to be traded in exchange for peace (a prospect which seems fairly dim at present).

[Conchfritters]

It's Israel's fault all their neighbors invaded them in 1948, 1967, and 1973 - their country is small, and of course, Jewish. How dare they keep that land after defeating their enemies?

[loveconstitution1789]

Israelis did seize the land from their gracious Muslim hosts in 1947.

How dare Muslims want their land back.

Another reason why allowing immigrants who don't like you into your country is a bad idea.

[Episteme]

If Israel hadn't been dressed like that...

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

1 in 4 men would consider having sex with a robot

Anthropomorphic, hyper-sexualized robots are no longer just the stuff of science-fiction fantasies. In fact, mechanical lovers are becoming increasingly realistic and technologically advanced, so much so that Dr. Ian Pearson, a futurist known for his 85% accuracy record, guesses that, by 2050, sex with robots will be more common than human love-making.

According to new data from YouGov Omnibus, 49% of Americans agree with Dr. Pearson that having sex with robots will become common practice sometime within the next 50 years. However, not everyone is prepared for this shift. For example, just 9% of women would consider getting frisky with a robot. However, men are much more open to the idea ? one in four men (24%) would at least think about taking an automaton lover.

Or, "more men are truthful about their level of sexual depravity than women are." And really, we've all done worse than a robot.

[Fist of Etiquette]

This is where cyborgs come from.

[Citizen X - #6]

As usual, Frank Zappa was right.

[Chipper Morning, Mean Girl]

3 Out Of 4 Men Would Lie About What They Would Stick Their Dick In

[Eek Barba Durkle]

It's not fair that people make super obvious jokes before I've had the chance.

[John]

Pretty much. The answer all depends on the robot, doesn't it? If they ever come up with a robot like the ones out of Blade Runner, the answer is going to be yes.

[Eek Barba Durkle]

Until a certain age, most dudes will stick their junk in a ragged ceramic hole if they think they can get a nut off of it.

If you'll fuck a sock, you'll fuck a vaguely-humanish fuckbot.

[John]

It says "3 out of 4 men" not "3 out of 4 adolescents".

[Lily Bulero]

"Richie, come over here, your father says it's time I make a man out of you."

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

I don't know that I would consider it depraved to want to have sex without a lot of whining and drama.

[Libertarian]

Truly, this is a bitch slap that makes Krakatoa sound like a whisper.

[Maven Houlihan]

And the woman's reaction is pretty bad too.

[lafe.long]

just 9% of women would consider getting frisky with a robot

Hitachi Magic Wand sales numbers belie this statistic.

[BestUsedCarSales]

I was thinking that too. Or any vibrator. It's probably a good thing too. Certain groups are already condeming this, but if this helps keep people whose sole reason for relationships is sex from accidental pregnancy I think that's a gain overall

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

Is it sex?

This is the most important philosophical question of the near-future. Not AI or genetic engineering or self-directed eugenics or whatever, but whether ejaculating with the aid of a robot counts as sex.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

Oh, right, and:

DON'T DATE ROBOTS

[lap83]

don't stick it in coldly sane

[lap83]

the other 3 out of 4 would just do it without considering it first

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

You think so negatively about men!

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

Blade Runner's 2019 Los Angeles helped define the American city of the future

Blade Runner offers one of the densest and most richly detailed depictions of the future ever put on film; it's an urban design statement as much a movie. And its vision is relentlessly bleak. It's a movie about a future set in a city in which there is no future.

Yet the urban future it envisions is in some ways not too far from our own, and the reality turns out to be far less grim than what the movie projected. Despite its pessimism, the movie has helped define our own collective sense of what great urban environments should look like. It plays like a warning, but it helped invent the future as we know it today.

A TreasonNNous traitor wrote something interesting for the enemy, and I for one do not approve of such madness.

[Rhywun]

Interesting but a bit of a reach if you ask me.

The combination of realism and romanticism makes the movie's 2019 Los Angeles a place you can imagine not only going to but wanting to visit.

And today, in a sense, you can: Walk through Midtown Manhattan and it's hard not to see it as a better-lit cousin of Ridley Scott's LA, packed with fascinating fashions and endless commerce, building-size advertisements and sizzling street food.

