Don't Blame Poland for the Holocaust, FDA Calls Kratom an Opioid, Police Fight Stuffed Tiger for 45 Minutes: A.M. Links

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  John Korduner/Icon Sportswire AXA/John Korduner/Icon Sportswire/Newscom

  Poland has officially made it a crime to blame the nation for Holocaust crimes committed by German Nazis, "defying both criticism from Israel and a warning from the U.S.," reports CBS News.

• Scottish police got in a 45-minute standoff with a stuffed tiger.
• The Washington Post has published a handy timeline of the making and exposure of the Steele dossier.
• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is again sounding alarms about the supplement Kratom, which is says should be considered an opioid.
• "Women are having babies later in life," notes Market Watch, but there are also "more women [who] are deciding to become mothers, and mothers are having more babies."
• Fetal alcohol syndrome is more common than we thought.
• "Authorities never confirmed if a Snapchat predator had been involved in Cox's disappearance."
• "A cottage industry of digital-payment mechanisms for sex-focused businesses is emerging," reports Bloomberg.
• Westworld returns soon!

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Comments

[Bee Tagger]

Scottish police got in a 45-minute standoff with a stuffed tiger.

Maybe Hobbes needs to rethink his stance on government.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

Bad, Poland, bad.

/turns over Poland and spanks them.

[Rhywun]

I saw that Monty Python sketch.

[Citizen X - #6]

"A cottage industry of digital-payment mechanisms for sex-focused businesses is emerging," reports Bloomberg.

Digital Payment Mechanism For Sex-Focused Business was my nickname in college.

[JWatts]

Was it abbreviated to DipMeForSexFoB ?

[Citizen X - #6]

Sure, if you nasty.

[Mike Laursen]

Breaking Bad could have gone in a completely different direction if Walter had been a Math teacher.

[Bee Tagger]

The Washington Post has published a handy timeline of the making and exposure of the Steele dossier.

Does it reveal their plans for Le'veon Bell?

[Citizen X - #6]

I thought "making" and "exposure" were what the Steele dossier was all about?

[Bee Tagger]

By the way, where is Danielle Steel's publicist during all of this? It's a tragedy she hasnt found a way to capitalize on this yet.

[Citizen X - #6]

Fetal alcohol syndrome is more common than we thought.

As many of our commenters prove daily.

[Crusty Juggler]

How dare you!

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

I'm not a fetus!

[loveconstitution1789]

I'll drink to that!

[Bee Tagger]

"A cottage industry of digital-payment mechanisms for sex-focused businesses is emerging," reports Bloomberg.

I predict it will fully emerge at a low point in the news cycle.

[Crusty Juggler]

Millennials are afraid stocks are too risky, so they're investing in bitcoin

But despite the unpredictable nature of cryptocurrencies, some millennials find investing in it less intimidating than putting money in the stock market or other traditional investments.

Bitcoin is bae.

[Conchfritters]

A fool and their money are soon parted.

[Eek Barba Durkle]

I'm no millennial, but they're right on this one. IF they diversify.

Crypto will be the expressly dominant currency within 20-30 years. The stock market as currently constituted will be dead on the vine within another generation or two.

[Crusty Juggler]

Crypto will be the expressly dominant currency within 20-30 years.

Governments will fight it tooth and nail and another tooth.

[Citizen X - #6]

And some more nails, which our grandchildren will be paying for with trillion-dollar bills.

[Juice]

Dominant? LOL no
A bigger thing than now? Maybe.
But picking coins and blockchain platforms now is like picking dot coms in 1996.
99% of them will fail and most money invested will be wasted. A few will emerge victorious, but picking them now is a craps shoot and diversifying will actually be a bad idea.

[mad.casual]

Crypto will be the expressly dominant currency within 20-30 years. The stock market as currently constituted will be dead on the vine within another generation or two.

*facepalm*

Little old ladies will still be writing checks in 20 yrs. The only way crypto becomes the dominant currency is if you tie it more closely to existing currency and/or weaken the crypto and centralize the network (whether that's computing nodes or market access points is TBD), at which point, it won't be crypto. Visa, at pretty much any time in the last 50 yrs. could've implemented a perfectly secure currency/credit network. But, it turns out, crypto then and now is hard and costly and when the majority of your business and/or revenue comes from people buying eggs from their local grocer, it tends to look like wasteful overhead.

