A.M. Links: Clinton Thinks Obama Should Do More To Help Rebels in Syria, NYU Boots Chinese Activist, Congressman Asks Why IRS Agents Are Trained To Use AR-15s


Credit: Motohide Miwa/wikimedia
  • Bill Clinton told Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.) during a discussion at a McCain Institute for International Leadership event that he thinks Obama should be doing more to support the rebels in Syria, adding that the president could end up looking like "a total fool." The U.N. has said that at least 93,000 people have been killed since Syria's civil war began.
  • New York University, which hopes to open a campus in Shanghai, has kicked a blind Chinese political activist off campus after coming under pressure from Chinese authorities.
  • Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) wants to know why some IRS agents are trained to use AR-15s.
  • China is avoiding direct comment on the recent NSA scandal. NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is still in Hong Kong.
  • Facebook is rolling out hashtags, allowing users to track conversations.

Spice up your blog or Website with Reason 24/7news and Reason articles! You can easily add a widget here.



NEXT: Brooklyn Detective Allegedly Fabricated Confessions


  1. Derecho!

    1. Get in line.


    2. Yes, please.


      The brew is actually the result of derecho-caused accident. When the massive storm hit in July, Port City lost power and feared that it would lose 13,000 gallons of beer. It turned out that five of its six tanks were just fine. But the sixth fermented at a higher temperature than intended. Port City took inspiration from a “steam beer” style developed in San Francisco that brews at higher temperatures, and decided to turn the 60-barrel batch into Derecho Common.

      1. Cool.

        Similar to the story of Boulevard’s Tank 7, although that was just a piece of equipment (Fermenter Tank #7, in fact) that wouldnt behave, not a natural disaster.

        Also, small breweries really hate dumping beer down the drain. Really, really hate it. If in doubt, throw fruit in the fermenter and age it another month.

      1. All they did was simplify your comment, boiling it down to preserve your content in the minimum amount of words possible.

        1. I think reason readers are savvy enough to read between the lines and get the subtext anyway.

          1. I’ve been getting alt-text out of similar length captions for years.

    1. Imagine if you had actually pasted the ‘reply to this’ code as your comment? Our minds be blown as we entered an endless loop of fisting.

      1. an endless loop of fisting

        1. It’s another human centipede sequel.

        2. “Fourth in a series by Dr. SugarFree.”

  2. Global shares drop, dollar slumps as rout gathers pace
    World shares fell and the dollar slumped on Thursday as a sell-off on global financial markets accelerated on concerns over whether central banks will continue the stimulus they have come to rely on.

    1. But Shrieking Idiot said the magical money making machine has nothing to do with it!

      1. Bring forth the Trillion Dollar Coinz!


      Meh. With very few exceptions, every “explanation” of why “the market” rose or fell on a certain day is a bullshit just-so story. Shriek loves those.

      1. And yet, every single day the news is reported that ‘this is the reason the market did what it did’. That ought to give you a clue as to the level of trust you should place in news analysis.

        Just once I’d like to hear a reporter say “Random stocks moved in random directions for random reasons today and if I had the slightest idea why stock prices move the way they do don’t you think I’d be a billionaire stock trader instead of a chump business reporter?”

  3. The Washington Post has a story on the many marital and familial links between the Obama Administration and the press. But don’t worry. There are all kinds of procedures and policies and plans to prevent any sort of favoritism or preferential reporting. Just like all those processes that make sure we drone the right people. Or spy on the right people.

    Seriously, even if –if!– there are these processes and they worked, the level of apparent nepotism between government (not even just the Obama Admin) and the press should give pause to any who still harbor the quaint belief that there is no aristocracy in the United States. And to those who imagine that the well connected play on the same field as other professionals where conflicts of interest are concerned.

    1. Washington is more inbred than the worst sort of 19th Century hillbilly town. It is a giant collection of ugly, ignorant inbred people wielding the power to loot and pillage the rest of the country if not the world.

    2. And they accuse us of being closet feudalists. It’s always projections with leftists. If they accuse you of something, you can predict with around 70% certainty they’re guilty of that; if you’re sure it isn’t true of you, it goes to 95% certainty.

  4. Foxtrot is eligible for Pulitzer Prizes, right?

    Somewhere, Chip Bok is reading this and crying terribly. I mean, it barely has any labels!

    1. I do like FoxTrot in general, but this particular strip is just making a joke I’ve seen several times.

      1. SMBC did it the same week, I think. And thanks for the reminder that FoxTrot is still publishing.


    Does he want them shooting at us without training???

    1. Maybe they are going to go help the Syrian rebels?


      “And by ‘it’, I mean ‘the NSA’.”

      1. Nice


    3. Note that their link goes to 24/7, despite the fact that this was on H&R last night.

      1. All the links go through 24/7 these days. It’s part of their effort to make it a real thing.

        1. It’s part of their effort to get more clicks so that they so they can get the most of their advertising patrons.

          It’s bullshit. Give me a fucking link to somewhere real please.

          1. I wish they’d just get rid of 24/7, when it seems most of the site readers are plugging through HnR anyway. It’s like they put a government bureaucrat in charge of their web design team.

            1. I heard it was Drew Carey’s fault.

  6. The Feds want to disable your phone and portable electronic devices when.in the car.

    Nathaniel Beuse, associate administrator for vehicle safety research at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, says government regulation coupled with standards set by automakers and the electronics industry could reduce fatalities. He says we need “a technological solution, some sort of innovation” in which the device or the car would recognize when the driver is using a mobile device and deactivate it. “This would be the ultimate solution,” he says.

    I disagree. Quite clearly, the “ultimate” solution would be to have the automobile detect when the driver is using a mobile device and shut itself off immediately.

    Do these people honestly claim to think further than one link down the chain of consequences from their centralized regulatory “solutions” to every problem (begging the question of what a ‘problem’ is)? Do they truly believe that they can know every possible circumstance of the future and that that makes them competent and authoritative to override an individual’s decision to use a device, sight unseen?

    1. That’s why they are considered Top. Men.

      1. George Will has an interesting perspective on the Top Men theory to which so many progs subscribe…


        1. I disagree with his assessment of the NSA situation.

          The MAIN argument against it is that my phone calls are none of their business. If they have probable cause, then they can subpoena those records, but until then, nope, no dice.

          1. I agree with your assessment. G Will probably would to, but he seems to be focussed on dismantling the main argument currently being made (trust us) by those who believe that the ‘new’ threat is poorly served by ‘old’ ideas like probable cause.

    2. If the American people allow that, they no longer deserve their freedom. I know people are stupid and shallow. But I would think, hope, that they would go crazy if the feds did that. Make no mistake, everyone uses a cell in their car. No one only uses hands free or always pulls over and that includes every single one of these assholes who are advocating this.

      1. It seems to me one of the problems here is that if this happens, it will be a regulatory action, and no one feels like they have much ability to stop anything the regulatory agencies do. Do you call your congressman to complain about the NTSA? If you did, what could they even do? Shit like this just becomes a rule and all of a sudden no one can buy any other kind of car and everyone just sucks it up and bends over.

        I mean, it sucks, but this is how the regulatory state gets as bad as it already is.

        1. no one feels like they have much ability to stop anything

          True. But the first phase will be people disabling the tech. Then there will be a second phase where penalties are prescribed for disabling the tech. Then, the penalties will be increased. Then ordinary people will be felons and murderers for violating the law. Meanwhile, people will still die do to distracted driving while they fiddle with their music, kids or genitals as they drive.

          1. just like removing catalytic converters is illegal – and quite common here in Michigan (with no smog checks)


          This is why we need 10,000 Congressman in accordance with the proportion that our framers outlined the Constitution.

          Seriously, right now the elected representatives are swamped by the bureaucrats/civil servants. If we had 10,000 badly paid citizens trekking down to DC every week with the ability to call hearings and put abusive persons and practices on the hot seat, they’d keep the regulators in check.

          You’re Welcome, America.

          1. i know! why doesnt anyone realize this is in the constitution. Why hasnt anyone brought this up? Congress is in direct contraversion to the rules of the constitution every single they opperate without the correct population/representation ratio

            1. User name killed it.

          2. I wonder what would be cheaper–10,000 representatives, give or take a couple hundred, and their requisite staff, or the current bloated executive branch. I think it’s a toss-up.

            Incidentally, I agree with you that we actually need more representatives in the House–I doubt the Founders envisioned that one rep for an entire city of 2 million people, for example, would constitute a republican democracy. Repealing the Reapportionment Act would go a long way to fixing this.

