Tuesday Morning Links

Damn. I’m still gonna give my usual little blurb about sports even though we all know the major topic of conversation today is gonna (literally) be 5,000 miles away.

Still not gonna talk much about the NBA. We all know what’s coming once the formality of the Eastern Finals is done. I’m just sad that Popovich can now dedicate even more of his time to personal attacks on people he’s never met and politics he has a lot less understanding of than he thinks he does. Oh joy! Also, the Nashville Predators reached the Stanley Cup Finals after winning the Campbell Conference last night. So now Anaheim can go back to their paper routes. And of course the Firstros won.  They seem to always win.

Alright. Enough diversion.  Its time to get down to business. I present you…the links!

At least 22 deaths and scores of injuries after a suicide bomber terrorist attacked an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England. My prayers are with them (which a great number of HuffPo commenters ridiculed others for saying). And it has the earmarks of an Islamist attack (which a Slate editor said he’ll ban people for bringing up if it proves to be something else). But nobody has claimed responsibility yet. Although ISIS shitbirds are cheering.

Venezuela further descends into chaos

Venezuelan protesters torch childhood home of Hugo Chavez. I didn’t know wreckers and kulaks had that much free time on their hands.

It’s anonymously cited, so I won’t report it as fact like some other outlets do. But the DNC is allegedly in full-blown pants-shitting mode over the Seth Rich murder potentially being tied to the Wikileaks release of the Podesta (and others) emails which were never confirmed as genuine.

I thought it was just a Trumpalo talking point. Which makes these two Democrat election clerks pleading guilty to voter fraud so perplexing. I guess those rednecks in deep-red Harris County, Texas (lololol) framed them.  Yeah, that’s the way the media will spin it. Just kidding. They won’t spin it any way. They’ll just ignore it.

Dick Patterson: Not Guilty

Excuse me while I whip this out. Hey, it worked, didn’t it?

Didn’t this writer get the memo on sucking up to cops?  Apparently not, because this is a scathing takedown on how they did their jobs. Bravo!

I know there’s a lot of fucked up shit happening out there, but the future is still bright.

 

Comments

853 responses to “Tuesday Morning Links”

  1. UnCivilServant

    Wikileaks release of the Pedestal (and others) emails

    Autocorrect? Or were you going for “Podestal” as in an adjective form of Podesta?

    1. Slammer

      Ped as in chomo

      1. Bobarian LMD

        Ped as in ophile?

    2. SugarFree

      Your whole life has been a typo.

      1. Mike Schmidt

        Than wash net fury niche

        1. SugarFree

          As somewon that never makes tipos, I feel unnikly qualified too comment.

          1. UnCivilServant

            I hold people to the standard I wish I could attain.

    3. What the fuck are you on about? Your computer settings must be off because it looks right to the rest of us.

  2. Just a thought not a sermon

    30) I haven’t seen this story anywhere else: wages for the past year have been rising faster the bottom income quintile than for the top.

    But the Atlantic can’t quite figure out why this is happening. The falling unemployment rate is part of it, and they do have that right. But then they mention the $15 minimum wage as an important factor, “but wage growth for the poor ticked up even in states without minimum-wage hikes.” So, umm, I guess that’s not actually a factor. Nice try, though!

    Then what could be causing these wage rises at the low end of the income spectrum? What could it be?

    Hmm… The “three-month moving average of wage growth reached a post-recession high in November 2016.”

    Oh gosh, what a conundrum. What could be causing this?

    “The trend was particularly pronounced for white workers… The poorest 10 percent of white workers collectively saw a 5.1 percent raise in 2016…”

    By the way, apropos of nothing, a quick Google search shows articles going back to the end of 2015 on falling illegal immigration, with the trend apparently intensifying since Trump’s election. Just thought I’d point that out, for no particular reason. And now back to the completely unrelated topic of wage rises among the poorest Americans….

    1. UnCivilServant

      Well yes, a reduction in supply does result in an increase in the market-clearing rate.

    2. Rufus the Monocled

      Only for poor whites?

      Isn’t obvious?

      RACISM.

      1. PieInTheSKy

        Things like this is why a broke homeless white is more privileged than a black millionaire.

        1. Rufus the Monocled

          I know. Oprah is more oppressed than the poorest white.

          ‘Poor wittle me. Forever purple.’

          /takes scoop of caviar with hand shoves it down her mouth while silver tears flow down her cheek.

          1. Mike Schmidt

            Gayle slowly licks the the tears off her cheek while her hand slides down over Oprah’s bulbous belly. “It’s OK darling,” says Gayle. “I’ll give you some affirmative action where you need it most.”

          2. I assume Stedman is working the camera?

          3. Mike Schmidt

            No, he’s in the corner in his cage where he belongs. If mommy needs him, she will let him out. Until then, he keeps his mouth shut or he gets another cattle-prod enema.

          4. wdalasio

            Maybe we need to look at the influx of 70s and 80s ballplayers taking good-paying insanity porn jobs away from our native SugarFrees.

    3. Fatty Bolger

      I’m sure it couldn’t possibly be whatever you’re not saying it is.

  3. Slammer

    Arrests are being made in Manchester

    08:03
    Mr Hamed, who runs the Q2 management company, which maintains the buildings in the Whalley Range/Chorlton area of Manchester where a police raid is taking place in relation to the attack (see 12.40pm and 12.56pm), says a flat at the back end of the complex was raided close to the Spire Hospital. He was called to the building by a relative who lives in the flats. He said:

    My daughter in law lives here and she rang me to say that police are here. All the people are living here are families. I can’t believe that. I did not know them personally but have a good number coming from outside the UK, like students, but we don’t have any people living on their own. It is not good news.

    We have students from Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Libya and then families from Manchester. They are two-bed flats. They are from every race.

    1. straffinrun

      We have both kinds of music. Country and Western.

      1. AlmightyJB

        We have both religions, Baptist and Evangelical.

        1. coax

          Don’t you mean Shia and Sunni?

          1. Mike Schmidt

            Is that a mother-daughter porn team?

          2. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

            Go on…

      2. But which country, and how far west?

    2. Salon commenters aren’t sure if its an ex-IRA, an American RWNJ who went there to do terrorism, someone upset Brexit isn’t going fast enough or some guy that had been rejected by several women.

