Montana's Yoga Pants Ban is a Joke (or is it?) Nanny of the Month (Feb '15)

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Montana's Yoga Pants Ban is a Joke (or is it?) Nanny of the Month (Feb '15)

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They're busting backyard archery in Minnesota, and massage shops in California, but you'll find the Nanny of the Month in the Big Sky state where one lawmaker got his undies in a bunch over the Bare as You Dare bike ride and decided to crack down on indecent exposure, including yoga pants! (Especially the extra-naughty beige colored ones.)

But wait, is the whole ban one big joke or is the state representative who proposed it backpedaling in the face of ridicule?

1 minute, 44 seconds.

Follow Nanny of the Month on Twitter (@NannyoftheMonth) and submit your nominees for next month!

Nanny of the Month is written Ted Balaker (@tedbalaker) and produced by Balaker and Matt Edwards (@MattChrisEd). Edited by Edwards.

To watch previous episodes, go here.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

If you're going to go through the motions of submitting a fake bill for comedy's sake, why not craft it to ban camel toe or muffin tops?

[mad.casual]

"I've got a bottle of water and I've got a microphone." is much preferable to "I've got a pen and a phone."

Obamacare would be the ultimate prank if it was just an elaborate 'Gotcha!'.

[C. Anacreon]

"I've got a bottle of water and I've got a microphone."

Really? I've got two turntables and a microphone.

Which one of us is where it's at?

[Harold Falcon]

Oh snap! Just got told!!!

[Free Society]

That was a good drum roll.

[Mr Whipple]

I wouldn't necessarily be against a ban on muffin tops.

Maybe that should have been a determining factor for the ban on yoga pants.

But I can hear it now.

Check yer thin privilege!

[John Galt]

Mmm, camel toe muffin tops. I know what I'm having for breakfast.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Thank Christ.

I can continue to hot tub nekkid!

[Paul.]

What, is side boob chopped liver?

#BringBackOurLobsterGirl

[Doctor Whom]

My progressive Facebook friends had to shell out for an extra plating of munitions-grade doublethink. I mean, government is omnibenevolent and all, and freedom to do anything will inexorably lead us to Somalia, but, well, this.

[KsyzindigiRokrhiy]

I've made $64,000 so far this year working online and I'm a full time student. I'm using an online business opportunity I heard about and I've made such great money. It's really user friendly and I'm just so happy that I found out about it. Heres what I've been doing,,,,,

http://www.work-mill.com

[Brian]

Any legislator who's got a problem with yoga pants needs to be run out of town on a rail.

[JW]

"Any legislator who's got a problem with yoga pants needs to be run out of town on a rail. hunted for sport."

Fixed. I'll even give them a 5 minute head start.

[GILMORE]

"I'll even give them a 5 minute head start."

which is, in my view, pretty much one of the best movie plots ever of all time

[Harold Falcon]

Thought you were going for the Ice-T thrilla "The Game." Sadface.

[Episiarch]

You mean Surviving the Game.

The Game is a David Fincher thriller.

[GILMORE]

I never saw the film abomination*, but the short story "the most dangerous game" was something i used when volunteer-teaching a 7th grade English class.

(*though i think it had Rutger Hauer, which always means it could be 'funny-bad')

The Naked Prey is cinema-brilliance because, if i remember correctly, the entire dialogue could be fit onto 3-4 pages. The rest is one giant, extended 'chase/fight scene'.

I think that movie is today considered "racist as hell" because its unflattering depictions of the 'savages'. I think when it was made, it was actually supposed to be super-'race friendly'... in that it was critical of the colonialist hunters, and how the protagonist goes out of his way to fight tribespeople to free their slaves....

Regardless = its 100% awesome.

[Johnimo]

Perhaps this idiot will try to ban HydroSkin, the tight fitting, lightweight wetsuits used in cold water .... bet that gets those nipples showing too. Here in Montana, all with even a scintilla of libertarian leanings let this guy have it with messages opposing his bill. As I told him in my letter, "I'll give up my lycra biking shorts when they pry them from around my cold, dead, (usually) Republican Voting limbs." I'm certainly no pollster, but I feel certain his mail was running 99.9% against his nonsensical legislative proposal.

[Issue Ninja]

Super-sad story.

I live in the capital of MT and moved to this state in the 1990s partly for the freedom. Back then we had no speed limit on the Interstate here, until the Feds made us. Then people from CA and CT began to migrate here to get away from the mess they created in those places and began to create the same statist hell here. Soon we had two Dem Senators and Dem Governor and now the place might as well be Massachusetts. Sucks.

[Agammamon]

The feds didn't make you have a speed limit.