            1. If you count the budgets of all the unnecessary departments and agencies I don’t think that’s even close


        What do you mean by “allow that”? Do we all need to fight to the death to prevent it?

        everyone uses a cell in their car

        I have never used a cell phone for any purpose while driving a car.

        1. Stop lying.

          1. It’s really true. I don’t even own one.

            1. You do understand the principle involved, right?

    3. Why does anyone *need* to use a phone in the car?

      1. Why does a police office need to be looking up license plate info (at best) on his dashboard laptop while driving 75 miles per hour behind the person who is going 5 miles over the speed limit?

        1. Speaking of cops, is this going to apply to them? Because every cop I see has his right elbow propped on the passenger seat and the phone shoved in his ear.


            Hahahahaha, Brett. Your naivete amuses me 🙂

    4. …and that’s why I continue to drive my old truck. There’s no buzzing or bells if I don’t wear a seatbelt, no backup cameras, no GPS or TV screens, or mysterious black boxes.

      1. I am going to be so annoyed when I have to buy a car made in the last 5 years.

    5. “This would be the ultimate solution,” he says.

      The ultimate solution would involve an undetected meteor destroying the emerald city in the middle of busy workday.

      1. “This would be the ultimate solution,” he says.

        No, asshole. The ultimate solution would be for you to leave me the fuck alone.

      2. “This would be the ultimate solution,” he says.

        A “final” solution, even.

        1. Some guy had one of those once. What was his name?

          1. Sydney Ringer?

          2. Europe?

            No wait, that was a final countdown.

    6. could reduce fatalities

      The Mating Cry of the Regulators

    7. How about tech that detects when somebody is driving erratically, flashes a warning to alert them to their stupidity and after a second warning gives the driver two minutes to pull over. We could then drop all of the DUI laws and no cellphone laws because as long as you can drive competently who cares how you multi-task or party?

      As a guy who goes everywhere on a motorcycle, people holding a cellphone to their ear scare the shit outa me but that’s just because it provides a fairly clear indication that the person isn’t really paying attention. These are the same people yapping away on their phone as they drive in the passing lane below the speed limit. I believe they are free to do as they please, but I am also free to despise them and to hope they run off of the road and die in a horrible fire.

      1. I used to ride a bike to work in San Diego. That ended the day I saw a woman in a mini-van driving down the middle of the bike lane. She had a broken arm, three kids, and a cell phone held to her ear.

        I’ve never wanted to beat the living shit out of someone else on the road quite so much.

      2. I’m also pretty scared of the people who can’t carry on a conversation without constantly looking at the other people in the car.


        No. People who drive under the speed limit in the passing lane should be subject to summary execution.

    8. And how the hell are they going to be able to tell the difference between a driver and a passenger?

      1. They’re not, so no one will be able to use cell phones in a vehicle.


          Breaking News: car jackings have increased 1000% percent since they fucking disabled cell phone use in vehicles. More at 11.

  7. State Department has hired agents with criminal records, memo reveals



    Those (rare) fired cops gotta work somewhere

    1. many of the roughly 2,000 agents in State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security can play only limited roles

      Like, the roles of “girl’s soccer coach” and “dad driving home the baby sitter”.

    2. You don’t hire choir boys for your STASI.

  8. After burglaries, mystery car unlocking device has police stumped

    It’s February, about an hour after midnight, and three men in oversized clothing and hats walk silently down a deserted residential street in Long Beach, California. Each one goes up to a car in the area, takes out a small electronic device, and pulls on the passenger side car handle. The first man tries a car in the street. It doesn’t open, and he walks on. The other two men try an Acura SUV and an Acura sedan in one home’s driveway. Both of the cars unlock, their overhead lamps going on. The two men rummage through the cars, taking what they find. They shut the car doors and walk off.

    Video of this scene was recorded by a surveillance camera placed in the driveway where the two Acuras were parked. The Long Beach Police (LBPD) department says that eight vehicles in total were “accessed and burglarized” in the same neighborhood that night. But despite having footage of the crime, the LBPD was not able to determine how the electronic devices worked or who the suspects were.

    1. Oooooh! Magic!!

    2. Ummm…really?

      I know exactly how they work, they clone the signals sent by key fobs.

      I couldnt make one, but the technology is obvious.

      1. I believe they’ve cracked the encryption at this point, so it just sends the override signal.

        1. Could be.

          The point is, its not a huge mystery, there are many ways to do it.

        2. The convenience of the key fob created a GIANT security hole.

          This isnt anything new to anyone who has ever worked in IT.

          1. Years ago I was in Canada on business, with a rented maroon Oldsmobile somethingorother. It had a nice new (novel, at the time) remote key fob. I went to a store to pick up some stuff and came out, walked to the first maroon Olds somethingorother and hit the fob. The car unlocked and it wasn’t until I noticed that my briefcase wasn’t on the passenger seat where I had left it that I noticed something wrong. The engine started with they key and the fob unlocked the door. The car was not mine; I was parked a row or two over in the lot.

            1. That isnt at all unusual. There are surpisingly few combos on those things, so within a manufacturer, that happens all the time.

              In the early days of garage door openers, you could do the same thing, drive thru a neighborhood and see how many you could open with your GDO.

              1. And if you spent some time fiddling with teh DIP switches, you could open just about any door.

          2. I fucking hate the key fob and refuse to use them. I don’t need another thing in my pocket.
            It has also made people lock their doors all the time. Which is another thing I refuse to do.

    3. I didn’t do it.

    4. how do they do it? Most of these key fobs use a single technology, a TI DST RFID transponder. Here’s along report on hacking them.


  9. Tang sucks, Ray. And he’ll punch you out if you deny it.

  10. Mother, daughter stopped at Windsor tunnel carrying $59,000 stuffed in their bras

    Two Canadian women were caught trying to sneak nearly $73,000 into the U.S. by hiding the bulk of the loot ?$59,000 ? in their bras, according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday in Detroit federal court.

    The women, who were mother and daughter, were detained at the Detroit-Windsor tunnel on Sunday while en route to Detroit Metro Airport, where they had planned to catch a flight for Lebanon to visit family, the complaint said.

    1. No word on whether the money was rightfully theirs nor what the fuck business of anyone else’s it is. “Smuggling.” “Loot.” Obviously there’s only one conclusion to draw:

      They’re witches!!! BUUUURRRN THEM!!

      1. I’m expecting to see a rise in “cash stuffed bra” in the porno searches.

        1. You never know what those sicko Canucks will be into next.

    2. She was charged with bulk cash smuggling and making false statements to a federal agent.

      Uh, what the fuck?

      So if I wanted to buy property in Canada and wanted to pay cash for it, I’d be guilty of “bulk cash smuggling” if I took actual bills?

      Jesus titty-fucking Christ.

      1. “Jesus titty-fucking Christ”

        Are you saying that He has a cash-bra fetish?

        1. Let’s just say he has a prediliction for a well stuffed bra.

          That’s why he kept Mary Magdalene around.

      2. No, you would just have to report how much you had on you when you went through customs. They ask about cash and other financial instruments you may have over something like $10k or so. I assume that’s also why they get the “making false statements to a federal agent” charge–they lied at customs.

      3. Only drug dealers carry lots of cash. So if you have more than ten grand on you, you’re a drug dealer and the cash belongs to the government.

        1. No, they’ll just charge the money with a crime. Once the money hires a lawyer, it can get bail.

          1. Does the money have to get other money to post the bail?

      4. I fucking hate the ten thousand dollar rule. It amounts to guilty until proven innocent, and even then good fucking luck getting your money back.

        1. You child-hating monster. Probably a druggie, too.

    3. How the fuck does one smuggle cash? It’s legal fucking tender, FFS!

    4. They could have just work money belts or something, and they never would have found it. C’mon people, think it through!

    5. They weren’t actually smuggling. It’s just when the agent asked if they had anything of value to declare, they said no because it was all in US dollars.

  11. A Brooklyn detective is under review after allegedly fabricating confessions.

    Hopefully this doesn’t negatively impact those convictions. We don’t want criminals left out of jail on a loophole.

    1. It is Brooklyn. Maybe he just wanted to make more artisanal confessions.

  12. Yesterday while waiting for the bus I saw a DOT vehicle. It was a black, Cadillac Escalade. Why does the DOT need a luxury SUV?