      Their inability to live in the real world is just astounding.

      1. Chipwooder

        hah….I had someone give me the IRA line (on a sports board, of all places). The IRA hasn’t bombed England in about 20 years, and there has never been an IRA suicide bomber.

        1. straffinrun

          Really? Should’ve promised them 72 pints.

          1. Negroni Please

            But what would they do for Day 2 in paradise? Sounds like a bad deal.

          2. *narrows gaze at both of ye*

          3. robc

            An Irishman is walking along the shore and finds a bottle. Out pops a genie who grants who two wishes. “Two?”, the Irishman asks. The genie replies, “The three wishes thing is a myth, come on what do you want?” The Irishman thinks for a second and says, “I would like a bottomless pint of Guinness.” *pop*, a pint glass with a perfect pour of Guinness appears in his hand. He pulls down half a pint and the glass quickly refills. He slams the whole thing, and it refills again.

            The genie grows impatient and says, “What about the 2nd wish?” The Irishman responds, “This is great, I want another one of these!”

      2. Akira

        “Salon commenters aren’t sure if its an ex-IRA, an American RWNJ who went there to do terrorism, someone upset Brexit isn’t going fast enough or some guy that had been rejected by several women.”

        It must be sad to be a “progressive”… Jumping for joy every time a terrorist attack or mass shooting happens because you think it’s finally the one incident that proves how violent your ideological opponents are, only to be almost always disappointed when it turns out that the attacker was either left leaning, nonpolitical, or a Muslim extremist.

        They must have popped the champagne when that shitbird coward Dylan Roof killed all those black people in church.

    3. 6:51
      So-called Islamic State (IS) has claimed it was behind the attack. The statement was made via IS channels on the messaging app Telegram. The group frequently claims attacks in their aftermath.

        1. Pat

          Alternate joke:

          WE DID IT

      1. FreeSociety

        “So-called” because they’re not a state or they’re not Islamic?

        1. Raven Nation

          That’s how the BBC always describes them. It’s never been clear to me why they use that terminology.

          1. FreeSociety

            Yeah I’m not sure what other nomenclature they think would be more appropriate. I don’t think ISIS is an outgrowth of Buddhism or Zoroastrianism either.

        2. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

          Just because nobody ‘recognizes’ you doesn’t make you any less a State…

  4. Old Man With Candy

    At least 22 deaths and scores of injuries after a suicide bomber terrorist attacked an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England.

    Last night when I saw the WaPo story, I turned to SP and said, “I bet that there’s no more than two comments before someone blames Trump.” I was right. She thinks that was a gimmee and I shouldn’t have done a victory dance.

    1. UnCivilServant

      Yea, the victory dance was a bit over the top. A “harrumph” should have sufficed.

    2. For those moments I like to give a knowing look over the tops of glasses I’m not wearing.

  5. Pope Jimbo

    OMG!!!!! 84 gallons leaked during a test!

    We told you fuckers this would happen. But you damned dirty apes had to blow it up.

    1. Just a thought not a sermon

      “No people, wildlife or waterways were affected”

      This is funny.

    2. UnCivilServant

      Is that all?

      Fun fact – after the Exxon Valdez spill, the beaches that had not been treated or cleaned of crude recovered faster, as bacteria gobbled the oil and the ecosystem gobbled the bacteria. The detergant used to make the beaches clean scoured them of all life and rendered them barren, doing more harm than the oil.

      Moral of the story – I worry less about oil spills than I do about people freaking out about oil spills.

      1. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

        Sounds about right, but I’d like a source if you have one.

        1. UnCivilServant

          It was something I read in a dead tree edition in the 90s. I don’t even recall what publication it was, but part of me wants to say National Geographic.

    3. straffinrun

      They could’ve just ended the article there.

      1. straffinrun

        Oil flow was immediately cut off and the spill was contained on site. Contaminated snow and soil were removed. No people, wildlife or waterways were affected, according to the department’s environmental health database.

        *Here*

        1. Tundra

          So, way less damage then the filthy protestors, then?

          1. straffinrun

            Derpspills are notoriously difficult to mop up.

          2. Yeah. No dead animals fell out of the pipeline and 12 tons of garbage didn’t spill out either.

    4. Mike Schmidt

      “We have always said it is not a matter of it, but when,” tribal attorney Jan Hasselman said after the South Dakota leak. “Pipelines spill and leak. It’s just a fact.”

      That is correct. Also; Trains carrying oil crash and burn up small towns. It’s just a fact.

    5. FreeSociety

      marianneb
      MAY. 22, 17
      7:16 PM
      To those of you that say it is no big deal-you are so wrong-for many reasons-but since it doesn’t affect you it’s “making a story out of nothing”.

  6. Mike Schmidt

    OK. So this Dick guy… Let’s say he’s telling the truth. People don’t choke to death instantly. Why didn’t he just pull it out of her mouth before she choked to death?

    1. Just a thought not a sermon

      I’m picturing the scene in Airplane when the nun playing guitar knocks the little girl’s breathing tube loose and she’s turning blue and choking but nobody else notices because they’re all having such a good time singing along.

      1. You mean when the stewardess Randy borrowed the nun’s guitar?

        /stickler for details

    2. WTF

      Well, she didn’t SAY anything!

      1. Old Man With Candy

        “We had a safe word!”

        1. Bobarian LMD

          “I figured she’d bite me if it was bad!”

          1. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

            Which really makes you wonder why she didn’t. Would you like to be remembered as the girlfriend who choked to death on dick?

    3. straffinrun

      She didn’t choke to death. She drowned.

    4. Slammer

      The safe word was “argle bargle”

      1. Old Man With Candy

        “Cacao.”

      2. “Mumbledy-peg”

  7. Pat

    ‘Dear White People’ Director And Star Break Down Why Black People Can’t Be Racist

    In the video above, watch as Simien and Browning explain why double standards around racism simply don’t exist, like: Why a show titled “Dear Black People” would be offensive, why the n-word is off-limits to white but not black people; Why minority-focused spaces like HuffPost Black Voices exist but HuffPost White Voices does not; and why there’s simply no such thing as reverse racism.

    1. PieInTheSKy

      I totally agree there is no reverse racism. It is just plain racism. No modifier needed. Treating someone in a way sole based on race…

    2. UnCivilServant

      Translation – Racists attempt to dissemble about their rascism rather than face the truth.