You never had *no* speed limit, you had a 'reasonable for the conditions' speed limit. Unfortunately your own police force couldn't agree, from cop to cop, what 'reasonable' meant. One cop would spend his shift sleeping by the side of the road while cars whizzed by at 120, while the cop on the very next shift was out there ticketing anyone who went faster than 75.

So your speed limit laws got rewritten because the 'reasonable for the conditions' standard was too vague, too open for individual officers interpretation.

[GILMORE]

" too vague, too open for individual officers interpretation."

you mean like, "resisting arrest" or "made a threatening move"?

....speaking of the latter = did anyone see the riots, college kids conducting die-ins, mass protests, and hundreds of editorials written in anguish, and slogans about "hands up" when the cops shot the guy who *really was* surrendering? (with lots of witnesses and zero doubt about what really happened)

Yeah, me neither.

[Irish]

That's because the actual goal is to use controversial situations as a wedge in order to inflame racial tensions and enrich the people doing the inflaming.

A situation where everyone agrees doesn't advance that goal.

[Virginian]

Right. That's why they didn't cover Tamir Rice or Akai Gurley with a national full court press. They're not interested in ending police brutality, they're interested in advancing leftism, in this instance by keeping racial division alive.

[VG Zaytsev]

Yep.

[GILMORE]

"Naughty Beige Ones"

not watching video. What crime did 'beige' commit? is it too sorta-flesh colored?

[Quincy, 12D]

What crime did 'beige' commit?

White supremacy?

[GILMORE]

That would have been funny if you'd gone for "Off-White Supremacy"

[Warrren]

Eggshell Supremacy!

[Quincy, 12D]

Fine, be that way.

*munches on a Crayola labeled "Flesh"*

[Warrren]

Wax in, wax out.

[Agile Cyborg]

The addled brain shrieks when flesh strikes. The addled brain has haunted the human collectives for thousands. The flesh haters struck hundreds before the nailed dude and hundreds after the nailed dude and it is high time humanity starts to embrace its own flesh...

Flesh is Ok, humans of the addled sort.

[Warrren]

You would be the worst kids' birthday party clown ever.

[Agile Cyborg]

Warren, stop eating your boogers..things have sprung some mad strange fucking vectors and you might wake up in the cauliflowers. I wish no harm on the man, cauliflower power.. just slap the darling boy about the head and shoulders with your cauli-hands and send him home safe perfectly realizing that he should NOT accuse the Agile cyborg of being a bad birthday clown..

[Agammamon]

You know I always wonder with these posts - are you typing in English, running it through Google Translate into Khoisan, and then back into English before you post here?

[Agile Cyborg]

Dear, your fucking name sounds like something I should play with my Branhamite mother.... 'Mom, I can stop over this WedNeZday to play Agammamon?'... 'You don't have that game?'

'Fine, MOM.'

'I'll go to Toys-R-Us to buy that damn Agammamon game and I hope that shit is fun, MOM."

[wwhorton]

http://nonsense.x2d.org/

[Agile Cyborg]

Never make tight tacos and super pants burritos illegal... ever... you missed your call as a Catholic limb-stretcher if your modern effort involves this nasty horrible business run by shit-eating revoltacons.

[Anonymous Coward]

OT but Related: Venezuela Installs Fingerprint Scanners in Supermarkets to Prevent "Hoarding"; Kulaks and Wreckers Hit Hardest

Venezuela will begin installing some 20,000 fingerprint scanners at supermarkets nationwide in a bid to stamp out hoarding and panic buying, which the government blames for long lines and widespread shortages of basic goods.

The oil-rich nation has been selectively rolling out the rationing system for months at state-run supermarkets along the western border with Colombia, where smuggling of price-controlled goods is a major problem.

On Saturday, President Nicolas Maduro said that seven large private retail chains had voluntarily agreed to install the scanners.

"I ask for the the comprehension of all of Venezuela, to understand this problem, because there is a lot of manipulation taking place," Maduro said at the inauguration of a state-run supermarket.

When I read this story, why do I envision Barack Obama somewhere, furiously mastur- I mean, taking notes? #APENANDAPHONE #IFCONGRESSWONTACTIWILL

[Warrren]

A lot of manipulation IS taking place.

[Anonymous Coward]

Agreed. Tell Maduro to stop trying to manipulate markets and such.

[Irish]

"I ask for the the comprehension of all of Venezuela, to understand this problem, because there is a lot of manipulation taking place," Maduro said at the inauguration of a state-run supermarket.

I've spotted the problem.

[Agammamon]

Look, food is a human *necessity*. How are people going to get food if the government doesn't step in to make it happen. Look how bad things were here before PPACA.

Imagine the chaos if the DMV didn't exist.

Think of the *roads* man, THE ROADS!!!

[wwhorton]

I have a friend who actually believes that. For real. He's an otherwise intelligent person, so I'm not sure what went wrong.