    1. What else are they going to do with confiscated vehicles?

    2. They need something with a big enough engine and frame to carry all the bulletproof glass amd armor.

    3. We are obviously in a time of austerity.

  13. “””New transgender rules at Boston Police Department”””

    “””Transgender criminal suspects can demand that cops call them by their adopted names, choose whether male or female officers frisk them and get a personal, private ride to court under new policies unveiled by Boston police Commissioner Edward F. Davis yesterday. “””


    If I told the Boston Police that I was Napoleon Bonaparte would they call me that and give me all the diplomatic and ceremonial rights that an Emperor of France deserves? How about if I told them I was a woman who thought she was Napoleon Bonaparte trapped in a mans body?

    1. You could at least make it a woman who touches you.

    2. “My uncle thought he was Saint Jerome…”

      1. I’d call that a big yes.

  14. Half of small town’s firefighters suspended and face jail after taking part in stunt where trailer is set alight before daredevil drives through flames


    Videos of the antics were posted online and caught the eye of the Department of Environmental Conservation who said that organizers did not have the correct permits.

    They didn’t get permission. Remember kids, in a free country you may not do anything without first asking permission and taking orders. That’s what freedom means.

  15. Scared to eat food past its use-by date? Read on before you chuck it out…
    Salty, sugary, fermented or dried foods last a long time safely
    Hard cheese is fine to eat after sell-by-date if you cut off any mould
    Gone off milk can be used to make pancakes
    Meat should never be consumed past the use-by date

    What about bottled water?

    1. Depends on how you feel about drinking mold or bacteria.

    2. What about bottled water?

      And what about beer? What is the lifespan of a bottle from its born-on date?

      1. considering no real beer comes with “born on” (i.e. green verification) dates, this is not an issue.

  16. Men grow up at 43 – 11 years later than women
    Men finally grow up at the age of 43 – a full 11 years after women ‘mature’, according to a new survey.



    1. “Staying silent during arguments”

      AKA “being nagged”?

    2. “”‘Staying silent during arguments””‘

      That is not childish, that is learned from long long years of experience. Everything you say will be used against you in another argument.

      1. And lets face it, it’s not like the argument is going to do you any good, even if you are 100% categorically in the right you’re not going to change her mind by arguing so you may as well just shut up let her have her say and get on with it.

      2. Nothing says maturity like refusing to admit you were wrong because it might show weakness!

        1. HmmHmm, sounds like something a woman would say.

        2. Staying silent could mean lots of things, not necessarily refusing to admit you’re wrong. What I assumed they meant was keeping a cool head and refusing to get dragged into a shouting match, which I consider a mark of maturity.

          1. No, Atan. You’re refusing to connect on an emotional level. Or displaying passive-aggressiveness. Or something.

          2. If that’s what it means, that’s a mark of maturity. I am more familiar with the “just shut down and stop answering questions” mode.

            1. just shut down and stop answering questions” mode.

              I’ve long held that the Fifth Amendment should apply in relationships, too.

            2. That sounds exactly like something a prosecutor would say.

            3. Yeah, that’s being dismissive, which is mostly kinda childish.

          3. It could even mean you’re refusing to call her out for being wrong.

            1. “Why do you always have to be right!”

            2. This. I love my wife but 90% of the arguments we have (which are fairly rare fortunately) involve her having an irrational emotional over reaction to nothing and there is simply no upside to my engaging in it with her, anything I say with be twisted out of context and conflated with unrelated events from the past to construct invincible strawmen and if I do engage there is the very real chance I will get angry enough to say something really damaging that I really don’t mean and even if no I’m just helping her build that next strawman.

              Basically arguing with a woman (especially a redhead) is like playing Global Thermo Nuclear War, the only winning move is not to play.

              1. I just love the assumption that the woman is going to be the more emotional, less rational party to the relationship. Believe me that this is not always the case.

                1. No it definately is not, however it is a common enough occurance that it makes for a useful stereotype and unfortunately when it is not the case it typically leads to abused women as emotional irrational men tend to be more violent


                  Sounds just like a woman.

                  /ducks & runs 🙂

          4. ^This. By staying silent you are depriving a woman of her God-given right to more things to bitch and argue about. It also makes it harder for her to diffuse the argument into a general bitch-session.

    3. Staying silent during arguments==putting up with ridiculous complaining while trying to keep the situation from escalating.

      Thank gods I have a GF that doesn’t pull that bullshit.

      1. Thank gods I have a GF that doesn’t pull that bullshit.


        One day the crazy will come out and it will be at that point when you discover whether she’s the one.

        1. After 15.8 years I’m pretty sure about this.

          1. But is that in dog years?

      2. “Thank gods I have a GF that doesn’t pull that bullshit.”

        Marry her and see what happens.

    4. re-telling the same old jokes and stories when with the lads

      I didn’t realize being boring was immature.

    5. Men who enjoy being happy irk women, survey says…

      1. Men who enjoy being happy irk women, survey says…

        wtf? because if momma ain’t happy no one else gets to be?

    6. [i]”According to a new survey.”[/i]

      Then it can’t be taken as pure fact. Aren’t surveys subjective?

    7. eight out of ten women believe that men ‘never stop being childish’ – with breaking wind

      That’s why *I* refer to it as “cutting the cheese”.

      1. That’s why *I* refer to it as “cutting the cheese”.

        Blasting ass.

        1. Singing the body electric.

          1. This is the female form;
            A divine nimbus exhales from it from head to foot;
            It attracts with fierce undeniable attraction!
            I am drawn by its breath as if I were no more than a helpless vapor?all falls aside but myself and it;

      2. How the hell are you supposed to stop breaking wind? It just happens.

      1. I feel like the beer commercials were a lot better a decade ago.

    8. This is why we need to raise the drinking age and age of consent to 43, since man-childs are actually children.

      “That beard ain’t fooling me buddy. Where’s your id?”

    9. 12.Don’t like talking about themselves/ having proper conversations

      You know what we say about men who like to talk about themselves?


      1. 12.Don’t like talking about themselves/ having proper conversations

        What if I don’t actually feel like talking? Why don’t I get some sort of say in when I talk and what I talk about?

        1. I am myself. Why woudl I want to talk about myself?

    10. Meh – just more of the same old “male likes and male behaviors are childish and bad, according to women” bullshit.

      1. ^^This^^–a feminized society does whatever it can to supress and demonize biological male behaviors during childhood rather than direct it in a positive way, then acts surprised when men either end up 1) expressing their masculinity in an exaggerated manner well into their 30s and 40s; or 2) become stunted eunuchs that no woman would have any respect for whatsoever (e.g., Bronies)

      2. This is because she believes that a man’s preferences are whims, while her preferences are laws of nature. Which is an over-generalization of a fundamental truth.

  17. The Secret Life of a Cat: What mischievous moggies get up to behind their owners’ backs


    1. Moggies? Speak English, ya git.

      1. First, the cats’ movement patterns: despite disappearing from their homes for hours at a time, very few of the moggies ventured further than 50 metres away.

        I think this is some kind of sci-fi show or something.

      2. “Moggie”? I’d have called it a “chuzzwuzzer”.

  18. The wheel reinvented as a SQUARE: Skateboarder raises $30,000 in 10 days to produce cube-shaped wheels he claims are faster and provide better handling

    Round wheels are so… quaint.

    1. YT thinks this is obvious.

      1. +100 points for proper use of “Snow Crash”. Kudos.

        1. Has there been a surge of improper uses?

          1. A dearth of ANY references, hence the bonus points.

    2. Square wheels work great on sinusoidal roads.

      1. Its hard to tell from eyeballing them, but I think these fit into the categories of shapes with constant diameter that arent circles.

        1. Yeah, its a sinusoidal square. The offset in the angle of the cube w/r/t to direction of travel creates a constant diameter with a smaller contact surface.

  19. Mother-of-two elementary school teacher, 32, is charged with performing sex acts on boy under the age of 14


    1. Well now I now not to click.

    2. That is abuse and rape, straight up.

    3. Brooks’ attorney on Wednesday said that his client was suffering from a mental illness


      1. Well, yes. The same as any 32 year old man who performs a sex act on a child under the age of 14. The important part is whether she was able to conceive that she ought not do so.

  20. Life on the next Atlantis: Doomed Pacific island which will be swallowed by the sea within 60 years


    1. It’s happening already!11!


    2. Lots of meddling going on there…the article also complains that New Zealand-based Family Planning International is having a hard time convincing them to quit having so darn many babies.

      Also, because of the way atolls are formed (coral growing upward as the volcanic rock subsides), rising sea level is the one problem they are perfectly capable of dealing with.

  21. the McCain Institute for International Leadership

    The what?!