      The dishonesty is more offensive than the racism.

    3. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Blacksplaining

    4. Rufus the Monocled

      Did you read the comments?

      Apparently the dictionary was written by white people….time to burn the book.

      Thankfully, the top comment is the most sane.

      And aren’t blacks the least tolerant towards, Jews, Asians and gays?

      1. WTF

        That’s okay, because intersectionality, or something.

      2. Mythical Libertarian Woman

        My hairdresser is Mexican and has a habit of screaming derogatory comments about Asian people, sometimes even when there are Asians sitting in the next chair over.

        Meanwhile, I have a friend who’s Indian (as in from India) who haaaaates Mexicans, and screams derogatory comments about them with equal lack of regard.

        I think everyone hates everyone, basically.

  8. PieInTheSKy

    This is the best chance Venezuela has of getting some real socialism in. But yes, besides the bit of i-told-you-so which most people have, the situation is kinda tragic. Probably more so than Manchester, in the grand scheme of things. Then again as Manchester is a place I visited and might again, I think I can probably relate more to it.

    I remember after Paris and Brussels attacks some started screaming that people did not have the same reaction for an attack in Nigeria. I expect the same now. But fact is, people have limited capacity to give a crap and they do more for more relatable situations. Anyhoo

    1. Then again as Manchester is a place I visited and might again

      Looks like somebody has a fetish for pasty women with bad teeth and bird-beak noses. And heroin addiction.

      1. PieInTheSKy

        Nope I went there for the cask ales actually. The rest is just an added bonus

      2. Chipwooder

        But Daphne Moon was from Manchester.

        1. You mean Marla the virgin?

          1. Chipwooder

            I don’t believe that was ever specified.

      3. Atanarjuat

        Geez. You and Brett L.

      4. mr simple

        And how!

  9. straffinrun

    Man who wanted to show his penis to jury to help him beat a murder rap found not guilty

    Thought for sure we’d see a hung jury.

    1. *narrows gaze*

    2. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

      Only if they had an usually intimate voir dire.

  10. Tundra

    50 thou a year will indeed buy a lot of beer.

    Thanks, sloopy, for the most pernicious of ear worms: the ’80s flashback.

    1. I needed an earworm after the abuse I took yesterday for panning the worst music genre in three generations (excluding Christian rock).

      1. Lafe Long

        for panning the worst music genre in three generations (excluding Christian rock).

        -1 Stryper

        1. Chipwooder

          To Hell With the Devil!

      2. robc

        “You aren’t making Christianity better, you are making rock worse.” — Hank Hill

      3. Wasn’t Bagge’s piece on Christian music hilarious? I think of two frames from time to time: “It’s STILL the Devil’s music!” (I hear the voice in my head) and the one about lyrically vague songs that don’t seem to be about anything: “…well, you know….”

  11. PieInTheSKy

    I saw some make a big deal of this. I wonder how enviromently friendly it would be …

    Japan, China have extracted methane hydrate from the seafloor
    Gas hydrates difficult to extract but estimated abundance makes mining attractive.

    https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/05/energy-dense-methane-hydrate-extracted-by-japanese-chinese-researchers/

    1. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

      Unless they’re secretly extracting sunk Soviet subs for their precious plutonium…

  12. Rufus the Monocled

    What a nut punch about the Grande concert. All those poor (I imagine) kids. Tragic. RIIP.

    It especially hits home since my daughter considered going to her concert.

    Shouldn’t there have been more vigilant security?

    1. Juvenile Bluster

      It happened outside the arena when people were leaving post-concert. Not sure there’s much you can do there.

      1. straffinrun

        I’m sure the Brits will do something. TSA style checkpoint at every front door.

        1. Pat

          “What’s all this then?”

        2. Rasilio

          And then you bomb the area where people are queing up to go through security, so you add another secure area beyond that and they bomb the area just outside of that.

          No matter what you do there is going to be somewhere that people have to congregate to enter any secure area and that is always the weak point with a high concentration of victims that can be easily attacked.

          That is why security is an illusion

          1. Lachowsky

            This is why I take responsibility for my own security. Guns save lives

          2. WTF

            Not against bombs they don’t.

          3. straffinrun

            I meant the front door of people’s homes. “And where are you going?”. “Um, to work.”

      2. Rufus the Monocled

        I’m so bothered by it, I’m not even watching the details.

    2. Pat

      She gave an explosive performance, but bombed the encore.

      I’ll be here all week…

      null

      1. That is cat butt worthy, chief…. stand by.

        1. Pat

          *self congratulatory comment removed*

          1. WTF

            *snicker*

          2. straffinrun

            *aggression*

    3. UnCivilServant

      Shouldn’t there have been more vigilant security?

      How much is enough? And would encouraging either boots on necks or security kabuki would not, in the long run, be beneficial. I don’t know enough about the specifics of this incident to say whether there were reasonable due diligence steps that could have been taken, but I do caution against the reflexive response.

      1. Rufus the Monocled

        The point was made in reference to security checks going into venues these days so wondered how that could have happened but JB filled me in.

        1. Holger-da-Dane

          You could have played it “libertarian cool” and simply claimed you misspelled “vigilante security”.

    4. PieInTheSKy

      Meh I don’t think security can really stop this, especially if it was before the checkpoint where they check backpacks and such

      1. Juvenile Bluster

        Obviously we need a checkpoint before that checkpoint!

        And a checkpoint before that!

        One of these days (I’m genuinely surprised it hasn’t happened already), someone’s going to set off a bomb in a TSA security line at a crowded airport.

        1. PieInTheSKy

          No not to be extreme but we could consider banning improvised explosives? Or all explosives and bombs in general…

          1. SugarFree

            The War on Nitrogen

        2. Old Man With Candy

          It did already happen. And the talk was to put another checkpoint at the terminal entrance.

          1. Just a thought not a sermon

            With an endlessly-growing series of checkpoints, we’ll eventually reach the entrance to the terrorists’ home, at which point we’ll finally catch them.

          2. Akira

            No no, you’ve got the wrong idea….

            You have to put a little sticker on every airport entrance that has a little cartoon bomb with a circle and slash through it with the words “NO EXPLOSIVES ALLOWED”. That’ll do the trick.