At some point, bitcoin or other digital currency could erode or displace trust in, say, the bond market to the point that people will want, not just the $20T to come due but the several other T's owed by fiat. Not only will the government(s) not want that, their constituents won't either. It wouldn't surprise me at all if, in the turmoil, the bitcoin network gets effectively nationalized (if the internet hasn't already been so prior to that).

[chipper me timbers]

It wouldn't surprise me at all if, in the turmoil, the bitcoin network gets effectively nationalized

*facepalm*

Bitcoin cannot be nationalized. That's the whole point of it. It is literally impossible to control Bitcoin.

[$park? leftist poser]

Well it did just lose 2/3 of its value over the past month...

[Rhywun]

Yeah, I'm thinking millenials haven't thought this through very clearly.

[loveconstitution1789]

Because people buy low and sell high and there is a finite amount of Bitcoin that government cannot completely control?

[$park? leftist poser]

So Bitcoin is a commodity and not a currency?

[loveconstitution1789]

People buy and sell currency too. People buy and sell gold which is both a commodity and currency.

Wrap your head around this: People use Bitcoin to buy things and to play the futures market.

[$park? leftist poser]

People buy and sell gold which is both a commodity and currency.

Orly? Who buys stuff with gold?

[loveconstitution1789]

Donald Trump accepted gold as payment.
Trump accepts gold as payment

[$park? leftist poser]

So Donald Trump one time accepted gold bars as payment for something. That's pretty cool that you found the one time in modern history that gold has been used as currency.

If you have something that has value of one form or another, you have a commodity. If all you do is sit on it watching the price go up and down, it stays a commodity. If you're never spending it on anything, it stays a commodity. What makes a thing currency is its circulation. If it's not circulating, it's not currency. I'm sure some people do actually spend their Bitcoin, but from what I keep hearing more people are just buying it and sitting on it. At some point it's going to be more accurate to call it a cryptocommodity.

[loveconstitution1789]

I see Poser. You are just going to double down on that ridiculous position.

Good luck with that.

I buy stuff with Bitcoin and gold. I also make money off the futures market with Bitcoin and gold plus other ventures.

Maybe someday someone will explain how things work to you.

I have to go make angels in my piles of money now.

[$park? leftist poser]

Maybe someday someone will explain how things work to you.

Oh I simply cannot wait for that day. Please, doofus, save me from myself.

[loveconstitution1789]

You need to get out more Poser.

[Scarecrow Repair & Chippering]

I live in the mountains. Some people here DO use gold to buy and sell normal physical goods, although not often and not for small stuff. Along with the usual illegal ingestibles, people trade gold for cars, trailers, even pay for work. Some gets turned into cash, some remains as is for later trading.

[JWatts]

"Well it did just lose 2/3 of its value over the past month..."

That just scares away the faint of heart. The true die hard investor is ready to double down!

[loveconstitution1789]

Yup. When Bitcoin gets back to $1000, I will be buying more. Then I will sell that when the price goes back up.

Many of the people that bought Bitcoin at less than $100 per Bitcoin have sold by now.

[Crusty Juggler]

Cornell fraternity under fire for 'pig roast' sex contest

Cornell University's Zeta Beta Tau fraternity is on probation after university officials were made aware of a sex contest some fraternity members were conducting called the "pig roast."

An investigation that concluded in January found that fraternity members held a contest where new members were encouraged to accumulate "points" by sleeping with women. If members tied, the winner was chosen by whoever had sex with a woman who weighed the most.

Vice president for student and campus life Ryan Lombardi said in a statement that the fraternity's behavior was "abhorrent", The Cornell Daily Sun reported.

"Behavior that degrades and dehumanizes women contributes to a climate and culture of tolerance for sexual violence," Lombardi said.

Burn that institution to the ground!

[Rhywun]

I'm surprised they still have fraternies. Git woke!

[loveconstitution1789]

PC Frat.

[Conchfritters]

Cmon, who didn't fuck a large girl in college?

[mad.casual]

#metoo

[BestUsedCarSales]

I didn't.

[silver.]

Weightist

[Leader Desslok]

Hey, nothing wrong with being a chubby chaser.