Gee, and none of that existed before 1982!

[John]

In fairness, midtown Manhattan was a collection of decaying buildings, piles of garbage, bums and peep shows in the 1980s. Unless you count the hookers pulling tricks, the drug deals and the robbery, there wasn't much commerce going on back then.

The only thing that makes it look Blade Runner-like now is the advent of large high definition advertising video screens. In that sense, Times Square looks more like Bade Runner than the movie does.

[Rhywun]

I think all that stuff's been exaggerated to the point that people misremember things as much worse than they actually were. "There wasn't much commerce"? Are you kidding? The sleaze you're describing was concentrated along a one-block stretch of 42nd Street. Midtown is twelve avenues across and thirty blocks up and down.

[John]

Very true Rywun. I was absolutely exaggerating. My real point is that the only thing that makes any of these places look like Blade Runner is the big video screens.

It is pretty remarkable that the author of that piece could take a Phillip K, Dick created dystopia and think it is the kind of place you want to visit. I wonder if he read 1984 and thought Oceania seemed like an exciting vacation spot.

[Dr Fallout]

"He say you bwade wunner"

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

"I used to think gun control was the answer," writes Leah Libresco at The Washington Post. "My research told me otherwise."

This is a great read - it's always nice when a political writer is thoughtful and open-minded.

[Lily Bulero]

Of course gun control is the answer - if you don't agree you're asking the wrong question.

[Fist of Etiquette]

She's a b*tch who doesn't to do something. I'm not saying I'll join the myriad on social media who will no doubt soon wish that someone she loves befall gun violence, but...

[BestUsedCarSales]

I'm glad to see I'm not the only same one here who believes in something

[TrickyVic (old school)]

It's all just one something after another.

[lap83]

+1, it was possibly the only time I was able to get through a full WaPo article

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

One of the abortion ban's supporters, Republican Rep. Tim Murphy (Texas), is under fire for reportedly trying to convince his mistress to get an abortion earlier this year.

Or: "How a woman who fucked an old, married man gets her revenge."

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

How the elderly lost their rights.

"It all started when they canceled Murder She Wrote, Touched By An Angel, and J.A.G..."

[Fist of Etiquette]

Uh, I think the various NCIS's more than makes up for it.

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

That is a terrible comparison, but if we must: Jessica Lansbury > Jethro Gibbs.

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

Oh no! Jessica Fletcher!

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

"Maaaaaatlock!!!"

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

Beaumont High School teacher accused of sex with student

A Beaumont High School English teacher is in custody accused of a lewd act on a 16-year-old female student.

On Sept. 25 San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department's Crimes Against Children Detail received a written report about the lewd act taking place at or near the suspect's home.

San Bernardino County Sheriff's deputies say 37-year-old Chris Austin -- also known as Christina Jacobson -- was placed on leave by school administrators when they learned of the allegations.

Austin moved out of her residence and her whereabouts were unknown.

Fun fact:

This is the second Beaumont High School teacher to be arrested for allegedly having sex with a student in the past month.

The school's English department is awesome. Also, they're hiring.

[Get To Da Chippah]

Photo spread required with resume.

[Rich]

One of the abortion ban's supporters, Republican Rep. Tim Murphy (Texas), is under fire for reportedly trying to convince his mistress to get an abortion earlier this year.

He was just further researching the bill after an earlier in-depth probe.

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

Alex Morgan among group of Orlando City SC players kicked out of Disney World

"As we passed Spaceship Earth, I observed several people being escorted to the front," a deputy wrote. "They were all being very loud and belligerent toward staff around guests.

"I observed a white female, who was later identified as Alexandria Morgan yelling, screaming and taken (sic) video and possibly pictures. She appeared to be highly impaired."

The report goes on to say a deputy heard Morgan "make a loud verbal statement" that she knows the Orlando SWAT team.

Where have you gone, Joe Dimaggio, a nation turns it's lonely eyes to you...

[Lily Bulero]

She probably isn't the only Morgan involved in this incident...I hear that Captain Morgan had something to do with it.

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

I'm glad your back, because now my bad jokes don't seem nearly as bad anymore.