    1. Someone ought to ask McCain next time he comes out in favor of NSA spying: “Senator, can you explain how your position on spying on personal communication has evolved since you used tap codes to communicate with other prisoners of war in Vietnam?”

      1. I would send money to the reporter who did that in a televised presser.

        1. Some paper/network should have a “pay for the question” reporter – if enough donations come in for a question, it will be asked a the next presser.

          1. They will never betray their narrative for filthy lucre.

  22. IRS tracks your digital footprint
    The IRS has quietly upgraded its technology so tax collectors can track virtually everything people do online.



    1. And the CIA is helping track down tax cheats according to Snowden. It’s all about the Benjamins.

    2. But the agency reveals little about how it will employ its vast, new network scanning powers.

      Easy. If you donated money to a candidate not approved by the current political appointee running the enforcement division, then you will be audited for online purchases and the sales tax + penalties + interest will be collected.


      1. The Iternal Revenue Service Feloneous Knowledge Determiner.

        When you get caught, you’ve been IRSFKD.

  23. China is avoiding direct comment on the recent NSA scandal.

    They’re afraid to say anything in case the NSA is listening in.

    1. “Listen this is simply not fair to these employees,'” Larson told POLITICO. “They are federal employees.”


    2. “If the issue isn’t resolved, and massive numbers of lawmakers and aides bolt, many on Capitol Hill fear it could lead to a brain drain just as Congress tackles a slew of weighty issues ? like fights over the Tax Code and immigration reform.”

      A brain drain in DC? Now that is funny. Someone actually wrote that.

      1. I was talking to a guy I know, who’s liberal but mainly because he’s idealistic and hasn’t yet realized they’re all scum.

        But he’s talking about his politics professor and says this about him:

        “He’s a real smart guy, he was a bureaucrat for like 20 years.”

        I start laughing uncontrollably. He didn’t see the humor.

      2. Yes, because the ones in D.C. now are such mental heavyweights.

        1. But they all went to college, goddammit!

    3. I may need to go to the hospital. I just OD’d on schadenfraude.

  24. Edward Snowden and the selective targeting of leaks


    We owe Snowden a debt of gratitude for restarting?or should I say starting??the public debate over the government’s secret but “legal” intrusions into our privacy. His leaks, filtered through the Guardian and the Washington Post, give us a once-in-a-generation opportunity to place limits on our power-mad government.

    1. If getting Edward Snowden is so important and stopping future leaks so important, how about this. Lets prosecute Penetta to the full extent of the law for his leaks about the Bin Ladin raid. After Penetta is in prison it will be clear to the world that the feds are so serious about leaks that no one is immune from prosecution. And it will make their pursuit of Snowden less unacceptable to charges of it being politically motivated. As for Leon, well, he is just going to have to do a couple of years in the federal pen for the good of his country. It will be hard. But we have asked more of others.

      1. Excellent.

        Let Leon take one for the team.

    2. This Risen should be sent to all those congressvermin who are calling for prosecution of Snowden.

  25. That’s because you’re Canadian‘: Teen relentlessly bullied by principal for being a Canuck drops out of school in New York

    1. That hoser deserved it.

      1. That hoser deserved it.


    2. +24 Elsinore.

    3. “I’m Canadian. They think I’m slow, eh?”

    4. my brother married a Canadian – after a few years living there, he now uses the word “colour”.

      Anyway, when they travel to places in the U.S., they often stay at resorts/hotels that cater to “Canadian tourists”. WTF?

      Of course his wife thinks that all Americans tote guns everywhere.


        They don’t expect tips?

      2. Even in KY I’ve only ever seen one guy open carry. And KY is a bastion of freedom in regards to firearms.

        No one is worse than a Canadian when it comes to zombie guns running rampant and killing indiscriminately.

        1. Kinda OT:

          I remember years back a buddy of mine had a problem with a shotgun he had purchased at K-mart so he carried it back into the store to have it looked at. When he got back to the sporting goods department, the guy behind the counter took a look at it and started lecturing my buddy about gun safety when he realized the gun was loaded. Later, several of us had an argument over whether or not carrying a loaded shotgun into K-mart automatically qualified one as a dumbass (I argued that you’re a dumbass if you even think there’s anything to argue about) but now it’s seems so strange to think that none of us at the time could even conceive of it seeming strange that you would walk into K-mart toting a shotgun and nobody would pay any attention to you.

  26. When the Canadian Government Used “Gay Detectors” to Try to Get Rid of Homosexual Government Employees


    1. Used “Gay Detectors”

      so, gaydar?

  27. Is Edward Snowden’s story unravelling? Why the Guardian’s scoop is looking a bit dodgy

  28. …he thinks Obama should be doing more to support the rebels in Syria, adding that the president could end up looking like “a total fool.”

    God bless you, former President Bill Clinton. You’re entertaining, and Obama may just do the opposite out of spite.

  29. Obama Administration’s NSA Assurances ‘a Bunch of Bunk’

    First Mikulski, now Sensenbrenner.

    Tsk, tsk, Mr. President.

  30. Putin Threatens Gulag Campaigners as Berlin Shows Terror

    Pieces of barbed wire. A tattered dress, patched in so many places that it is more patch than dress. A homemade lamp cobbled together out of a tin can. A padded jacket to protect against Siberian winds.

    These humble relics recall the horror of the Soviet labor camps in a Berlin exhibition, “Gulag: Traces and Testimonies, 1929-1956.” The show at the German Historical Museum remembers the estimated 20 million people incarcerated during Josef Stalin’s reign. About 2 million are believed to have died.


    Memorial has been threatened with having to close by President Vladimir Putin’s government for refusing to comply with a law requiring institutions that engage in “political activities” and receive aid from abroad to register as “foreign agents.”

    1. So how come they don’t register as a foreign agent since the last I looked Germans were foreigners in Russia?

  31. WTF

    When Sheriff Finch observed a deputy sheriff arresting a Liberty County resident for nothing other than carrying a concealed weapon in March, Finch … decided against infringing on the 2nd Amendment, and made the obligatory decision to release the individual shortly afterwards.

    Tuesday, June 4th, Gov. Rick Scott, who was elected largely in part of his pro 2nd Amendment stance, suspended Finch from office and appointed Carl Causey, of Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s (FDLE) Pensacola Region, as interim sheriff. It was also FDLE who issued a warrant to arrest Sheriff Finch on charges of “official misconduct” which is a 3rd degree felony and punishable to up to 5 years in prison.

    1. That’s fucked up.

      “Gov. Rick Scott, who was elected largely in part of his pro 2nd Amendment stance…”

      Not surprised. Politicians would say anything to get a few more votes and a few more years in office, no matter where their true sympathies lay.

    2. Ah yes, this is the type of corrupt cop that should be investigated in the usual manner, and not via an internal investigation that clears him of all wrongdoing.

      1. Must be an honest elected official if he let himself be removed without a fight.

    3. Hahaha “Liberty” County

  32. http://pjmedia.com/blog/nsa-st…..e-records/

    NSA still trying to figure out how many terror attacks foiled by phone monitoring. Maybe I am just an amateur but in the work I do it is kind of a big deal when we nab some criminal alien or figure out a way to catch someone committing fraud. We tend to keep track of those things and can tell our bosses or Congress just exactly how many no kidding tangible results have resulted from our efforts. They are pretty rare so we tend to remember them. But the pros over at the NSA apparently have stopped so many terror plots they lost count.


      I think that might be the opposite of their problem.

      1. That is what I am thinking as well. Regardless of this scandal, the idea that the Obama Administration would let a foiled terror plot remain unknown and not use it for political advantage is quite absurd.

        1. Much less dozens as was reported yesterday to Congress.

    2. Not to worry, their people are working around the clock fabricating evidence.


      not to mention being able to place them prominently on your resume

    4. The pros at the NSA have lost count of how many potential terror plots they have stopped. Definitions matter.

    5. John, by spying on Americans, and Germans, and Chinese, the NSA is doing God’s work. Unlike the evil profiteers at Boot-Allen, which the NSA employs because its own employees lack the necessary technical expertise to spy on millions of people. The NSA doesn’t have justify anything they do, and if you ask, it means you want the terrorists to win.

      Now shut up and send more money.

    6. Well keep in mind the NSA is not a law enforcement department. They don’t have any, you know, *actual* arrests to point to, just a bunch of assists.

      So they have to count up all of their partials and convert them into “full-time arrest equivalents”.

      Kinda like how they counted all those *partial* jobs saved by the bailout and converted them into “full jobs”.