[Pompey]

It is nothing short of miraculous that the country isn't a full on failed state at this point. Must the petro

[Agile Cyborg]

Montana can suck my buttfingers.

[Agile Cyborg]

States should shroom...

Might get the king and queen fists to fly into alt slipstreams like perhaps 15 supra philosopher semen jizz parks...

Wait, I would so fucking do that... a FUCKING supra philosopher fucking semen jizz park? hell jesus christ mohamedon russell plato spinoza fuckin sartre yeah!

Combine history jizz laser smashed in faces by and of the brightest minds right into my fuckng face!!!

[Agile Cyborg]

Fuck plato... I fucking don't know why I threw that dead bitch into the fucking soup...

[Ken Shultz]

Off Topic Awesomeness...

"Mr. Paul used his clout among conservatives to help Mr. McConnell, his fellow Kentucky Republican, win re-election last year and fulfill a long-held goal of becoming Senate majority leader.

Now Mr. McConnell is helping to advance Mr. Paul's presidential campaign, and contributed to an important victory for him Saturday. The state GOP's executive committee endorsed Mr. Paul's request, backed by Mr. McConnell, to establish a presidential caucus, despite concerns about financial and political costs. This would allow Mr. Paul to circumvent state law that bars him from appearing on the primary ballot both for the White House and re-election to the Senate."

http://www.wsj.com/articles/ra.....1425853137

If that's the way things get done, then do what you gotta do, Rand.

[Irish]

I assume this was posted earlier today, but it's so terrible I need to discuss it.

A Better World, Run by Women
Male biology has brought the world war, corruption and scandal. Women are poised to lead us to a better place

Research has found that women are superior to men in most ways that will count in the future, and it isn't just a matter of culture or upbringing?although both play their roles. It is also biology and the aspects of thought and feeling shaped by biology. It is because of chromosomes, genes, hormones and brain circuits.

I don't know what the worst part is - the fact that this guy buys the noble savage claim that hunter-gatherers were peaceful, the fact that he blames male biology for war but apparently male biology isn't also responsible for, you know, the creation of the vast majority of modern medicine...really, the list goes on and on.

Apparently when men do something worse than women it's proof that women are superior, but when the vast majority of businesses are created by men this proves nothing and you're a sexist for thinking otherwise.

[Agile Cyborg]

A better world happens when men and women figure out that both fucking sexes can live, fuck, design, and build together in the best fucking possible ways to avoid massive fucking space porpoises from smashing their fucking galactic noses into the fucking ball here.

[notJoe]

You've gotta be A.A. Attanasio's illegitimate child via Joyce Carol Oats.

[Ken Shultz]

The idea that societies in which women have more say tend to be more peaceful isn't exactly new--and some of the arguments are persuasive. I think it's true that economies in which women participate outside of the home tend to be more prosperous--and all kinds of good things come from relative prosperity.

I'm not sure how they reconcile their take about how the negative aspects of feminine qualities as mostly a social construct, out of one side of their mouths--and then turn around and say all the good qualities are necessarily rooted in biology.

[Irish]

I think it's true that economies in which women participate outside of the home tend to be more prosperous--and all kinds of good things come from relative prosperity.

Yes, but saying 'a country that doesn't hold half its population in servitude is more prosperous' is different than saying 'women are innately superior to men.' Those are two entirely different arguments.

The point is that you can't say men have innate characteristics that make them worse while ignoring all of the things that men have historically done better. If male biology is responsible for war, certainly male biology should also be considered responsible for things like the invention of vaccines.

[Rich]

If male biology is responsible for war, certainly male biology should also be considered responsible for things like the invention of vaccines.

"Females would have invented war and vaccines if it weren't for suppression by males."

[Akira]

Herbert Spencer's theory about that (as espoused in his Principles of Ethics, Volume 1) is this:

1. There is a direct conflict between militant societies (destructive, violent, unethical) and industrious societies (constructive, cooperative, peaceful).

2. Militant societies regularly lose large numbers of males to war, so they have to maintain their population by forcing women to remain in the home, with husbands, pumping out babies. They must ensure that every woman is being utilized to the fullest as a mother.

3. Industrious societies can afford to let women pursue aims outside of motherhood, since they are more peaceful, and in much less danger of depopulation.

[Episiarch]

Riker knew what to do with a planet run by women: he got busy. Also, I guess even women who run planets can't resist Riker's advances.

[Anonymous Coward]

All wars are boyish. People point to Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi and Golda Meir as evidence that women, too, can be warlike. But these women were perched atop all-male hierarchies confronting other hypermasculine political pyramids, and they were masculinized as they fought their way to the top.