[John]

Lily is a lot funnier than you Crusty. It is a low bar for sure. But a bar she easily clears.

[Lily Bulero]

Come on, Crusty may have his crude side, but I don't see how I can really complain about that.

[John]

I am not complaining. I just think you are funnier.

[Lily Bulero]

Anyway, what do you mean "back," are you saying you see through some kind of disguise of mine?

[John]

It is the internet Lily, everyone is a sock puppet for someone.

[Lily Bulero]

OK, sure.

Sock it to me

(I can't quite tell if it's NSFW because the lyrics are not 100% intelligible)

[Stormy Dragon]

How the elderly lost their rights.

Everyone is making jokes, but did anyone read the article? That was the most terrifying fucking thing I've read in years.

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

did anyone read the article?

What are you, a fag?

[Stormy Dragon]

Yeah, yeah, I get it. "Libertarians" only care about Team Red virtue signalling stuff. People's lives actually getting destroyed by big government is just a joke unless there's a partisan angle to be exploited.

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

Exactly.

[loveconstitution1789]

"big government"

You mean big government that you lefties push for and Libertarians with some Republican fight against it?

[John]

I care about this. This stuff is horrifying. If there is one thing I don't care about is virtue signaling team red or otherwise.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

I know this place sucks, but that's no reason to go full Tony.

[John]

In all seriousness, what is your solution? There are people out there who are unable to manage their own affairs. What do you do with those people?

The problem is not so much guardianships, it is how guardianships are being administered. This is another case where the courts just don't do their jobs. The courts are supposed to monitor guardians and hold them accountable. They are supposed to act in the person's sted and make sure the guardian doesn't rip them off. They are also supposed to only grant guardianships in cases that warrant it.

The system would work if courts actually did their jobs. Courts, however, don't do their jobs and the abuses described in the article are endemic in the system. If you want to know why they don't, look in the mirror Stormy. Justice is like any other commodity, there is only so much of it. The more laws you expect the courts to enforce, the less likely they are to do justice in any individual case. You want to fix this, get rid of some laws so the courts have the time and resources to enforce the laws like this one that matter.

[Conchfritters]

amen - if we could only call adult protective services on the judges, maybe we could make progress. It's a shit show all the way down.

[Stormy Dragon]

I don't know what the solution is. Part of it may just be publicity. It looks like the only thing that got anything down about the odious Parks was when it started becoming a news story and her co-conspirators started getting worried.

That's kinda why it bothered me that everyone was treating it like a joke and I couldn't tell if they'd actually read it or not. It was something I'd never heard of before and it seems like it should be bigger news than a lot of the other stuff that people argue over.

[John]

If there is a lesson here, it is that it is really hard to administer laws. Politicians and judges act like writing law is the hard part. it is not. Any idiot can write a law saying how the world should be. The hard part is applying that law and figuring out the facts in any given situation. That takes effort and real judgment. Here, we have laws that on their face are not bad. But they result in total injustice because the courts and the judges don't make the effort to really examine the facts in each case and ensure that justice is done.

There are only so many people in the world that have the temperament and mind necessary to be a good judge. There is only so many hours in the day and so many cases that a court can really examine thoroughly. These guardianship laws have been around forever. A seventy or a hundred years ago when we have very few laws and were not a very litigious society, my guess is these cases got a lot of attention and were probably administered about as well as they could be. Today, we have a million laws and lawsuits over everything. And sure enough, the courts no longer have the time or the interest in ensuring the law is properly and justly applied in these cases. People keep writing laws thinking that because it is written it must be true and then never bothering to look at what comes out on the other end.

[68W58]

"People keep writing laws thinking that because it is written it must be true and then never bothering to look at what comes out on the other end."

Hear, hear!

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

It's a horrific case study, and one that nicely shows how ridiculous this kind of fraud is, but... bilking the elderly, abusing mental health claims, complicity or collusion with doctors and attorneys and judges, or using guardianship for profit is not exactly new. The beats of the story are very familiar.

[loveconstitution1789]

The same way underage people have their affairs administered - parents/guardians.

Lefties are just ignorant about most things and elder law is no different.