    1. Ha I used to work in the Compuserve HQ building on Arlington Center Blvd, course this was long after AOL bought them.

      I was however responsible for testing what I believe was the last version of the Compuserve dial up client ever produced so that it would be XP compatibile

  33. http://www.nationaljournal.com…..s-20130612

    Its recovery summer.

    1. Catch the fever!

    2. again? /rocky the squirrel

    3. This is why headlines based solely on aggregate job numbers are misleading.



      The families of mobsters can have a tough time making ends meet when said mobsters go off to prison. That isn’t a reason to let mobsters go free.

      1. Wait, what? Fuck his family.



          I think he wants to fuck one member of his wife’s family. Close enough for government work.

    2. DUE PROCESS is a right of cops before being terminated, as both a constitutional right and as per CONTRACT. atfpapic he deserves his pension otherwise its an illegal fine by the government. anyone who denies this is a member of the bigorati. poll after poll has shown that cop pensions are incredibly popular with the public.


      1. Strong work there, Auric. Indistinguishable from the original dunphyspeak.

        1. My head hurts now. I’m not sure if that’s from trying to think like dunphy, or from drinking during a triple OT game that didn’t finish till 1 AM.

          1. I figured you had simply copypasted some old dunphyspeak.

            1. Not that I reread my comment, since I didn’t mention the rape aspect, there probably is a post by him that is ridiculously close to this.

          2. I had to drive home, so I quit drinking before the end of regulation – I drove home after first OT (and a cup of coffee – I was 50 miles from home). By the time the Hawks finished, I was fully dried out.

    3. Give him his pension, then seize it to compensate the woman he victimized.

      1. To put on my libertarian austerity hat for a brief moment, if we replaced public pensions with 401K plans or similar, this would have never come up. He’d have the money, and nobody would have spent time and resources fighting court cases about it. Plus, there’d be no open-ended pension obligation to bankrupt the municipality later.

        Makes sense, so it’ll never happen.

        1. Yes. And also the victim of his misconduct could get that money as compensation. Everyone would be better off.

          1. Not quite everyone. Not the cop or his union.

        2. Stop hating the children

          1. They need to stop hating me first.

            1. They’d probably stop hating you if you stopped molesting them so much.

    1. Satanists don’t shoot up the place.

      1. I apologize to any resident Satanists I may have offended.

    2. So the Air Force is going from outright evangelizing to full-on PC. But of course.

    3. That’s highly unlikely – the AF is even more evangelical Christian than the Army.

      If anything, I wouldn’t be surprised if they made a video mentioning god *specifically* to piss off Muslims and atheists.

      1. Weird auto-correct here – I capitalized God and it changed it to lower case, didn’t capitalize Muslim and it told me it didn’t recognize the word until I capitalized it.

        1. A ‘Muslim’ always refers to a noun. The word ‘god’, however, can refer to the concept of a god, which should not be capitalized.

          1. Sorry – the above is incorrect.

    1. SLD that steroids shouldn’t be illegal.

  34. More people have been killed by toddlers than by terrorists this year. When is the federal government, protector of all, benevolent gaurdian that it is going to ban toddlers? THINK OF TEH CHILDRUNZ!!!!!!111!!!! /sarc

    1. Why does anyone *need* a rug rat?

      1. Beat me to it!

      2. Look, you can get a large capacity stroller, you just can’t fill it all the way with kids.

        1. Except in CA, where you have to buy large capacity stroller repair kits.

          1. If you like your large capacity stroller, you can keep it (you just can’t get a new one).

    2. ?You are 8 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist

      1. With proper training and some more funding, they can get that ratio up to 16!

    3. Does anybody really NEED assault toddlers?

  35. I have been doing a lot of work on pandemics and health issues lately. And it is amazing to me how much public health people tell half truths and lies. The difference between the information provided to the public and the information contained in professional medical and scientific journals (i.e. the real knowledge spread between the doctors). For example, if you read the public health in formation on HIV, you would think it is a miracle we all don’t have it. Then you read the scientific literature and you realize that the transmission rate of HIV in a single act of unprotected vaginal sex is 1 in 2500 female to male and 1 in 200 male to female. With rates like that, HIV was never going to be anything but rare in the non IV drug using straight population.

    Recently all you hear about is drug resistant gonorrhea. That is bad. But what they don’t say publicly is that gonorrhea is fatal in less than 1% of cases, and develops complications in maybe 10% of women and 1% of men. And 80% of women never have symptoms. IN most cases the infection clearance out of the person’s system naturally in a few weeks or months and most women don’t even know they had it. Clearly, it is a bad deal for the 10% or whatever. But if you read the literature, you would think it always results in complications. They never put the chances. They always use weasel words like “can” or “may”.

    I see why they do it. But it is still a lie. It is still “top men” lying to the proles.

    1. Thinking about getting some strange?

      1. No. I am married. So these issues do not affect me. But I have been doing a lot of work on pandemics and talking to a few epidemiologists. And like every other subject, the truth is not what you read in the media. There really isn’t any subject the media doesn’t get at least half wrong.

        1. I am expert in a few things and at least well informed in many others, and I have a terrible time wading through all the misinformation and misinterpretations of good information in the media. It’s enough to seem hopeless sometimes. How anyone who sees how wrong the media gets things like basic science can turn around and just trust them on anything else is amazing.

          1. The cracks appeared in the media when I was in the Army. I’d see stories reporting basic information, like calibers, completely wrong. This is all pretty basic, and they can’t get that right. How do they get complicated stuff right?

            1. They don’t

            2. My favorite was a story a year or so after 9/11, about our troops in Afghanistan, which mentioned somebodies “300mm handgun.”

        2. No. I am married. So these issues do not affect me.

          Not to be disrespectful, but infections do not recognize marital promises.

          1. True. But I don’t cheat and I am pretty sure my wife doesn’t. So I like my chances.

            1. Also, even if she does, its unlikely she will transmit her HIV to you.

            2. Who said anything about cheating, we’re all just accusing you of being a swinger 🙂

              1. Yeah. That sounds so fun in theory. It is a great idea right up until you see the actual people who swing. Then you pretty much never want to have sex again.

                1. lol having been on the fringes of the swinger community for years and actually attending a couple of parties (while not partaking) on the one hand I know what you mean, none of them are going to win a beauty contest anytime soon, on the other hand we can’t all be like Dunphy and marry Morgan Fairchilde and Swingers on average look like average middle aged Americans, slightly overweight greying and starting to wrinkle but if you can’t find that attractive you’re gonna be miserable once your wife hits 45.

                  I will say the saddest think I have ever seen in my life happened at a Swingers club, this girl wanted to be the object of a gangbang for her birthday, it was announced over the sound system several times and no one signed up to participate. At one point the club organizers were going around practically begging guys to help her out. The poor girl was devastated, there she was in a room full of swingers and every single one of them rejected her.

                2. Yeah. The people who I know for sure swing are, to put it gently, not the most physically attractive specimens.

        3. “No. I am married. So these issues do not affect me.”

          Coffee/nose. Yeah.


      Wait, is this assuming that the partner in question had HIV, or is just a generic person (who might have it)?

      1. That is assuming one party has HIV. So, a woman could be HIV and go out and sleep a single time with 2500 men and likely only give it to one man. A man could sleep with the same number and give it to a dozen or so women.

        Now you see why HIV never spread in the hetero community. Now, among male to male sex and in an infected needles, the transmission rates go way up. Then you are cooking with peanut oil as they say and you get a pandemic in those communities.

        1. Wow, in that case that is insanely low.

        2. HIV transmission requires broken skin. In normal hetero sex, it’s not normal for the man to have broken skin. It’s a little more likely for a woman’s vaginal skin to tear a bit, and even more likely for there to be tears with anal sex.

          But those facts are politically incorrect. Equal outcomes and all that. So they’re not talked about.

          1. Yeah. HIV is always going to be a gay male and IV drug user’s disease. That doesn’t make it less horrible. But that is what it is. But the public health people have lied I think to keep male homosexuals from being stigmatized. I think that sucks. Think of all of the stress they have put people through. Someone comes up with an STD and then spends days agonizing that they also might have HIV when the chances of that are nearly zero.

            1. Knowing this fact, it makes a ton more sense that one of the disqualifying questions when you give blood is about having had gay sex.

              Though do you happen to know what the transmission rate is for male to male, as compared to heterosexual sex? Is it more frequent like 1 in 100, or 1 in 10?