Even when women send men to die, it's men's fault because they poisoned her pure, holy, female mind with their dirty man-ness.

But the most important factor has been technology, which has made men's physical strength and martial prowess increasingly obsolete. Male muscle has been replaced to a large extent by machines and robots. Today, women operate fighter jets and attack helicopters, deploying more lethal force than any Roman gladiator or Shogun warrior could dream of.

Okay chucklehead, most of that technology that has allegedly obsoleted men's strength was created and is built by...MEN. Second, it's telling that the author implies that the only way for a woman to counteract the natural martial prowess of men is with weapons of overwhelming destruction built by men. Third, "Shogun warrior"?The shogun was a mix between a supreme commander and a prime minister of Japan from the Heian era until the Meiji Restoration. Saying "Shogun warrior" is about as stupid as calling Barack Obama "President rifleman."

Dr. Konner is a professor in the department of anthropology....

Doctorate in Useless Shit.

[Agile Cyborg]

Women hate sluts. This means war.

[dinkster]

So the greatest contribution to equality was the Colt 45?

[wwhorton]

Agreed. I'm all for a gun welfare program. In fact, I'd happily take my Social Security "payout" in the form of a Kimber 1911 and call us square.

[Suthenboy]

Melvin Connor is full of shit. He is either plowing the soil for the Hildebeast or he is trying to get laid. Or both.

[Agile Cyborg]

I have goddamn richter scale hiccups... if I was home less my fucking entire bridge would collapse and kill me and all my homies cuz of my fucking goddamn hiccups... FUCK hiccups to goddamn hell... shit

[Fist of Etiquette]

Your hiccups should have been reflected in the text of your words here. You're no onomatopoeic showman.

[Agammamon]

They were - those ellipsis are were he had to pause for the hiccup.

[Rich]

Drink a glass of water from the wrong side. Works every time.

[Professor Woland]

My father in law once had a patient who had hiccups for 48 straight hours. Apparently the most effective treatment is a thorazine shot (I think it was thorozine, I might be misremembering). Apparently the only thing that inspires more gratitude in a patient is treating a urinary tract obstruction.

[Agile Cyborg]

People who've been raised in old or cultish religious realities truly fucking understand the deep-seated hate for female sexuality.... On the topside in general society you'd think the problem would dispense... it doesn't.... as evidenced by confused feminist sites the world over.

Is it genetic? Is it preconditioned? Is it environmental?

Who knows... it is CLEAR that humans generally frown on 'average' female sexual independence... even when that society supposedly promotes free females...

The cultural fringes are the only place where this isn't noticeable...

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Wait, what happened to Fido? He was here a minute ago...

"Former pet store retailers try their hands at deep dish pizza...

""After being in the pet supplies business for so many years we decided to try a new business venture,""

http://thetimes-tribune.com/ne.....-1.1844663

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"Advocating for circumcision in the developed world on the grounds that it's more hygienic is a bit like arguing that we could cut down on cases of head lice by insisting all school-aged children shave their heads. Well, yes, I suppose that might work....

""He wanted his son to look like him," is how many mother friends have put it to me, confidentially, with a wince. Some of them initially resist, but when it comes to matters of the penis ? even their baby's penis ? most women give in. And as long as there were few risks, this is how they justified it to themselves. It can't hurt, right?

"Except that clearly it does hurt the baby. So why inflict pain if it's not necessary? Why irrevocably change his perfect, healthy body for no medical reason?"

http://www.theglobeandmail.com.....e22924347/

[Cyto]

When my son was born I took an informal poll of the women I know. Results were unanimous - they'd rather have foreskin-free penis. The largest subgroup of the negative responses was "eeew.. grosssss!" Of course, a lot of them are married with young kids, so that is their default response to anything penis-related.

It is presumably a cultural style thing, subject to change as times change. But if you want to maximise your options in the US - go without the turtleneck.

I doubt men are driving the "circumcise my son" social pressure. The only cultural decisions men get to make are in sports and teen-oriented action movies.

[wwhorton]

Yeah, but I'd think by the time you and your special lady of the hour are both taking a gander at your dick, you're pretty much in unless there are obvious sores or an off-smelling odor.

[SusanM]

From WaPo

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....nt-report/

Two Ferguson, Mo., police officers stepped down this week following the release of a Justice Department report that included racist e-mail exchanges that involved members of the city's police force and local court officials.

Officers Rick Henke and William Mudd resigned from the force on Thursday, Ferguson City Attorney Stephanie Karr confirmed through an e-mail that was sent by a city spokesman on Friday. Additionally, Court Clerk Mary Ann Twitty was fired Wednesday.

[Virginian]

You know they can make fun of black people all they want, but the only people dumb enough to send fireable shit through work emails are the fucking cops.