[$park? leftist poser]

Boring. I thought it was going to be how many guys could go Eiffel Tower on a fat chic with bonus points if you could spin her.

[Citizen X - #6]

Or at least the ol' Wobbly H.

[damikesc]

Do we ask what the percentages of men and women are campus are at Cornell?

Any bets that women are the majority? By a lot, actually?

[Rhywun]

52% female. Kinda surprised cuz I remember them as more STEM-oriented than the other Ivies.

[Zeb]

They also have the big hospitality management school and other things that attract more women.

[lap83]

"Pig roast sex contest"

Great band name

[silver.]

Fat people need sex, too. I don't see how this isn't a win for everybody. If a sorority distributed points for fucking me in college, I wouldn't complain.

[Leader Desslok]

I like the way this guy thinks.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Westworld returns soon!

Considering the first season took two years to debut, I'll take this with a grain of automaton salt.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Would it have killed the Pens to present Fleury with some hookers during the ceremony honouring him?

[Fist of Etiquette]

You don't want your prostitute to see you cry.

[loveconstitution1789]

N. Bluth disagrees. She's made a bundle on that.

[Fist of Etiquette]

"A cottage industry of digital-payment mechanisms for sex-focused businesses is emerging," reports Bloomberg.

As is a cottage war on it.

[Crusty Juggler]

Disney is actually developing multiple Star Wars shows

Fucking nerds.

[Mickey Rat]

They paid so much for that cash cow that by Walt they will suck it dry.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

Rian Johnson is doing a trilogy, and now D&D are doing a separate trilogy? They really are living up to the joke of putting out Star Wars movies for the next 30 years.

A TV show is a better way to keep SW on people's minds. The movies should not be coming out every friggin year, much less a few months apart. And I suspect that, when they say multiple shows for their streaming app, they mostly mean cheap animated fluff for the very young.

[damikesc]

Disney is going to replace Mickey Mouse as their icon with a character named Mary Sue.

[Conchfritters]

Sellers market it as a safe, "plant-based" product. But Gottlieb pointed out that heroin comes from plants."

We should get rid of all plants before anyone else has to die.

[Zeb]

Yeah, lots of plants are toxic.

But the shit about kratom is such bullshit. Yes, it is opioid like in its effects. But there is no evidence to indicate that it has anything like the addiction potential of normal opioids.

The one place it has been illegal for a long time is Thailand. And the reason for that is that it's use was interfering with the government opium monopoly.

The FDA would apparently prefer that people get addicted to pain pills than take a relatively safe and non-habit forming herb that has some similar effects.

[silver.]

It is habit-forming, but significantly less so than any traditional opiates. The ceiling on dose that causes users to puke profusely if they get greedy is a functional fail-safe. Some of the phytochemicals act as a partial agonist, and these reasons together are why it's essentially impossible to overdose on it. In fact, compared with other partial agonists like buprenorphine, it doesn't cause respiratory depression. This is likely due to the presence of other compounds that antagonize mu-opioid receptors, exactly like naloxone. Basically it just so happens to have the exact same pharmacological profile as buprenorphine/naloxone (Subutex) tablets, which are pretty much the best "treatment" we have for opiate addiction.

I don't usually buy into this "big pharma lobby" talk because most of these drugs are generic and dirt cheap, and the only reason "big pharma" and long patents have to exist is because FDA approval costs $3billion per drug, but something surely stinks about this.

Note that the FDA still has not recorded any deaths from kratom alone.

This is no different than the marijuana witchhunt of the past. The real science and the federal government "science" are in complete opposition. The serotonergic hallucinogens such as LSD and magic mushroom also have 0 confirmed deaths, unlike cocaine and methamphetamine, both of which are schedule II and available for prescription.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Fetal alcohol syndrome is more common than we thought.

So get out those twitter cameras and shame the hell out of the booze moms.

[Domestic Dissident]

Manuel Orrego-Zavala, the drunken illegal from Guatemala who killed Colts linebacker Edwin Jackson and Uber driver Jeffrey Monroe, is charged....... with illegally re-entering the country after deportation. Wait, WHAT???

[Mickey Rat]

Drunken manslaughter is not a federal crime. Why the local prosecutor has not filed charges yet is a mystery.