          3. tarran

            Like this?

        3. WTF

          Isn’t that more or less what happened at the Belgium airport bombing?

          1. Juvenile Bluster

            Meant in the US, but I had forgotten about that.

        4. Drake

          Maybe a checkpoint at the border where they don’t let in… you know… those people.

          1. Francisco d’Anconia

            Terrorists?

          2. coax

            Mimes?

      2. stilljustcarol

        Part of my Christmas tradition is taking the kids and grandkids to see the TSO concert each year. Two Decembers ago I was right in the middle of chemo and radiation and there was no way I could walk from the parking lot to the arena let alone stand in line etc., so my kids pushed me in a wheelchair. One of the things I noticed about security, which was pretty darn thorough, was that they didn’t give those of us in wheelchairs a second glance-or a first one for that matter. I was carrying a large purse which could easily held several pipe bombs and many of the people in wheelchairs had blankets on their laps which could have concealed any number of things. I didn’t go through a metal detector and my purse wasn’t checked (my daughter’s was). I guess they just assumed that a person in a wheelchair was harmless. It just struck me as odd.

        1. WTF

          Way to give the terrorists ideas, Carol!

        2. Yusef drives a Kia

          Hector Salamanca?

          1. WTF

            +1 Breaking Bad

    5. WTF

      Reports are saying the bomb went off in the foyer, which would avoid any security in place to enter the venue.

    6. Old Man With Candy

      It especially hits home since my daughter considered going to her concert.

      If she doesn’t, consider that the silver lining.

      1. Rufus the Monocled

        She isn’t because we don’t like the reports of how Grande views her fans. I’m not giving my money to that.

        My daughter agreed with us.

        1. Holger-da-Dane

          I guess sometimes you really should be careful what you wish for:

          http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2760170/Ariana-Grande-said-hoped-fans-f-ing-die.html

    7. Yeah. More vigilant security. Which would corral large groups of people into close quarters while they wait longer to enter a facility.

      That’s a recipe for disaster.

      1. Suthenboy

        Recipe for disaster: importing savages into a civilized country

        This is a country where a single murder was a scandal 50 years ago. Now they have what? A murder/ minute?

        1. WTF

          They just need to be more welcoming to refugees. Unlike that racist Trump who makes Muslims hate us.

        2. This is where I diverge from the open borders camp of libertarianism.

          1. Suthenboy

            I guess we wont be getting any invites to cocktail parties with the cool kids.

            *pours a scotch for sloopy*

          2. You know, I still have most of that bottle of scotch you (I think it was you that lost that bet with someone else) sent me years ago. I sip it occasionally on special occasions.

          3. Suthenboy

            No shit? Let me know when is runs out I’ll send you another one.

          4. Ha! I’ll come and pick it up personally. And I’ll swap it for some good Texas vodka.

          5. WTF

            Agreed. Opening up your country’s borders to a horde of uncivilized savages with no affinity for Western values and no desire to assimilate is not a recipe for liberty.

          6. Holger-da-Dane

            +1 Feature, not bug?

          7. Holger-da-Dane

            Signed,
            Progressives

          8. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

            Had some PLO lawyer/policy advisor on NPR today arguing the the world needs to sanction Israel because they refuse to give the palestinians the run of the place and are therefore immoral.

          9. Agent Cooper

            Theoretically speaking, open borders are awesome. However, they depend on other countries having the same value systems as yours. There’s too much variance in the world to make honest open borders possible.

          10. mr simple

            Yes, open borders assumes everyone moving is doing so to better themselves economically. That is obviously not the case here and I don’t think most open borders libertarians want no border security.

            Th Soho Forum had a good debate on the topic a few months back that was released on the Reason podcast (2/15). Mark Krikorian was the against open borders and pretty much killed it making the argument I just did, but better and more thoroughly. Ben Shapiro was the for and used only theoretical arguments and sounded out of touch. It’s worth a listen to anyone interested.

          11. UnCivilServant

            Even when I agree with him, I can’t stand Ben Shapiro’s voice.

          12. Rhywun

            This is pretty much where I stand. And that “variance” is a large part of why it’s so vigorously supported in some quarters (“cheap labor”, “diversity”, what have you) but at what cost?

          13. Lachowsky

            I think open borders could work if one wishing to enter the country had to do on their own dime or on the dime of a sponsor. Once here they would have to support themselves sans any benefits from the government. (I would like this for natural citizens too) I don’t think that the terrorists of the world would be as likely to show up here if they had to pay their own way and make a living upon arriving.

            The way the welfare state is currently arranged, open borders is idiotic.

          14. Agent Cooper

            the dime of a sponsor

            Isn’t this basically what gave us 9/11, though?

    8. FreeSociety

      Now cue the feel good nonsense speeches “We won’t let them change us!”

      “This will not change the way we live!”

      “This is an inescapable part of living a major city, there’s nothing that can really be done about it.”

      Those are all comfortable lies. The uncomfortable truth is that they don’t have the stomach or wherewithal to do what needs to be done, end ALL Muslim immigration and remove as many of them as is physically possible from all western countries.

      1. spqr2008

        The sad fact is that even if we deport all of the people who won’t assimilate, some of the 2nd gen kids are going to convert because of their own failures to achieve at a similar level to their peers. Unfortunately, the only conclusion I can come to regarding deterrence of such attacks is to develop Kinetic Energy Weapons, and start marching them towards Medina, across the desert. Since it is ultimately the Prophet’s time in Medina that led him to being such a totalitarian dick, maybe the Wahabbis will get the point before we need to actual start dropping KEWs on population centers.

        1. FreeSociety

          I would prefer to let Muslims live in peace in the types of societies that they prefer to live in, far far away from me, my family, my countrymen and the lands my ancestors stalwartly defended from their relentless drives for conquest.

          1. spqr2008

            So would I, but in order to force their radical adherents (or states and entities using the religion as ideological justification for conquest and terror) into a less aggressive posture in the past, it has been necessary to beat their states down again and again.

          2. Old Man With Candy

            I have a Muslim in the next office. Born here to immigrants. Their main defect as humans is that they’re Chicago Bears fans. Still, he managed to get an MS in chemistry, and his dad makes a fine living as an engineer.