[Calidissident]

Reread the story. You're overestimating the intelligence of court officials. Can't leave them out.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

NRO on Selma Commemoration

"If we are to regard the founding generation as being worthy of contemporary political lionization ? and we most assuredly should ? then we must consider those who marched at Selma to be so, too. If we are to put George Washington upon our plinths, and to eulogize him on our currency, we must agree to elevate Martin Luther King Jr. to the same dizzy heights. They are less famous, perhaps, but by virtue of their brave march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, John Lewis and Hosea Williams immortalized themselves into quintessential American heroes in the mold of Sam Adams and George Mason. To miss an opportunity to solemnize their daring is to blunder, disgracefully.

If all men really are created equal, the anniversary of Selma must be treated as a date every bit as important to American history as is the end of the Siege of Yorktown. As it would be unthinkable for the leadership of the Republican party to ignore July Fourth, it should be unthinkable for its luminaries not to celebrate the anniversary of the March to Montgomery either. Where have you gone, Speaker Boehner, a movement turns its lonely eyes to you."

http://www.nationalreview.com/.....-c-w-cooke

[Suthenboy]

I see where you shit on the war of 1812 thread.

Good work.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

You mean disagreed with some people? I know how that upsets you. Perhaps a good ol' 'rag head' joke would cheer you up?

[Suthenboy]

You have poor manners, but at least you make up for it with lack of understanding.

Question: Why did I use the term 'rag head' yesterday?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Because you're a bigot?

[Suthenboy]

Like I said, at least you make up for it with a lack of understanding.

Excellent.

[Libertarius]

STFU, idiot fag leftoid

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I can't tell whether you're more well mannered or well spoken there friend!

[Irish]

That's not 'NRO on Selma commemoration' it's 'Charles C.W. Cooke on Selma commemoration.'

Cooke is right, but I imagine most NRO readers and writers would disagree with him. This is why Charles C.W. Cooke is awesome - because he continuously is right in the face of opposition from his own employers and readership.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I actually came to it via Volokh Conspiracy but wanted to attribute it to it's origin.

[Winston]

You Know Who Else is in opposition to his own employers and readership?

[Virginian]

T Coddington Van Vorhees agrees.

[Irish]

I say, good sir, you have besmirched the name of T Coddington van Vorhees the VII through your failure to acknowledge that he is the seventh of his line.

[Virginian]

Iowahawk is a national treasure.

[Irish]

This might be my favorite T. Coddington Van Voorhees VII article.

Who, you may ask, is T. Coddington Van Voorhees VII?

Simply put, a man born to the conservative saddle. The only scion of the legendary swashbuckling conservative editor / author / bon vivant T. Coddington Van Voorhees VI, I have since my earliest days honed a conservatism forged in the fires of intellectual combat, stoked by the bellows of classic education, and tempered in the cooling waters of good breeding. Even before matriculating at East Hampton Country Daycare, I was thrust headlong into heady intellectual debates of postwar American politics. Oh, how I cherish those moments, bouncing astride my father's knee, as he held postprandial court on the patio with Long Island Sound's most scrupulous Republicans - like Newport GOP chairman Z. Pilastor Fennewick, Greenwich GOP legend Boylston McInernery, and East Hampton's "hostess with the mostest," Modesty Crabwater. And although Dad had his differences with each, I admired the elegant grace with which these Republicans could command an Adirondack chair or accept electoral defeat. It is that very same grace I shall endeavor to bring back to the Grand Old Party.

[Irish]

It was there I would prove my foreign policy mettle by networking with lads who would go on to become Europe's most influential policy makers, such as my former Chalet-mate and current EU Barley Pricing Minister, Viscount Kloonkie Von Wallensheim. Thanks to those school ties and my natural gift for languages, you can rest assured that when as president I am called on to negotiate a trade or currency support agreement with a Continental leader it will be in the spirit of bonhomie - and in his mother tongue.

After a brief mind-expanding hiatus at a Punjabi ashram in the waning days of the tumultuous Sixties, I returned to my beloved Les Etats Unis to claim my Harvard birthright and matriculate in the rough-and-tumble of conservative political punditry. Through luck, pluck, and talent, I soon secured a position at my father's journal, the National Topsider, advancing quickly from assistant Opera Critic to Subscription Complaint Manager and finally to Columnist-at-Large. I soon found myself in great demand as a public intellectual, serving as a frequent spokesmen and apologist for the conservative cause on public television. This in turn led to two appointments in Republican administrations, where I proudly served as deputy speechwriter for John Dean and chief menu editor for Mrs. Reagan's chef.

[Rich]

One imagines [Obama] ... like some beautiful rugged Othello from a rapturous Ralph Lauren catalog

Good stuff.

[Winston]

Where's Chris Pine?