              1. Even then it is “relatively low”. It is around 1.4%. But when you consider the consequences of HIV, that is pretty high.


                  That’s because the vast majority of gay men are cock-suckers who do not engage in anal sex.

                  1. Isn’t gay sex life just all about buttsex?

                    1. Isn’t gay sex life just all about buttsex?

                      Nope. Most of them are peepee-puffers who treat their ass as exit only.

                    2. peepee-puffers

                      That sounds like it’s straight out of some gay childrens book

                2. So it sounds like that problem is still refusal to use condoms.

                  1. Frankly, even without the STD issues I prefer condoms for anal sex, just for easier cleanup reasons.

        3. Actually the statistics are not that she could sleep with 2500 men and transmit it once, it is that each time she has a 1/2500 chance of transmitting it. There is a difference. Condoms have a 99% success rate in preventing pregnancy but you don’t get a woman pregnant once for every hundred times you gave condom protected sex with her.

          1. Yes, but if you she slept with 2500 men once each, the chances are she would give it to one of them. That is all I meant.

            1. Actually the chance that any one of those 2500 men would be infected is only 36.8%, because each chance is an independent trial.

              n trials
              x infections
              p= prob of infection
              q =prob of not infection

              P= nChoosex * p^x * q^(n-x)

              1. Actually, that’s the probability of infecting *only* one out of 2500. The probability of infecting *at least* one of 2500 is 1-P= 0.632

                The probability for each man is onlu 1/2500 but her probability of infecting at least one of the 2500 is still less than 1.

      2. That’s with a positive partner.

    3. public health people

      I’ve long assumed that people in the “public health field” are nothing more than horribly over-glorified concern trolls who spend 99 percent of their days hand-wringing over meaningless non-problems.

      1. Part of it is that they deal in the meta. If you have say 700,000 cases of gonorrhea every year and they all go untreated, that means 7000 people die. That is bad from the meta perspective. But if you are one of the unfortunates who are in the 700,000, you have to like your chances.

        A big thing that I find in dealing with them is they refuse to take any risks. The fact is our bodies beat most of bacterial diseases on our own. If you are a young, healthy person, you are unlikely to die from a bacterial disease. But we give antibiotics in every case because we go for a zero risk. I am starting to think that was a mistake. We probably should just give antibiotics to the old or sick or pregnant women and children and such and let the young and healthy fight it off on their own treating them only if they have complications.

        1. A big thing that I find in dealing with them is they refuse to take any risks.

          As in so many areas, people projecting their own risk aversion onto the general population causes problems.

          1. As long as they’re paying for it with OPM, why should they care?

          2. Yes. And no one ever thinks big picture. If they decided on a rule that said, “if you have gonorrhea and are not pregnant or sick, come back in six months if it is still there we will treat you” all you would hear about is the few cases where that went wrong. You would never hear about the benefits of keeping the disease from being resistant to antibiotics.

    4. Back in the mid 80s, I just knew that the scaremongering was horse dung.

      1. The other thing I wonder about is HIV rates in Africa. It has been over 20 years now since they were saying Africa had these huge rates of HIV positive people. Yet, here we are 20 years later and Africa has hardly depopulated. It makes me wonder if HIV isn’t just native to Africa and the people there have some kind of immunity. No one ever knew the disease existed until by shear bad luck it managed to spread to a western community that had no resistance and a high transmission rate.

        1. Back in the early 90s I had a roommate who said HIV was a result of “niggers fucking monkeys.” Not sure if he was right or not, but it made for colorful conversation.

          1. I think I went to collage with that guy.

        2. Don’t discount the fact that Bill Gates and George Bush partnered to make sure that HIV drugs got distributed across sub-Saharan Africa for free and without the usual corruption-laden channels. So if T-cell count stays up, transmission rates fall. Also, good chance that the population for exposure essentially saturated as it was the soldier/camp follower population that was at worst risk of exposure.

          1. I have it on good authority that the only thing Bush ever gave to Africa was the finger.

          2. I hear horror stories about how stupid fucks in Africa believe that having sex with a virgin will cure them of AIDS, so they end up raping a lot of young girls and babies.

        3. HIV takes a long time to kill you, so if most of the people who have it still reproduce before dying, you wouldn’t have depopulation even if it’s vastly reducing life expectancy.

          e.g. if the US started executing everyone at age 40, would that not be a problem even though the country isn’t depopulating?

          1. Rephrase that as: If the US started executing people every 10th person on their 40th birthday starting tomorrow, and you’d be closer. The US would be massively depopulated if you killed everyone 40 or older.

            1. Oh yeah, with only 40 and under left, there’d only be 186 million people in this country. I don’t know how we’d manage to go on as the world’s sixth largest country.

              1. The labor force participation rate would be pretty good, I’ll grant you that.

    5. Any excuse to stop people from fucking too much. When you fuck too much you’re not being productive and earning income for the state to tax steal, plus you end up producing too many babies, and as I posted above, toddlers are some of the most dangerous creatures on Earth. You don’t want too many of them running around, the death toll would be catastrophic.

    6. HHS in DC has a huge real-time pandemic map. wall sized — straight out of the movies.
      If you look at it long enough, I could see why you think we’re all doomed.

      1. Pretty much. If you hang around with them long enough you will start thinking the drug resistant gonorrhea is going to start being transmitted by casual contact and the swing flu via email.

        The truth is that most people who die in a pandemic die of opportunistic infections. But we can treat those, so the death rate is going to be much lower in a pandemic today than it was in the past.

        1. swing flu v

          that died out quickly in the late 90s.

          1. Yes but it lead to the Boogey Woogey Blues.

          2. I have a friend who still suffers from this chronically, even today.

            (In all seriousness, he takes a swing class in Miami and apparently the class is full of chicks and he’s getting a lot of action from it. Strangely, he’s actually into the class for the dancing rather than the sex. That’s just a happy byproduct.)

        2. Lived through the Swine Flu Epidemic working for the State of FL epidemiologists. They hated when I used their statistics to prove that I shouldn’t get an inactivate flu vaccine. My risk profile (single, late 20s [back then], no exposure to kids or old people, never ill) was higher by introducing flu virus into my system intentionally than .

          1. And even if you had gotten it, chances are you would have beaten it with no long term effects. Even the worst flu is a killer if you have cancer or some other disease that screws with your T cells or you are old or a child. In most of human history, people had no access to effective medical care of any kind. Yet, most people who survived childhood lived to see old age. They act like our bodies have no natural defenses against these things.

            1. There are exceptions. The 1917-1918 flu pandemic killed off young, healthy people.

              1. Yes and no. Most of those people did not die of the flu but opportunistic infections. If such an event happened today, we could treat the opportunistic infections even if we couldn’t treat the flu. Thus, the death rate would likely be much lower.

              2. Sorry – 1918-1919.


                (that’s from Wikipedia, but referencing this as the source.)

                1. So the best way to treat this in young people would apparently be cortico-steroids to weaken the immune response.

                  1. Others disagree with that assesment BP


                    After reviewing US household survey data, a senior statistician of the US Public Health Service concluded that “… these relations indicate that the mortality is determined primarily by the incidence of pneumonia. The cause of the high mortality in young adult life evidently lies in the complicating pneumonia. All of the relations … bear this out


                    Truth is, they don’t know for sure.

                    But yeah, if you get the once in a century killer, you are probably screwed.

    7. Schools of Public Health are heavily dependent on federal dollars. The bigger scare they can create, the more attractive it is for politicians to make sure they get money. The biggest offender is Hopkins. They’re so cozy with Bloomberg that it makes me ill.

      1. My girlfriend graduated from a masters in public health program last summer, but missed the ceremonies for the previous year because of the summer classes, so we went to a couple of things this spring. At an award ceremony, they had about 15 people get recognized for their thesis or volunteer work or internship. Every single one involved working for a federal program or grant.

      2. It’s axiomatic, Scruff, just like Public Administration grads tend to study, intern for, and eventually be employed by government, or nonprofits with government contracts.

    8. HIV was never going to be anything but rare in the non IV drug using straight non anal sex having population.



      Then you and they must get on very well together.

      1. Tonio, even if straight have anal sex, HIV would have to get started in the population for it to be transmitted. You can have all of the anal sex you want and it won’t matter until you run into the wrong partner. And since HIV is never going to spread in the straight community, that is very unlikely. And further, anal sex is only serious danger to the person on the receiving end, or the woman in this case. So it still wouldn’t move through the straight community very fast.