Millions of elderly people have zero trouble with people taking care of them and their assets. Its the horror stories in the news that get people to support more government- voila!

You are right about courts, which are government bureaucrats. No surprise there that they are not doing their jobs well.

[John]

I think perhaps the leftist jihad against the nuclear family has made this worse. If you don't have a child or a close family member to look out for you, you are much more likely to be taken advantage of.

[CE]

Whenever government fails at something, the answer is always more government.

[Episteme]

Read? Sorry, we all only speak emoji now!

FIRETRUCK PENIS HAPPY-CLOWN-FACE

[SRVolunteer]

I read it last night after Tyler Cowen linked it from his blog. It's pretty horrifying.

Right now I'm watching my mother-in-law fade away into dementia and she won't talk to her daughter about it / can't talk to her daughter about it. Basically, she's already lost her ability to reason effectively and she's slipped into paranoia and no longer trusts her children enough or understands her own limitations enough to understand that she's at best one step away from being able to take care of herself and more likely past the point. Her relatively poverty likely renders her immune to predators such as those in the article, but I worry about my own parents, who are younger and more capable but wealthy enough to be targets to the 'Guardians' described in the article.

Likewise myself, eventually.

[John]

It is utterly horrifying. And if you want to be more horrified, think about this in light of societies sliding down the slippery slope of euthanasia. Whenever some well-intentioned right thinking person shows up wanting to do good, it always ends in one place; murdering the unfit and unwanted. The road to hell isn't the only thing paved with good intentions. The road to mass murder is paved with them as well.

[Lily Bulero]

Weakness is the greatest crime to some people.

While prepping the public with stories of 30-year-old terminal cancer patients sitting with their friends like Socrates and swallowing some hemlock, the anti-lifers will move on to "having conversations" with old dudes flat on their back in the hospital ("have you considered the costs you're imposing on your loved ones?").

[Lily Bulero]

(and on the state - this will be the one place where progs discover how deeply they care about government overspending)

[John]

Weakness in others. Their own weakness, which is inevitably great in these sorts of creatures, is, of course, totally acceptable. It is everyone else' weakness that justifies their murder.

[SRVolunteer]

On the other hand, there's this:

http://slatestarcodex.com/2013.....low-decay/

[John]

Death sucks. It always has. Beyond that, withholding treatment and letting nature run its course is different than telling doctors it is okay to murder their patients. The question is which slippery slope do you want to step on; the one that risks people receiving too much care and dying in the ways the doctor in that link describes or the one that leads to society deciding it is okay to murder anyone it views as weak or unfit? I don't about you, but I will take my chances with living a bit too long and dying in a pool of my own waste looped out on morphine.

[68W58]

From the comments below that piece: "Live free or die, death is not the worst of evils."
Amen to that.

[John]

No death isn't the worst of evils. Murder, however, is. The problem is what do you do once you are unable to kill yourself? Who decides your life is no longer worth anything and it is okay to murder you? Who do you want to give that power to?

[68W58]

Well, you're an attorney John-what legal remedies exist to prevent something like this from happening?

Maybe the transhumanists are right and at some point science will restore everyone's youthful vitality, in which case we will all either not die or die of something sudden and unforeseen. Barring that we are all going to die someday and I would rather slip off into nothingness in my own home surrounded by all the things I have gathered over my life which remind me of what I have been and done and the life I made for myself. I will never let someone take me from my home as long as I can resist for that reason. There have been members of my family who died in exactly that manner and if was not much of a burden to those of us left behind and I would prefer it to losing all of that and dying in some hospital or home having been forced to leave all of that behind.

[John]

The best thing you can do is write a living will that instructs what if any life-saving measures should be taken. That solves a lot of it. But you can't solve all of it. Like I say above, death sucks. Very few people who have ever lived have been able to die on their own terms. Most people in history have died in some kind of violent and or miserable way. And there is really no way to get around that short of just murdering people before they get to that point.

[68W58]

Good advice thanks. A heart attack while I'm out tending to my garden doesn't sound so bad (that's how my great-grandfather went). Maybe a man should stockpile heroin for the day that he can't manage that anymore-doesn't sound like such a bad way to go.