[Quincy, 12D]

Behind the lens flare.

[Winston]

we must agree to elevate Martin Luther King Jr. to the same dizzy heights

Ron Paul's Ghostwriter disagrees.

[Quincy, 12D]

Did you know Chris Pine's full name is Christopher Whitelaw Pine?

[Irish]

National Review commenters take a page from the dumbass leftist playbook:

Oh, baloney. A serial adulterer, rank plagiarist, and all-around low-life who spent part of his last day on earth punching a woman he'd been supposed to cheat on his wife with (he had cheated on his wife with someone else, making the woman he ended up hitting mad) across a motel room? That is what we're elevating to moral and historical sainthood on the Right these days?

This is almost identical to leftists who argue we shouldn't say good things about Jefferson because he owned slaves. Apparently heroes become unworthy of support if they fail to be heroic in every single aspect of their lives.

[Winston]

So did he write Ron Paul's newsletters?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

"This is almost identical to leftists who argue we shouldn't say good things about Jefferson because he owned slaves. "

I'm not sure about that analogy. If King was supporting racism while arguing against it then that'd be closer.

[Irish]

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Christian who littered his speeches with Biblical phrases but spent the night before he died cheating on his wife.

You don't think there's a bit of a hypocritical disconnect between his words and his actions?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I think what he's known for more than anything was leading the civil rights movement, so his womanizing isn't some direct hypocrisy on that.

The criticism of Jefferson is that his main contribution was espousing liberty but then owned slaves.

[Calidissident]

You can quibble on the perfection of the analogy, but Irish's point stands. I think everyone is free to judge Jefferson for owning slaves and form whatever conclusion they want about him, but his positive contributions to liberty aren't nonexistent because of that.

King wasn't a perfect human being, but him being an adulterer doesn't somehow negate the tremendous impact he had on freedom in this country. I understand your point about Jefferson's hypocrisy and failures being related to liberty, but those shortcomings and failures don't somehow undo the positive things he was responsible for.

[Winston]

Where have you gone, Speaker Boehner, a movement turns its lonely eyes to you

Well Orangemen do like them marches...

[Winston]

Time for some more Guardian Derp on Greece:

grijander2255
I agree that "reform" doesn't mean anything. But if you want to progress and achieve a great quality of life, you must follow the way of Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea and China. You get the wellness, the liberty and freedom you deserve, and you see your country and your people increasing their salaries, eating better, getting better houses, better schools, betters universities, better jobs, and resuming living much better.

eveofchange 2h ago

Nationalise the banks and the commanding heights of the economy, all under democratic working class control and management. Break with capitalism 100%, or else it will break you all instead. Put socialism to the vote---and act upon it with determination and international class solidity, when it is endorsed,--quickly .

[Irish]

I agree that "reform" doesn't mean anything. But if you want to progress and achieve a great quality of life, you must follow the way of Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea and China. You get the wellness, the liberty and freedom you deserve, and you see your country and your people increasing their salaries, eating better, getting better houses, better schools, betters universities, better jobs, and resuming living much better.

This has to be a troll. No way it's serious.

[Suthenboy]

I disagree. Have you talked to many limeys lately?

Don't forget, this is a country where you can be arrested because of the look on your face.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-race.html

[Rich]

Police said he was initially arrested on suspicion of a public order offence but was 'given words of advice' before being 'released with no further action'.

"I'd get that Parkinson's looked at, if I was you."

Seriously, YA reason to never set foot in the UK.

[LarryA]

Except we get the same people moving to Texas and bitching how it's a horrible place to live because no union shop, no high minimum wage, no health care system, etc&soforth;.

Why did they move here? They could get a job.

But you cannot get them to understand there's a connection between the first and the second.

[Carl ?s the level]

Yeah, without North Korea it might be believable. It's easy to find a leftist that will apologize for Cuba, Venezuela, and the PRC; it's much tougher to find a North Korea supporter.

[Virginian]

grijander2255
I agree that "reform" doesn't mean anything. But if you want to progress and achieve a great quality of life, you must follow the way of Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea and China. You get the wellness, the liberty and freedom you deserve, and you see your country and your people increasing their salaries, eating better, getting better houses, better schools, betters universities, better jobs, and resuming living much better.

That has to be a troll. I could believe some pasty British socialist fop swooning over the rugged Latin machismo of Cuba or Venezuela, but no one could earnestly argue for North Korean governance.

[Winston]

Huh, looking in the thread I see that guy making a comment about Venezuela arresting opponents and Russia killing them so I think I missed his sarcasm.

[Rhywun]

Must be that dry British wit we hear so much about.

[Rhywun]

Break with capitalism 100%,

This one has the ring of a true believer, though.