[Rhywun]

Hopefully he'll do another ten years for that after the ten years he does for the federal charges.

[Domestic Dissident]

Yep. He clearly has a prior criminal record, because illegal re-entry can only get you ten if you've been previously convicted of a felony or three misdemeanors against people.

Hopefully he does the full ten, and then the instant he steps out of federal prison the local authorities are there to take him into custody for the manslaughter charges.

[Zeb]

Is there a statute of limitations on manslaughter charges?

[The Laissez-Ferret]

If only we had open borders he would have never gotten drunk and killed those folks.

[Leo Kovalensky]

We need more laws, because the laws he violated which are already on the books aren't enough. People will die!

Sounds like a familiar argument... Where have I heard it before?

[Stormy Dragon]

People have gotten killed by drunk native drivers, therefore we should immediately institute a police state. /sarc

[loveconstitution1789]

Stormy really convinces a generation again.

There would literally be a 0% chance of that American dying because of that illegal, if the illegal did not enter the US illegally.

[Domestic Dissident]

If the democrats continue to refuse to improve border security as part of a comprehensive immigration reform deal, I strongly suspect those men's deaths are gong to feature rather prominently in a lot of republican campaigns this fall.

[Zeb]

True, but so what?

There are reasonable arguments to be made for trying to stop illegal immigration. That some immigrants might get drunk and drive a car isn't really one of them.

[Crusty Juggler]

What Is the Best Lube?

My list:
ID Glide
Your saliva
Their saliva
A drifer's blood

[Aloysious]

A good handful of Vaseline.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Certainly not tears. I learned that the hard way.

[loveconstitution1789]

Semen

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

STEVE SMITH ENJOY HANDFUL OF SAND.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is again sounding alarms about the supplement Kraton, which is says should be considered an opioid.

Whereas "is" shouldn't be considered a pronoun. BOOM. Typo burned.

[SQRLSY One]

Also the doofusses mis-spelled Kraton, it should be Kratom...

I have composed a song-poem in honor of Kratom, by the way...

The Kratomic Punk! (Let's Brew some Tea!)

I am a victim of the drug-war age
A child of the storm, whoa yes
I can't remember when I was your age
For me, it says no more, no more
Nobody rules these streets at night like me, the kratomic punk!
Whoa yeah, wow
I am the ruler of these drug-war worlds
The underground, whoa yes
On every wall and place my fearsome name is heard
Just look around, whoa yes
Nobody rules these streets at night like me, the kratomic punk!
Ooo, ahhh
I am the ruler of these drug-war worlds
The underground, oh, oh
On every wall and place my fearsome name is heard
Look around, whoa yeah
Nobody rules these streets at night like me, nobody, ah
The kratomic punk!

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

100 kratomic punks rule!

[silver.]

I knew you'd have something to say about the FDA's continuing hubris, but I didn't think you'd written a song.

You really hate the FDA.

Me too.

[SQRLSY One]

(Well, I kinda stole it from Van Halen's "Atomic Punk".)

[Leo Kovalensky]

Trump's 'marching orders' to the Pentagon: Plan a grand military parade

Here's a deal for you, end a war and we'll throw a parade.

[Rufus The Monocled]

I hate parades.

And clowns.

And circuses.

And that includes Cirque du Soleil.

[Rhywun]

Seriously. He's laying it on a little thick with his base don't you think.

[Crusty Juggler]

I don't think its possible to overplay to his base.

[Citizen X - #6]

Isn't "overplaying his base" why he allegedly paid hush money to Stormy Daniels?

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

He's his own base. Big league.

[Old Mexican - Mostly Harmless]

Comrade Trump wants a parase and, by Lenin! A parade the Boss shall get!

[Kivlor]

Did you mean to link to a different article than Napolitano's old Immigration opinion piece?

[Leo Kovalensky]

Sorry

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Washington Post has published a handy timeline of the making and exposure of the Steele dossier.

It would have been handy if we hadn't all moved on to the Nunes memo Schiff memo.

[Fist of Etiquette]

"Women are having babies later in life," notes Market Watch, but there are also "more women [who] are deciding to become mothers, and mothers are having more babies."

We need to stop chain gestation.

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

Poland is responsible for the Holocaust! Just getting a felony out of the way.