[SRVolunteer]

I will never let someone take me from my home as long as I can resist for that reason.

My MIL has the same attitude. This is the same MIL, who came over two Christmases ago, had breakfast with us (several breakfast casseroles, a couple of sweet treats, etc). Then, 3 hours later, commented how strange it was she didn't feel hungry, given that she had skipped breakfast that morning. The same MIL who, at a recent Saturday get-together, asked where her grandson was 4 or 5 times ("he's working today", we said, every time) and showed no sign of being able to retain that information. The same MIL who asked my wife's cousin if she had ever met my wife at another get together. Of course they had met, many times over the last 4 decades. Her house is falling apart, she regularly bounces checks or lets bills lapse because doing them is too stressful. She won't let us help, except to give her money. She still drives, slowly and carefully and only to the 4-5 places whose locations she can remember, but her world and her capability to be out in it is shrinking.

(1/2)

[SRVolunteer]

(2/2)

I am not an expert who can determine when she has become a danger to herself or others, but we've consulted with her physician who says that her daughter would be on firm grounds taking guardianship. If she does that the first thing she will do is get her mother out of that house that she cannot afford, where she lives alone. I suspect that if she lives long enough to force our hand, the only reason she would not resist with a gun is that she does not have one.

[SRVolunteer]

(bonus)

Apparently, one of the first things we will need to do if my wife takes guardianship is take the MIL's car keys away. As I understand it, if we claim that she is no longer competent to care for herself AND we let her drive around, we expose ourselves to significant legal risk.

[Stormy Dragon]

This is one big advantage of self driving cars; it will make the elderly significantly more mobile.

[Stormy Dragon]

My own parents are in the process of planning their move to an elder care facility, even though they're both perfectly capable of remaining in their home if they wanted to.

A big part of it is that you will fare much better if you enter a retirement facility via independent living rather than being forced into assisted or skilled care during a crisis. As with most things, the longer you wait, the fewer options you usually have available.

[68W58]

"If she does that the first thing she will do is get her mother out of that house that she cannot afford"

Well, that's not really an issue as my house is paid for and my bills are small. But, I'll tell you-I've spent a lot of time and effort sacrificing to have it and I won't let anyone force me out of it-ever. Make of that what you will, but I will stand on it to my last breath because I might as well be dead otherwise.

[SRVolunteer]

Stormy Dragon:

The wife's father and stepmother are moving out of their house into a condo that is much less work. They recognize their current and oncoming mental and physical impairments and are preparing for them. Perhaps it's easier because they have each other to depend on, and they trust each other, whereas my mother-in-law is already to far gone down the demented/paranoid rabbit hole.

68W58:

My MIL's house is paid for and her bills are small. She can just afford to live there so long as she makes no mistakes and pays no late fees or bounced check fees. Unfortunately the last few years there have been more and more of those, and now her monthly interest on her maxed-out credit card is probably tipping the scale for her. I believe the start of her financial troubles is that she believed her status as someone who did not have to file income taxes also exempted her from paying property taxes, and she did not pay property taxes for several years. (She blames her ex husband for this, because he always took care of the property taxes. They have been divorced for nearly 30 years) If you keep your mental faculties, it's unlikely that anything like this will ever happen to you. But things like this do happen to a lot of people.

[68W58]

It was terrible-a perfect example of why the Second Amendment is crucial to maintaining one's freedoms. If some jumped up nobody showed up at your house waving a piece of paper around and saying that you have to obey them I would hope that no jury would convict you of shooting all of them on the spot.

[Stormy Dragon]

Yeah, if you need to convince people you're not demented, waving a gun around really helps.

[Stormy Dragon]

(That was sarcasm, BTW)

[68W58]

I get your sarcasm, but what else might they have done. If hope to God that if someone shows up at your house ordering you about and you defend yourself that a jury would see who is actually demented.

[Rhywun]

So the monster in that article comes back another day with a SWAT team and you go down in hail of bullets. Yay.

[68W58]

At the very least I would have died on my own terms-that's not nothing. Maybe I call my attorney in the interim and get an injunction (I really don't know). But I'll tell you, I'd rather die than let some bureaucratic nobody take from me the things I spent a life building-might as well be dead in that case.