Put socialism to the vote

Er... that's not how it works dude. Not without scare quotes around "vote", at least.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

"But if you want to progress and achieve a great quality of life, you must follow the way of Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea and China"

I think that might be someone sending up a leftist there, it's just too brazen. Of course, the second one is essentially advocating the same awful thing just without the explicit shout outs to tyrannical governments.

[Agile Cyborg]

So in 2015 we know all the great minds... the great philosophies...

"it should be noticed that the command to kill comes from the dead themslelves as though they were the final authority"...

'the teeth are the armed guardians of the mouth and the mouth iis indeed a strait place... the prototype of all prisons."

:In the end one experiences only oneself"... Nietzsche...

[Winston]

Is this the guy behind The Thick of It?

http://www.theguardian.com/com.....ction-2015

Politics was once about beliefs and society. Now it's a worship of money

It used to be that we went into elections being asked some pretty big questions about what sort of country we wanted to live in. Did we aspire to free health treatment, safety at work, votes for women, a stronger navy, an end to child labour, higher standards of literacy, a welfare safety net, the dismantling of an empire, the nationalisation or privatisation of the nation's resources?

For the first 70 years or so of the 20th century, politics debated the power and limits of the state: the manifestos of the parties reflected how much or how little each party felt the government should involve itself in the lives of the individual. Everyone accepted there was such a thing as society, and we were given regular chances to define it. Politics was about passion, and imagination, and foresight. Now it's just accountancy.

[Irish]

Ah, the good old days - when the Conservative Party was run by unrepentant racists and apologists for Empire and the Labour Party consisted largely of Communist fellow travelers.

[Winston]

You know I do agree with him that the British Status Quo is corrupt and the Three Main Parties are all complicit but I can't this whole mythical "before Thatcher and Reagan politicians cared about the People and There was Consensus!" nonsense.

[Suthenboy]

".....no matter how passionate you are about the NHS, devolution, immigration or the environment, if you can't talk competently about money, you're nothing.

If instead, as Green party leader Natalie Bennett showed us recently, you go on the radio to outline your spending plans but have a brain fade or a touch of tongue-stroke or whatever it is she called that jumble of mouthfarts that came out as policy ? if you do this, you're cast to one side as an inadequate buffoon. "

Uh huh. I get it. We should stop pointing out that someone with the mentality of a 12 year old has policy ideas that are in no way realistic and just adopt them because good intentions.

[Suthenboy]

Also, 'jumble of mouthfarts'. I am stealing that.

[Winston]

http://www.theguardian.com/com.....ncy-syriza

Costas Lapavitsas is a Syriza MP and an economics professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies

undertake "reforms" that run counter to Syriza pledges to lower taxes, raise the minimum wage, reverse privatisations, and relieve the humanitarian crisis

The government should rapidly implement measures relieving working people from the tremendous pressures of the last few years: forbid house foreclosures, write off domestic debt, reconnect families to the electricity network, raise the minimum wage, stop privatisations.

Not sure how they expect to pay for all this stuff and cut taxes?

[Irish]

The government should rapidly implement measures relieving working people from the tremendous pressures of the last few years: forbid house foreclosures, write off domestic debt, reconnect families to the electricity network, raise the minimum wage, stop privatisations.

Holy mother of God. Forbid housing foreclosures? Absolutely brilliant. No one will give out a housing loan again if they can't foreclose for non-payment.

[Rhywun]

No one will give out a housing loan again

I think that's the point. "Free housing" for all!

[Agile Cyborg]

Marx loved money if it made commie plushies.

[Agile Cyborg]

Communism and Jesus and Islam should all be best friends by now...

They all fucking want to jam a frozen jackoff into the head of a sweet society.

[Winston]

http://www.theguardian.com/pol.....odern-left

grijander2255 appears to have been sarcastic in the comment I posted but eveofchange is the Real Deal

eveofchange 1 Mar 2015 16:16
How can anybody who claims to be a socialist be happy with leaving the same old 1% in control of the state ? They are class collaborators --like the Mensheviks were, and as such are the principle enemies of socialism. The SYRIZA leadership has just proved this fact. These enemies need to be defeated, in the same socialistic political, and pro-working class manner, that the Bolsheviks defeated the double dealing Mensheviks.Only 100% socialism will work.
Reject the Greens in the UK , who are not remotely socialist, and support the TUSC, who are very socialist.

eveofchange Roguing 1 Mar 2015 16:51

"Remind us, how many members of the working class were murdered by the Bolsheviks?"
____
OK. If you insist.
The number was zero.
The numbers of the working class and peasantry, who in effect died because of capitalism, and its wars ans privations, ran into the millions . That is why the Bolsheviks gained mass support, and were thus able to overthrow the accursed capitalists and landowners. How the working class, peasants, soldiers and sailors rejoiced at that !