            Of course, you can ignore American exceptionalism and our amazing track record at assimilation, if you like. But that doesn’t make it go away.

          3. FreeSociety

            That’s a fine anecdote. I’m sure he’s a great guy.

          4. Old Man With Candy

            Yes he is. So are nearly all Muslim immigrants in the US and their kids. They have a greater average level of education and income than the overall US average.

            Fortunately, we understand the difference between the US and Europe. Not everyone does, apparently.

          5. FreeSociety

            The Somalis in Minnesota and Ohio really know how to do that whole civilization thing, unlike those low income ignorant as fuck westerners. Generalizations are fine as long as the conclusions are positive and comfortable, apparently.

          6. John Titor

            And generalizations are also fine as long as FreeSociety gets to indulge in petty tyranny and tribalism.

          7. FreeSociety

            Yeah sure, John. No difference between a Polish immigrant and Somali one. We’re all just an amorphous blob of sameness, except for me. I’m a big ole meanie poop head. I can live with that.

          8. John Titor

            You just openly admitted that you wanted to ‘remove as many of them as physically possible’ because you decree it. Regardless of their actual personal views, citizenship or contributions, you just want them out because they’re icky Muslims.

            Don’t pretend you’re a libertarian. You’re a petty little tyrant.

          9. FreeSociety

            I don’t think “because I decree it” was my reasoning. Yet “I disagree with you/ I spit on you because you’re icky” is actually what your argument amounts to. By the by, “Muslim” is not a value neutral category and no I don’t want them moving en masse to western countries precisely because they’re Muslims and everything that goes with it. Is telling me that I just have a dislike of Muslims while you layer on a few insults supposed to hurt my feelings? It certainly isn’t meant to address any actual arguments.

          10. John Titor

            Actually, I spit on you because you’re an authoritarian claiming to be a libertarian while advocating for an authoritarian government. You’re a liar if you pretend that it is in any way libertarian to give the state sweeping powers to decide which citizens should be kicked out. You don’t want a ‘free society’.

            Is telling me that I just have a dislike of Muslims while you layer on a few insults supposed to hurt my feelings?

            No you moron, the point is that you are advocating authoritarianism. It wouldn’t matter if it were Muslims, Christians, or Jews, or whoever. You want to deport citizens, because you’re scared. You support tyranny to feel safe.

          11. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

            To be pedantic I don’t think his argument is that we should deport Muslims and cap immigration to feel safe. It is that we should deport Muslims and cap immigration to ensure we continue to operate as a society and with a government that reflects libertarian ideals. Also, at least in this thread, he hasn’t mentioned deporting citizens. Given universal suffrage, these are rational arguments. They’re also not necessarily unlibertarian without more detail as to how you assess the ‘goodness’ of government.

          12. FreeSociety

            I’m not advocating an authoritarian government. I’m advocating for a degree of separateness from Islamic would-be conquerors by way of policies that existed for the vast majority of American history and western civilization. Can you believe what authoritarian fascist Charles Martel was to oppose Muslim immigration to France? And don’t even get me started on those bastard Spaniards that reconquered Iberia from the Moors, so problematic!

            Yeah I get it, you’re an open borders guy. And anyone who isn’t is an Archfascist Communazi. My personal safety is not in doubt. I don’t live in a Somali neighborhood in Minnesota and I don’t live in Molenbeek or a Parisian slum. I’d like to keep it that way. My concern is the long term and in the long term the constant mass migration of high fertility Muslims from the third world to western democracies is a catastrophe for western civilization. You seem to think Islamic France is just as good as French France. You think that Germany will be just as nice of a place to live under third-world Muslim majority rule as it is under German majority rule. Nice fantasy you got there.

            So to recap, not open borders=authoritarian hellscape and Islamic dominance of western democracies= freedom+rainbows

          13. FreeSociety

            And no it would not be possible, under present circumstances to deport citizens. A civil war or two might change that however. But the west does need to deport all that can be possibly deported. Continuing to hand these people citizenship to western countries is just digging us all into a hole that will prove to be the grave of western civilization. They need to cut it out before the only option for preserving western civilization is abrogation of the rights of “citizens”. There are no good options and it’s the open borders people who put us in this no-win situation to begin with.

          14. John Titor

            Can you believe what authoritarian fascist Charles Martel was to oppose Muslim immigration to France?

            “DURR HURR MILITARY INVASION IS THE SAME AS IMMIGRATION.”

            Jesus Christ you’re an idiot.

            Yeah I get it, you’re an open borders guy. And anyone who isn’t is an Archfascist Communazi.

            Actually I’m not, I’m anti-hysterical retard, which is what you always act like when immigration comes into play. But go ahead and scream at your strawman.

            And no it would not be possible, under present circumstances to deport citizens. A civil war or two might change that however. But the west does need to deport all that can be possibly deported.

            …And there’s the mask slipping again. “Peaceful people, who have done nothing wrong, need to be deported because of hysterical ideas of demographic change.” Again, you’re an authoritarian punishing people because you’re scared.

            all into a hole that will prove to be the grave of western civilization.

            People like you, ‘Free Society’ who abandon Western values like individualism in favour of authoritarianism are just as big a problem as authoritarian Muslims.

          15. FreeSociety

            …And there’s the mask slipping again.

            You sure like to tell me what I’m REALLY arguing every chance you get even though I put all of my arguments in plain language and I don’t tip-toe around sensitive issues which understandably causes a certain amount of butthurt in people like you who don’t argue in good faith.

          16. spqr2008

            And the reason I like the disproportionate response of KEWs marching towards Medina through empty desert is the simple fact that it forces the House of Saud, and all Imams, to realize that we could easily drop those on Mecca, Medina, Qom, and every other religious site that holds significance to only Muslims. Once the Saudis and Iranian leadership start facing very real terror in their own backyard, and the loss of their power, they will either bring the groups they tacitly encourage into line, or kill them. Either one works for me, since eliminating the radical preaching and adapting towards a more “Mecca- centric” Islam will eliminate most of the conquering and slaying of the infidels from the religion. And the fact is that the majority of Muslims in the U.S. are doing well, and will not go into terror groups, however, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try and help them create a reform movement within their religion (or give the ones who can’t say anything out of fear a shot at making one work).