[Lily Bulero]

I'd look into the Little Sisters of the Poor. I'm sure they've been vetted by the media looking for something discreditable during their Supreme Court cases. The media silence is encouraging, though not dispositive.

[John]

One thing is for sure, no member of that order has even been proven to have molested a kid or it would have been a front-page story by now.

[Stormy Dragon]

Equifax just scored a $7 million contract to protect the IRS from fraud

The posting identifies the contract as a "sole source order," which indicates that the government thinks Equifax is the only company that can do the job. The designation also means the government doesn't need to open up a competitive bidding process to let other companies make a pitch.

[Lily Bulero]

Pfft...its not like they're being hired for their expertise on privacy issues. It's about preventing fraud.

[loveconstitution1789]

Good. I thought they would be bankrupt by the time I won my lawsuit against them.

[Citizen X - #6]

How the elderly lost their rights.

"Guardianship derives from the state's parens patriae power, its duty to act as a parent for those considered too vulnerable to care for themselves. "The King shall have the custody of the lands of natural fools, taking the profits of them without waste or destruction, and shall find them their necessaries," reads the English statute De Prerogative Regis, from 1324."

The state, of course, decides what "vulnerable" means in a given situation, so that's how.

[CE]

Who gets to decide who a natural fool is? Because I have a long list.

[loveconstitution1789]

Israel menaced by killer clown crime

How did this not make the Crusty daily hoedown?

[Lily Bulero]

Krusty the Klown is Jewish, isn't he? Does anyone know his whereabouts?

Though it's probably Sideshow Bob (SPOILER ALERT) dressed up as Krusty.

[Rhywun]

His third nipple made him do it.

[KevinP]

The Las Vegas shooter link goes to the Huffington Post. Can we avoid quoting the Huffington Post on the subject of guns? They know nothing about the subject.

[Rhywun]

I've been complaining for months about all the links going to lefty junk like WaPo and NYT. It's a losing battle.

[lap83]

True, but today's WaPo article she linked to is a notable exception. You should read it if you haven't already

[Rhywun]

Which one? Three of the links go there today.

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

The gun control article is very good.

[lap83]

oops, yeah that one

[CE]

The NYT is lefty, but mostly responsible journalism.
The WaPo is like a parody of a newspaper at this point.

[Brandybuck]

""A house bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks passed Tuesday.""

Congress only has the power to ban that in Federal territories and waterways.

[CatoTheChipper]

"Did Bump Stocks Make the Las Vegas Shooting Deadlier?"

No, but it made it a whole lot scarier.

I've done a bit of Google searching, and it looks like legally-owned automatic weapons and automatic-like weapons (e.g., an AR-15 with a bump stock) have very seldom been used in murders. And, by very seldom, I mean three or four times since 1934. And, one of those murders involved a cop who murdered an informant.

The LV shooting was horrific, but it was an exceedingly rare event. Still, I have no problem banning the bump stock: from what I understand, it is unsuited for any military purpose. Such a ban, however, is extremely unlikely to accomplish anything other than the self-satisfaction of legislators and anti-gun special interests.

[Crusty Juggler - Lawbertarian]

From my little bit of research, I got the sense that bump stocks are going to be banned because I got the pro-gun side will not fight it.

Such a ban, however, is extremely unlikely to accomplish anything other than the self-satisfaction of legislators and anti-gun special interests

Naturally, but feelings matter.

[loveconstitution1789]

"...unsuited for any military purpose"

Not that military purpose is a requirement for 2nd Amendment protection but turning a semi-auto rifle into a near fully auto rifle absolutely serves a military purpose.

If that the festival was actually a gathering of soldiers and an enemy soldier wanted to decimate as many gathered soldiers as possible, full auto is the way to go.

It's why there has been squad level machines guns since WWI.

[imo]

Abortion Ban Passes House, Paddock's Weapons Were Modified Semi-Automatics, 120 Jailed in St. Louis Protest: A.M. Links - Hit & Run : Reason.comis the best post by imo for pc Please visit imo app imo app snaptube for pc snaptube app