[Rhywun]

You get two more before midnight.... Go!

[$park? leftist poser]

"Women are having babies later in life," notes Market Watch, but there are also "more women [who] are deciding to become mothers, and mothers are having more babies."

Every time I see a drug commercial featuring some old lady crying about her disease while she rushes her preteens around I think "Maybe you shouldn't have waited so long to have kids, lady. Look what it's done to you." 50 is the new 30 my ass.

[Old Mexican - Mostly Harmless]

Speaking of aases and after many years of visiting the local ugly beach, I can definitely tell you that 50 is NOT the new 30. Not for most, at least.

[$park? leftist poser]

How many Pollocks does it take to burn some Jews?

31, one to turn the crank and 30 to make sure the oven works.

[Rhywun]

But it only takes one clever Pollock to throw paint at a canvas and sell it for millions of dollars.

[SQRLSY One]

I see what you did there...

(PS, I will smear my poop on the wall and call it art, if you pay me, say, $152.00 or more...).

[Zeb]

I'll do it for $135. And it will be brilliant.

[$park? leftist poser]

"Authorities never confirmed if a Snapchat predator had been involved in Cox's disappearance."

The girl was nuts. She ran away, they found her, she hung herself. It's her retarded mother trying to blame some scary Internet predator for her failure.

[Rhywun]

I usually let these things slide, but this story seems a little local to me.

[Rebel Scum]

"Authorities never confirmed if a Snapchat predator had been involved in Cox's disappearance."

He was gone in a flash.

[Rebel Scum]

Westworld returns soon!

I'm patiently awaiting the Waterworld prequel.

[Crusty Juggler]

Fun fact: Yul Brenner had hair in the prequel.

[Rebel Scum]

Poland has officially made it a crime to blame the nation for Holocaust crimes committed by German Nazis

"It's YOUR fault for getting overrun by the German Blitzkrieg!"

Talk about blaming the victim.

[SQRLSY One]

Ha! There were willing (native) Jew-haters in EVERY nation over-run by the NAZIs!

It's just a fact of life... Gather 100 or more people, and you will have a few assholes (of various stripes) among them.

[damikesc]

But Poland wasn't actively rounding up its Jews before Germany took them over from what I remember.

Now you know who didn't need any arm-twisting to ship THEIR Jews off to camps? The French.

[Rhywun]

Yup. The Jews weren't terribly popular anywhere in Europe.

The new law is of course stupid af but that's what you get without any real freedom of speech.

[damikesc]

Well, they can't have "mean" speech, right? And somebody might "Hate" Poland if they think that they were less than 100% opposed to the Holocaust.

Mind you, the US wasn't 100% opposed to the Holocaust. More opposed than most, but we did turn away Jews trying to evacuate.

[Rebel Scum]

I thought they were talking about blaming the Polish government, which I'd imagine was not complicit in Nazi crimes.

[Scarecrow Repair & Chippering]

Well sure, because it only lasted for what, 5 weeks after the invasion started.

[Crusty Juggler]

"Women are having babies later in life," notes Market Watch, but there are also "more women [who] are deciding to become mothers, and mothers are having more babies."

Wait, are feminists ruining families or aren't they ruining families?

[Cynical Asshole]

Bruce Grubb, 24, was throwing a housewarming party when he spotted the bizarre sight and called police, fearing his pregnant cows were about to be devoured.

Now "I feel a bit silly for calling the police, but I thought it was a real emergency," he told the Scottish Sun. "I had absolutely no doubt it was real. I got a hell of a scare."

I would say don't drink so much but come on, this is Scotland we're talking about.

[Rhywun]

Google doubling down on outrageously expensive, trendy neighborhood. If only they employed Hollywood celebrities - their commute would be so easy.

[loveconstitution1789]

Bankruptcy attorneys always have a good laugh when businesses try and explain away certain expenditures.

[silver.]

The NSA would never let Google go bust. It's plenty easy to pump in our tax dollars to prop up failing surveillance vehicles.

[mad.casual]

Scottish police got in a 45-minute standoff with a stuffed tiger.

The tiger must've 'stoofed' itself on Chinese food.

[Rich]

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is again sounding alarms about the supplement Kraton, which is says should be considered an opioid.

However, these statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.