        Do me a favor, if you are going to put up insulting posts, think through them a bit better before doing so. Otherwise, you just waste space on the thread. And we have Shreek and Tony to do that. We don’t need a third.

        1. Don’t want to be insulted? Don’t post half-truths and outright lies.

          1. Don’t post half-truths and outright lies.

            Sure. And do me a favor and point it out when I actually do. In this case, you are clearly wrong. HIV is not a threat to the anal sex having straight community. It can’t be because HIV is extremely rare in the straight community at large.

            Look, you are wrong here. Just admit it and move on. Stop acting like Joe from Lowell or MNG. We all make mistakes. You made one. So do yourself a favor and admit it and move on.


    We all know the answer to that question: “Because Fuck You, That’s Why.”

    But remember kids, taxes aren’t theft and there’s no coercion or threat of violence if you don’t pay up.

    1. I have a hard time believing IRS agents are trained to use AR-15s.

      If they are IRS, they’re using BFW/AR-1015.10(c)II-As. (But see Publ. 2214-CNR15(Rev.) line 15 (or the lesser of line 7 minus line 5a,b and c unless the carryover from previous tax years includes any income not specified on Form 1055B or line 6 plus line 9a) for the latest revision number.)


    It’s a privilege!

  38. some modern soul music that doesn’t make me retch

  39. FEMA to West, TX: Fuck you, that’s why.

    I’m sure this has nothing to do with TX being a red state and home to lots of TEABAGGERZ and other domestic terrists.

    1. Too white.

      1. That too. I’m sure if West had a larger impoverished black community and Romney had won the election, we’d be treated to Kanye West on the TV talking about how “Mitt Romney doesn’t care about black people… and everyone buy my album. I’m gonna have massive child support payments once my relationship with that Armenian whore inevitably implodes.”


      “Fugie, you’re doing a heckuva job.”

      [Obama said] “Your country will remain ever ready to help you recover and rebuild and reclaim your community.”

      “Remaining ready” logically is the opposite of “actually providing assistance”.

      Continuing to study Obamaese ….

    3. Wait, something isn’t a federal disaster?

  40. [a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-i44zPrV2E”]

    [link:www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-i44zPrV2E|TESTING TESTING DISREGARD]

    1. Your first one would have worked if you’d used “less than” and “greater than” symbols instead of square brackets.

      1. Worked. Thanks for the help.

    2. Have to use HTML, not BBcode.

      1. Thanks for the tip.

        1. and for the premium subscribers there is the preview button…SugarFree has never seen it but it is there.

          1. The preview button doesn’t work for some of us–it just redirects to a blank white page with nothing on it but your login name. Plus it completely eats all the text yoy just wrote. It’s fuckjng useless.

            1. premium subscribers

              See, I think I found your problem. If you upgrade to the Gold Liberty Defender account it should fix that. Send an e-mail to Welch.

              1. SugarFree discovered that the problem comes up if you have your profile set to display your email. If you uncheck that, you will get a functioning preview.

                1. Ah, so. Thanks!

                2. damnit Nikki…he was primed and ready to donate 100/mo to Reason.

                  1. Not bloody likely. I’ve offered to double my contributions to the Reason Foundation on the condition that they do away with threaded comments to no effect.

                    1. you and brooksie….stay strong brother.

  41. As Agent Smith once told James Whale, Our list of allies grows thin.

    1. CATO has become as worthless as tits on a boar. Here is the thing, there are arguments for this program. But CATO or Reason for that matter have no business making them. CATO and Reason are supposed to be like the church. Yeah, there are a whole lot of good reasons to go to war. But I would not expect to hear them from the Pope. When the Pope comes out against this or that war, it is as it should be. The Pope’s job is to preach non violence.

      It is the same thing here. By making these arguments, CATO totally undercuts libertarians who object to this program by allowing the program’s proponents to say “even CATO agrees with us”. If these assholes want to give a fair and two sided perspective on this, go work for the CRS. CATO’s job is to give the Libertarian perspective. Fucking assholes.

      1. CATO? They’re still around? Holy shit, I thought they had been assimilated into the Heritage Foundation.

        1. They’re not that bad… yet.

          1. They’re a great place to find public domain documents that relate to some strains of libertarian theory. But as a rule, their opinion pieces are blubbery odes to the security state. Well, fuck that.

        2. They are still holding out to see if Brookings will give them a higher bid. The staff is divided on which is the better offer.

        3. So did I after the Kochs took Cato over last year and installed a slew of conservative stooges on the board.

      2. Cato was unlibertarian on many issues even before the Objectivists took over. With the Objectivists running the show, expect more paeans to the powerful national security state.

      3. I would think that, if there was actually a justification for a security state, then CATO should say so. But I think that the security state we have is wrong, so that’s why I disagree with the stuff they say.

        In short, it’s wrong for them to say this stuff because it’s wrong.

      4. I’m not sure it’s fair to criticize all of Cato (it’s not supposed to be all caps) for bad op-eds published by individuals associated with Cato. Especially when Julian Sanchez and Jim Harper probably don’t agree with this op-ed. (I am at work and am too lazy too find out if they actually have, I’m just going on what I know of them both)

    2. Wow. Cato is going downhill fast.

      1. But don’t anyone suggest the Koch brothers are anything less than the patron saints of libertarianism.

    3. Roger Pilon was never really on our list of allies, though I was more disappointed to see Richard Epstein’s name on that one.


      They can’t identify the abuses, dumbshit, because they can’t sue them in court. They can’t sue them in court because the gov’t simply denies the program exists, and gets it dismissed on procedural grounds. Greenwald, a constitutional lawyer himself, has made this point many times.

      Fucking Cato. I’m done with those assholes.

      1. But one abuse is no pattern of abuses.

        I’d argue that obtaining the data without a warrant represents MILLIONS OF CASES OF ABUSE, thereby establishing said pattern many times over.

        Fuck off, Cato.

  42. A unknown human body was discovered, apparently.


    1. PART. Body PART.

      1. Somehow I overlooked that…


        1. I did not.

          /Hannibal Lechter

  43. New Mexico cops laugh while they beat the shit out of suspects…even after they scream “I surrender” and go prone. They will also face simple battery charges.

    The rub? FTA: The state’s Law Enforcement Academy Board is investigating whether Rice will lose his law enforcement certification.

    Gee, ya think?!?!?!

    1. Welcome back, sloop. We missed ya.

    2. Ow, my testicles.

    3. The officer later said no charges would be sought against two other officer linked to the beating.

      Of course not.

  44. Tip to police departments: if you want the press to carry water for you, don’t let the DA accuse them of being the reason an investigation falls apart. If you do, expect more editorials like this one from the Syracuse Times News.

    Excerpt: When it comes to the men and women in blue, there are no serious consequences for misdeeds. Last year, the city spent months revamping its Citizen Review Board legislation, filled the board and hired new staff. The CRB can look into complaints against the police, and then what do they do? They turn the results over to the chief and ask him to do something about it. He might take action, and even if he does, he can keep that action secret. It’s a personnel matter. So the public that pays the bill and bears the burden of police misconduct does not even have the right to see how discipline is handed out.

    You will hear cops complain about being harassed by the prospect of internal affairs or CRB oversight, but it’s an annoyance at best, one easily ignored.


  45. Souf Effrica!

    South African black metal with a progressive tinge. Very good stuff.

    1. Its Eh-fric-KA

  46. Michigan cop admits to beating the shit out of an inmate and accepts 93 day sentence. But the judge thinks even that is too harsh and stays it for 12 months, with the charge to be removed from his record if he commits no more crimes.

    He got paid over $10k for his vacation but was actually terminated. I have to wonder if he’ll get his job back or keep his cop credentials after his assault (while armed, against a confined prisoner) is expunged from his record.

    1. Prisoners don’t have rights. Why are you soft on crime?

    2. No. Double. Standard.

  47. What’s the penalty for using your authority and the fact that you’re armed to force a woman to expose herself and touch herself inappropriately against her will: Sexual assault? Kidnapping? Abuse of power?

    Nah. You just lose your job.

    FTA: “The fact that one person decided to misuse his authority and victimize a citizen does not reflect the exceptional people that work for the Richland County Sheriff’s Department,” said Lott.

    Actually, Mr Lott. It does exactly that if you don’t throw that person in jail like you would one of us.

    1. People sometimes ask why I hate cops. It usually only takes like three stories like this before they understand.

  48. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-20…..s-suicide/

    Wow, we found the last honorable bureaucrat.

    1. “Police allege a heavy equipment operator was high on marijuana when it happened.”