          17. FreeSociety

            It’s seems pretty well impossible that “we” can help them reform. We’re infidels and we’re kaffirs and our ways are haram. Just as it would seem ludicrous to imagine the Muslims being the benevolent guiding hand of the Enlightenment or the Protestant Reformation. This is something they’ll need to do on their own. But don’t hold your breath.

          18. UnCivilServant

            FreeSociety – the really scary thing is in the protestant reformation, people went back to the source and found that the church as it stood was unsupported by the scriptures. They went about living in a manner as they read the source material as calling for.

            After the fall of the Ottomans, Muslims went back to the source material and did the same thing. It resulted in Wahabbis and Isis.

          19. FreeSociety

            I agree. I dislike the term “Islamism” even though I use it for ease of discussion. Islam applied to politics is properly called “Islam”. Islam applied to wiping one’s ass is properly called “Islam”. It’s an all encompassing belief system. The source material of Islam is indeed the problem. And I think it’s a great point you make, they did have a reformation of sorts and a redirection towards a more fundamental interpretation, and it resulted in a more bloodthirsty and less tolerant variety of Islam. The best forms of that religion are the ones that deviate the most substantially from source material. Just as the most upstanding and decent Muslims are, all else being equal, the ones who are less devout in their relationship to Islam.

          20. coax

            There’s a word for reform in Arabic, it’s bidah. It also means heresy. It should also be noted that groups like IS would like to destroy Mecca.

          21. John Titor

            You don’t get it OMWC, we need to have a tyrannical government that deports actual citizens based on religious views so ‘FreeSociety’ can feel safe.

          22. FreeSociety

            “Citizen” is a legal category, not a moral one. But yes, I do want to be reasonably assured of safety for my children and grandchildren just as my forebearers sought for me.

          23. John Titor

            Great, the alt-right is that way. Libertarians should spit on you.

          24. FreeSociety

            Oh okay then.

          25. John Titor

            See ‘FreeSociety’ what you don’t get is that if you believe that deporting legal immigrants and citizens is the only way to ‘assure the safety for my children and grandchildren’, you aren’t a libertarian. You are an authoritarian collectivist. You want to grant the government sweeping powers in order to enforce your will on the populace. Immigration control is one thing, deporting citizens because you don’t like them is another and completely tyrannical.

            And, like all non-libertarians, you never even stop and think that maybe giving the government the ability to do such a thing may result in abuse of power. Of course you’d scream “I didn’t mean it to be like this!” when a progressive government forces you out for wrongthink, but it’d be your just desserts.

            Your mask slipped off. You want to grant the government power to enforce your views onto society. You’re free to make that argument, but don’t pretend this in any way matches up with libertarian values.

          26. FreeSociety

            Well if you and other left libertarians represent the truest of libertarianism, then no I wouldn’t be one. I prefer westerners to Muslims. I dislike Muslims, I also dislike communists and nazis for specific reasons for each. I think a sovereign people have some kind of right to exclude others from their societies. There are differences between groups, be they ideological, cultural or genetic. I’m sorry you just can’t deal with that. I’m not sure how picking and choosing immigrants based on the benefits they bring and their compatibility with the host society involves the creation of a second soviet union, you know, like the sweeping authoritarian hellscape of a police state that the United States had in 1964.

            Feel free to spit little guy.

          27. John Titor

            Well if you and other left libertarians represent the truest of libertarianism, then no I wouldn’t be one.

            “DURR HURR IF YOU DON’T SUPPORT MY BLATANT AUTHORITARIANISM YOU’RE LEFT-WING.”

            Fuck off ‘Free Society’. This isn’t left wing or right wing. You support giving the government sweeping powers, based by force, to get rid of people you don’t like. That’s antithetical to libertarianism.

            I think a sovereign people have some kind of right to exclude others from their societies.

            Fantastic. Guess what, immigration control doesn’t grant you the right to deport citizens, and Muslim citizens get a say as well.

            I’m sorry you just can’t deal with that.

            Funny how I make no mention of anything related to that, and my entire point is related to you advocating authoritarianism. You’ve really got that strawman on the ropes there.

            sweeping authoritarian hellscape of a police state that the United States had in 1964.

            Wow ‘Free Society’, that’d be a winning argument, if we were actually talking about immigration policy and not your desire to kick out citizens based on their religious views. Of course in order to understand that you’d have to actually read what I wrote, and not draw up childish rants about how I’m ‘left-wing’ because I’m not as hysterical as you.

          28. Old Man With Candy

            The funny thing is that the most vociferous defenders of “leave them the fuck alone” here are a Zionist Jew and two guys who are veterans of Middle East wars and have actually been shot at by Muslims.

            The stereotypes, they buuuuuurn.

          29. FreeSociety

            Well Johm, if libertarianism were a suicide pact I would have no part of it but I would encourage you and your like minded fellow travelers, the left, to take part in such a pact. Though you would only drag me and mine down with you.

            I’m glad you admit that Muslim citizens get a say in how a country is governed. That’s a major part of the problem. And it’s the fault of open borders fanatics. And if you’re not going to deny that groups are different from one another, then it becomes clear to me that you know damn well that Muslim domination of western democracies is not a good thing in any way, shape or form.

            And speaking of strawmen, who said I was going to deport citizens other than you? All I said about citizens is that it, as a concept, is not a moral category of people. It’s not possible to deport citizens and that’s precisely why it’s so important not to let these people in at all while the 14th Amendment is being misused as a tool of population replacement.

            Do you want to live in a Muslim majority country? Which third world country’s population, exactly, would you like to see calling the shots in your neighborhood, town, city or state?

          30. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

            John, for my own edification, is refusing another individual the right to enter your property for any reason a violation of the NAP?

            If yes, what reasons and why?

          31. John Titor

            I would encourage you and your like minded fellow travelers, the left, to take part in such a pact.

            Again, “DURR HURR YOU’RE LEFT-WING” is, in the words of Molyneux, not an argument.

            And speaking of strawmen, who said I was going to deport citizens other than you?

            Quote: “end ALL Muslim immigration and remove as many of them as is physically possible from all western countries.” The only qualifier you placed was ‘physically possible’. Physically, not legally. That includes citizens. Yes, you can backtrack and say you didn’t mean citizens. But the mask slipped.