[Winston]

eveofchange cairnofmediocrity 1 Mar 2015 18:02

Any `leftist` who is not a `fan` of Lenin, is not a leftist.
Any political philosophy that is not socialist, is not `left` wing.
How can continuing capitalism cater for the vast majority ? It was not designed to do so---and indeed , can never do so either.

eveofchange Roguing 1 Mar 2015 18:13

Lenin died in 1924 . He neither `murdered` nor did he order the `murder` of anybody. It was the vicious dictator Stalin who did the murdering---and that was much later.In that manner, he was at one with Tsar Nicholas .And by-the-way, the first people who Stalin had murdered were the Trotskyists, who were genuine Marxists.

eveofchange huzar30 1 Mar 2015 18:16

Lenin died long before any `gulags` were built. It was the none Marxist Stalin who filled them, and principally with Trotskyists---who were the genuine Marxists

[Winston]

eveofchange huzar30 1 Mar 2015 19:46

Was there not a violent counter revolution, and civil war going on during this period, and was not Russia invaded by Imperialist troops from 21 countries, a little while after? What did you expect the Bolsheviks to do, play patty cake with them ? The young Russian socialist state was physically attacked by the hated, and defeated capitalists, landowners and other flotsam and jetsam . Thousands of ordinary Russians died fighting against these mercenaries , and their rich backers . My sympathies are with them. They did what was necessary---and they won. No apologies from me, comrade.
The Imperialist backed troops were hurriedly withdrawn by the rich ruling classes who sent them---for the reason that they were falling under the influence of the worker`s socialist state , and were joining it !

"Nowt as deluded as the faithful:" ---, well, that applies to you . I defend the Russian revolution, What do you `defend` ?

[Agile Cyborg]

Centuries old rockets fire a splendid array of orthodoxy like a goddamn whale-hunter into the future of societies that never fucking read...

[Agile Cyborg]

The future is the impact zone for challenges centuries... the fucking relics and millennial roads are littered with time zone bombs set by the myriad collectives...

Will we live to ship? Will we live to investigate star farts? Will we live to grow lettuce on Mars? Will we live to sojourn with lopsided creatures in sector 1.2999 on that asteroid bleh no one evah fuckin' thought of but was sung about by that one hit wonder hillbilly in 1995?

[Agile Cyborg]

The future is behind. time is a weave up and in and out. We die but realize the past and present and discern a future and that composite forms a time cloth where vectors shape and form and malform the interpresent and outerfuture.

Is time strictly past? or does the past flow back and into the future and present? is time a maraca? Can time spectrums on the universe spectrums be represented as a maraca of eons shaking and bubbling here and to and back and yon?

We live as dust. Dust doesn't comprehend time. Dust doesn't comprehend vibrations... humans are birthed and finished before a star shits or pisses.

[Agile Cyborg]

Is time really time? Or is time a math presented to make a swift route into...?

If time was not human handled and a second was a year.... humans would love longer?

A day in the life is based on sunlight schemes but why? Why does the sunset create time? Why does the sunrise create a spectrum? Why not 10 sunrises? Why one?

Why a single?

[Winston]

eveofchange Hyper_Borean 13m ago

Under genuine socialism, small capitalist entities would be allowed, and even helped . The small capitalist could evolve at their own pace, with no compulsion, towards the superior socialist model. But those industries etc, that dictate to the economy,would be nationalised, under democratic working class and community control (including the `Middle` class). It would thus be fully funded by the nationalised Banks etc, and without the pernicious "profit" motive, which is neither necessary, not desirable.It would flourish.

[wwhorton]

Well, someone has earned her Gauloise and beret for the day.

[JeremyR]

Leather mini-skirts were so much better than yoga pants.

[Suthenboy]

I am a big fan of both.

I will cry like a baby the day yoga pants go out of style.

[HazelMeade]

Threadjack:

http://time.com/3736534/obama-clinton-emails/

President says he had no idea about Hillary's email set-up until he heard it on the news

[Cdr Lytton]

Ah, like older execs that have their emails printed out for them by their secretaries.

[Sudden]

How is that even possible? I have a hard time believing that someone can effectively do their job without having once emailed an underling who has one of the the most important positions.

[Sudden]

effectively

NM, found my mistake there

[Sevo]

From the linked article:
"The policy of my administration is to encourage transparency, [...]" Obama told CBS."
Folks, he'll be here, ah hell, for another two years. Drink up, have some veal if you prefer, tip well, hope Shrillery and Fauxcahantus get in a screaming match while crazy uncle Joe refs.

[We The Living]

This politician was probably just traumatized after taking a walk through a department store and realize that some people should just NOT wear yoga pants or short-shorts

*shudder*