      I know where this is going…

    2. Our bureaucrats need a crash course on Japanese honor.

      And they all need to be presented with a tanto at the end of the course.

    3. Sounds more like the people who paid him off to pass the inspection didn’t want him around anymore.

    4. What makes this story so juicy is the “lalalalalalalalalala” coming from liberal land, especially after they were adamant that the horrible building collapse in *Insert 3rd World Country Here* a couple of months ago was due only to a lack of regulations and building codes.

  49. Rapist cop given 19 years.

    I only bring it up because it took 6 years to get the cases to trial. Six fucking years that this rapist was walking the street.

  50. Malkin – 76 Million over 8

    1. How much is that per careless giveaway at the blue line?

    2. Wow. WorldNetDaily makes a lot more money than I would have thought.



    Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/…..z2W6dBcwOD

    Go fuck yourself and die assholes. Sadly, I am sure they will fix this before any of them feel any of the consequences they stick the public with.

    1. I haven’t heard a whiff of this. and i’m talking health care with those clowns all the time. i think it’s a Hill rumor — i know a guy who talked to a guy who’s going to quit.

      1. They are not going to quit. Not a single one of them. They love the power too much. And few of them have any marketable skills outside of being disgusting yes men to hideous powerful people.

      2. Hmm. Getting a quote from several leadership level congresscritters makes me hope otherwise.

    2. NO! Muh freebies!

  52. Low tech, cheap weapon a blast from the past:


    “And then the U.S. military moved on ? or so it seemed. While the M40 was technically replaced, the Army’s scientists, like Dark Ages monks, have continued preserving and even improving it until the day comes for its resurrection.”

    1. Yeah firing Javelins or TOWs at mud huts full of hadji is a huge waste of money.

      1. And advanced weapons systems require training and worse, maintenance. The truth is small arms were pretty much perfected during the first half of the 20th century. Until we come up with phasers or something out of science fictions, you are only going to see marginal improvement. The Army keeps trying to replace the M16. They would desperately love to get some contractor rich building a new main battle rifle. And all they can ever do is build the same rifle with marginally useful and likely to break shit stuck on it.

        1. Well it’s the typical shit. The Javelin would be amazing deployed at the Fulda Gap. Hell, if Putin decides to make a move it could still be amazing at the Fulda Gap. But for the current war, it’s a white elephant.

        2. the ol’ M1 Garand can still kill rather well.

          ex-Marine who works here tells of some of old-timers who still used the M14 for sharpshooting.

          1. Oh, there were many of those being carried around Afghanistan in 2004-2005.

      2. A 106 is roughly equitable to a TOW, certainly, but not a Javelin.

        The Javelin is a truly man-portable system, neither the TOW or M40 are.

        Javelin use is pretty rare, AT4 (actual designation M136) and the old M72 are used in far greater numbers. The Marines use the SMAW and AT4 almost exclusively from what my jarhead friends have told me. Of the 03s I know, none of them has even seen a Javelin.

    2. Wow – when I was PFC John, back in 1985, we had one of those sitting in the vault at our armory. And we still had some guys who could shoot and repair them.

  53. New Jersey police officer decides that making $127,000 a year isn’t enough to keep him actually working while he is on duty. So he decides to attend a BBQ and get drunk while on his beat.

    His department, fearing that he is being overworked or something, decided to give him a sweet-ass paid vacation while they figure out how to wag their finger at him. He was also charged with DUI, so will likely end up with desk duty while being paid $127,000 a year by the taxpayers.

    The rest of the story says everything you need to know about Edison, NJ’s police department, which is apparently completely out of control, what with the attempted arsons and series of abrupt resignations in the face of criminal investigations, etc, etc. A real model police force in the Garden State.

  54. Our bureaucrats need a crash course on Japanese honor.

    I’d happily settle for the Chinese option; if they won’t commit suicide, execute them.

  55. I wonder if we would get four days off of work (and no criminal charges filed against us) if we slammed into a car containing a pregnant woman and some kids, forcing the woman to have an emergency c-section.

    And I wonder if they’s spread that time out so as to not impact us too bad. Oh, and I wonder if they’d actually pay us for half of the time off.

    And once again: no charges against the responsible party. After all, he’s gonna suffer enough with those 24 hours of paid and 24 hours of unpaid vacation.

    1. Hey, you’re back! There was a rumor banjos murdered you.

      1. She did. This is clearly an attempt by her to throw us off the trail.

        1. Or it is Zombie sloopy?!!

        2. This^^

          Not nearly enough rage in the post above.

          1. Banjos may have a sharp wit and deft han but lacks sloopy’s “Spittle of Rage”

          2. You’ve got to give the boy a chance to get back in shape. He’ll have a brain anuerism and die if he goes from normal person back to full on rageboner in a single day.


    But these things make good cops sad, so we’ve got that going for us.

  57. http://news.yahoo.com/nra-goes…..51151.html

    NRA going after Manchin.

    1. Did you read the New Republic article about the new lean mean anti-gun movement. It was hysterical. Manchin was their poster boy. They claimed if he was switching everyone but the real dead enders was going to be soon to follow. Yeah, a Senator turns out to have lied to get elected only to switch positions to bring it in line with his party leadership. That never happens. It is just profound.

      1. If they wish hard enough, it becomes real. I’m just waiting for them to go back to furiously masturbating to the West Wing episode where Martin Sheen brings us gun control.

        1. Sometimes they lie to try to get independents and soft supporters of the other side to think they are in the majority and it is weird to think otherwise. But in places like the New Republic that only hard core liberals ever read, they seem to be lying just to make the rank and file feel better. Its like they love lying so much that they lie to themselves when there is no one around to lie to.


          I, no shit, saw one of my liberal friends on FB post that she was watching West Wing to restore her faith in government after all of the recent scandal. She’s a nice lady and I like her taste in music, so I just laughed and let it go.

          1. It’s like that stupid Reddit picture of the starship Enterprise labeled “Brought to you by Socialism”

            Yes, in a fictional world with magical scarcity eliminating tech, we have starships. In fiction. Which is made up.

            1. Also, in that fiction, the guy who invented the warp drive was doing it to make money.

              1. It’s a military ship, no? The military is supposed to be socialist. Unless they’re contractors.

              2. I’d like to see a “documentary” about how the fledgling Federation eminent domain’ed Cochrane’s invention, leaving him destitute.

    2. Good. They need to do this sort of stuff to keep their brand pure. Breaking with a group who got a politician across the line should result in them doing everything in their power to fuck said guy in re-election. It makes politicians stay bought.

    1. Look how many of them are LEO or emergency responder charities. Further proof, cops can never run an honest operation.

      1. “International Union of Police Associations, AFL-CIO”

    1. Holy shit. SCOTUS is on a tear. Between this and the raising case, its like they drank the libertarian koolaid.

    2. Quick someone open-source Jon Holmes’s DNA sequence!

  58. The USAF just told us “users are not to use AF NIPNET[sic] systems to access Verizon phone records collection and other related new[sic] stories.”

    So, I think I have to stop reading Reason at work [on breaks]to avoid being fired. Pretty much everything posted here the last week or so is related to the Verizon phone records collection. Not that I’ve been here long enough for you to notice, but I’ll miss being here. Or I’ll just read it on my (ironically) Verizon-enabled iPad.

    1. They said the same thing after the wikileaks stuff. Technically it is still classified until they say it isn’t.

      Another example of why Kafka not Orwell predicted the future.

  59. PPACA spurs innovation in healthcare pricing… in ways to avoid Obamacare entanglement.

    1. I predict the new EHR and datamining initiatives that CMS and HHS are pushing will drive providers out of Medicaid and Medicare en masse.

      The Wellpoint execs going to jail today point to the future.

      What’s going to happen is that in a desperate effort to control the costs of these programs, the feds will pour over data from claims for the last ten years. They will then declare broad areas of billing that have been standard, longstanding practices to be “fraudulent”. They will then demand that you refund claims for services you’ve been providing and billing for ten years. And then if you don’t say JAWOHL fast enough, they’ll charge you individually and put you in jail.

      It won’t be SAFE to bill Medicare or Medicaid for anything within 5 years.


        Considering that a large portion of billing practices consist of resubmitting similar ICD codes until one gets approved, they won’t be totally wrong. While part of me will feel bad for the innocent docs caught in the middle, I have zero symapthy (and in fact am looking forward to) the big providers and insurers getting strangled with the noose they’ve so carefully crafted themselves.

Please to post comments

Comments are closed.