            Do you want to live in a Muslim majority country? Which third world country’s population,

            “I DEMAND YOU BE AS HYSTERICAL AS I AM ABOUT 1% OF THE AMERICAN POPULATION, FREAK OUT DAMMIT YOU FREAK OUT!”

            I accuse you of being a hysterical tribalist, and all you can do is spew tribalist garbage at me and go on hysterical rants.

          32. John Titor

            John, for my own edification, is refusing another individual the right to enter your property for any reason a violation of the NAP?

            You assume I’m anti-immigration control. I’m not. What I am is anti-collectivist moron. And that’s what Free Society is being.

          33. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

            John, it wasn’t a rhetorical question. I don’t generally assume things, which is why I asked a confirming question.

            I’m trying to understand your position how you’ve reasoned to it because it seems inconsistent given the principles advanced so far. From what little clarification you’ve now offered, I understand that you have concluded at least some immigration control can “match[] up with libertarian values.” Can you describe the mechanism we, as a society in general (and in particular for our lawmaking), should use to determine which immigration controls are ‘good’ and which are ‘bad’? More particularly, I’d like to know your particular mechanism because you’re clearly passionate about it. And, unless I’ve misread things, your analysis is that an immigration control based on an individuals expressed preference for religion is ‘bad’.

            Collectivism is beyond the scope of the issue.

      2. Including interpreters and others that worked for us in Iraq and Afghanistan?

        1. Bob

          Was citizenship part of the compensation deal.

          1. When we abandoned them to ISIS, the HIG, AQ, et al. It was brought into play by Congress, yes.

            https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/immigrate/iraqi-afghan-translator.html

          2. Bob

            Then problem solved.

          3. Not if Free Society gets his way – they get sent back to die.

          4. FreeSociety

            False dichotomy alert. It’s not like the only way to help an extremely small number of ostensibly deserving people is to allow the mass migration of a culture antithetical to western civilization, to come here to live and vote.

          5. end ALL Muslim immigration and remove as many of them as is physically possible from all western countries.

            Dichotomy? – ALL is pretty damned inclusive. And who said anything about “mass” – I simply asked if you would include those that had served us and come in legally – you have soft shoed around it – yes or no, ALL people that are Muslim would be physically removed from the United States, if you had the power?

          6. FreeSociety

            Any one individual is, by definition, a special case. Muslims should, generally and with few exceptions, be barred from western countries. This does not even need to be stated to the Japanese or South Koreans who find some value in keeping Japan distinctly Japanese and South Korea distinctly Korean.

            Soft shoe around what now? Yes, all that can possibly be removed from the US and other western countries should be. You want to ctie some anecdote about a super guy who really deserve to be here, well that’s great, maybe HE does deserve to be here. But not his entire extended family or the sum total of his nation’s population. Under present circumstances, it’s not possible to deport citizens, which is a mixed blessing. Yay for the rule of law, boo to the subversion of it by the current reading of 14th amendment that complicates this. There are legions of citizens, generations of them, that shouldn’t be. With Jus soli, it’s hardly possible to control the demographic shifts from permanently altering western countries for the worse. And mass Muslim immigration is absolutely altering them for the worse.

          7. Ladies and Gentlemen – behold. I can make no further argument that will expose the Derp and the bigotry and authoritarian desires anymore than it has already been.

          8. John Titor

            “Peaceful people need to be kicked out of countries because I don’t like their religious beliefs and I’m scared.”

            -Free Society’s ‘libertarianism’.

          9. FreeSociety

            Good talk guys. Real quality responses, filled with the best petty insults and the finest obfuscations of the argument.

        2. FreeSociety

          In the past, lots of first generation Muslim immigrants have proven to be upstanding folk. In the present there is a phenomenon known as regression to the mean whereby the successive generations are increasingly radical relative to their parents and grandparents. I’m sure we could spend whole days discussing all the possible exceptions we want to carve out for people for whom one might have a personal affinity. But while we’re doing that, their numbers are increasing far faster than the models are predicting and on pace to displace the native peoples in societies governed by democratic mechanisms no less. I shouldn’t need to spell out the reasons why a more Islamic Germany, Netherlands, Sweden or Britain is not a positive thing for those societies or the migrants who have moved there ostensibly to avoid that kind of Islamic dominated society in the first place.

          1. Bob

            But what about that one guy who was an Iraqi interpreter in 2010 and never applied for his visa? We have to allow all immigrants from all terrorist infested countries in because of that guy.

          2. FreeSociety

            That sounds familiar. “We need MASS migration because if it helps just one decent person…”

          3. You could helpfully point that out…you know, where that was stated on this page?

          4. FreeSociety

            I said it sounds familiar to your argument of “Yeah but this interpreter guy is a really good dude who did stuff that was good”. You’re raising up the case of a astonishingly small proportion of Islamic immigrants to any western country and using it as the pretext to shoot down the argument that mass migration from Muslim countries should be ended and the damage wrought by it mitigated. There’s plenty of non-citizen Muslims living in the west whose presence (and therefore their political and social power) becomes more permanent with each passing moment. To put it simply, that’s not good because Islam is a blight on humanity.

          5. Scruffy Nerfherder

            You’re raising up the case of a astonishingly small proportion of Islamic immigrants to any western country and using it as the pretext to shoot down the argument that mass migration from Muslim countries should be ended and the damage wrought by it mitigated.

            Those are all comfortable lies. The uncomfortable truth is that they don’t have the stomach or wherewithal to do what needs to be done, end ALL Muslim immigration and remove as many of them as is physically possible from all western countries.

            Which one is it? You’re not consistent in your own opinion. Or is the second what you meant by the first?

            No one here appears to be full open borders. There’s a huge variance between true open borders and your position. You’re lumping everyone who doesn’t agree with your position into the extreme of the opposing viewpoint.

          6. FreeSociety

            Well “removing as many as is physically possible” necessarily implies, albeit not strongly enough for the more sensitive among us, that some subset of the population being discussed cannot be deported. Citizens can’t be deported, but even then let’s not mistake that for a moral position since “citizen” is a legal category and not moral distinction.

            Honestly if the options are either to end Muslim immigration including the anecdotal super nice guys who do nice stuff, or alternatively have a come-one-come-all policy, I’d opt for the former. I guess have a cold black heart and I don’t give a fuck anymore. Beyond obligations made by contract with specific individuals, western nations do not owe entry and livelihoods to every damn Muslim with enough brain cells to figure out that he’ll make ten to one hundred times more on western welfare than working hard to make his own society better for a few dollars a day.

          7. FreeSociety

            And while Swiss might not be a full on open borders guy, he doesn’t strike me as someone prepared to implement so good ole fashioned discrimination. Maybe I’m wrong I don’t know. But discrimination is a valuable thing in the right context. The demographic future of the greatest civilization the world has ever seen being one of those contexts.

          8. Scruffy Nerfherder

            That clears it up.

            Collectivism > Individualism

            Why are you here? I’m sure Richard Spencer has a nice meeting place on the web somewhere.

          9. R C Dean

            Preach it, Free.

            The US government has zero (0) obligations to wannabe refugees or migrants. It has fundamental obligations to the citizenry of the US. If the citizenry would be better served by a moratorium or ban on accepting a certain class of people, the government has an obligation to put a moratorium in place.

          10. tarran

            No one here appears to be full open borders.

            I am.

            I explained why a long time ago. And islamic terrorists don’t rebut the argument.

            Basically, terrorists are like guns. Sure, if you allow people to buy and sell guns, some will use them to commit crimes. That does not justify a blanket ban on all firearms.

            The lack of justification is even stronger with moslems. Islamic terrorism is motivated by specific goals that are only held by a miniscule portion of their coreligionists. And the terroristic guys want the borders shut to prevent people from fleeing the Islamists’ rule. Those guys also want a war because they think that, inshallah, they will ultimately be victorious.

            When I was a kid in Turkey, America was the promised land, a land where hard work and freedom would make you rich. People in the U.S. have no idea how much just breathing the air here evangelizes freedom.

            Those ideals are less popular now; the older generations that valued freedom are dying off, and many in the younger generations have lived in a sea of lies that freedom is dangerous, bad or evil. Slamming the borders shut, or deporting moslems will do nothing to fix the terrorism problem, because it really is a clash of ideals, and the ideals behind the U.S. don’t have many effective champions in mass media.

            If the U.S. were to stay the course of freedom, and evangelize it again, we would win the battle of ideals handily. The Islamists are even less capable of holding power than the commies who barely made it 40 years before everyone had their number. They depend on war and prisons and terror because they are incapable of earning loyalty and love from people who don’t share their sickness.

          11. Juvenile Bluster

            I’m an open borders guy, but I don’t think anyone (well, almost not anyone) who says they’re in favor of “open borders” means entirely open borders — let anyone in, no questions asked.

            Stealing this, but it works well for my mindset.

            What America’s immigration policy should be:

            Immigrant: I want to come to America and assimilate.

            America: Welcome!

            Immigrant: I want to come to America, but still retain my language and culture.

            America: Welcome! How’s your country’s food?

            Immigrant: I want to come to America, but you must accommodate my language and culture.

            America: Um…Look, you can totally do your own thing, but we ain’t jumping through any hoops for you.

            Immigrant: I want to come to America, force you to accept my language and culture, and I demand entitlements.

            America: Turn your happy ass around and start walking.

            Immigrant: I have come to America to blow shit up!

            America: (double tap to the torso)

          12. Scruffy Nerfherder

            tarran, I’m closer to your position than I am to FreeSociety’s and I fully agree that is the lack of commitment to first principles (negative rights, etc…) that is the root of America’s problems, rather than immigration. If there is energy to be spent, it should be spent fighting those problems and not a rear guard action against Islam.

            Europe is pretty much screwed with or without Muslim immigration. Mass immigration is just exacerbating the underlying problems, namely no true individual rights.

            That said, I’m in the small l camp. National borders do exist and they can be enforced. I have no issue with enforcement if it is performed fairly and with consideration to the individual. Those who exceed their welcome or fail to follow the rules (plenty of debate can be had over what that means), can be justly deported.

          13. R C Dean

            Slamming the borders shut, or deporting moslems will do nothing to fix the terrorism problem,

            Might reduce the terrorist attacks in the US, though.

            People in the U.S. have no idea how much just breathing the air here evangelizes freedom.

            I’ve heard this called the “magic dirt” theory of assimilation. Given how people who grew up here no longer necessarily seem to have much attachment to freedom and liberty, I’m skeptical. At one time, it might have been a stronger effect, but these days, I’m not willing to run the risk of an ever-increasing security state as a response to terror attacks, when that risk can be reduced by cutting back on immigration.

            And, no, the fact that some of the terrorists are second generation isn’t an answer, as it just points to a more fundamental problem – the lack of assimilation, the apparent failure of America’s magic dirt to change people from who they were.

          14. tarran

            let anyone in, no questions asked.

            That’s what we have within the United states.

            Guys from North Carolina are allowed into MA, no questions asked. And, a few years back, some of those guys turned up in my home town and got themselves arrested; they made their living via violent home invasions.

            Naturally, nobody is thinking that we need to close the borders to people from the Carolinas.

          15. FreeSociety

            Why are you here? I’m sure Richard Spencer has a nice meeting place on the web somewhere.

            I guess I’m here because I want to speak the truth as I see it, even if it makes me unpopular and inspires people to call me names. I’m fine with it. Seldom is truth met with applause.

            Actually I gave Richard Spencer a fair hearing, and while I can say I agree with his western chauvinism and the absolute superiority of East Asian and European cultures relative to the third world, I don’t really agree with much else of his opinions. Thanks for the advice though, Scruffy.

          16. John Titor

            at some subset of the population being discussed cannot be deported. Citizens can’t be deported,

            Funny how someone will bring that up multiple times and you will not deny it and instead go on rants that had nothing to do with the points addressed, but will suddenly backtrack when other people call you out on it. Clearly a strongly held conviction.

          17. John Titor

            The demographic future of the greatest civilization the world has ever seen being one of those contexts.

            The number one thing you can do, ‘Free Society’, to improve the demographics of the West is not reproduce.

          18. tarran

            I’m not willing to run the risk of an ever-increasing security state as a response to terror attacks, when that risk can be reduced by cutting back on immigration.

            Except that to cut back on immigration, you need an ever-increasing security state. In my 40 years in the U.S., identity papers went from a being helpful to utterly necessary for basic survival. Now, the government requires people to inspect those identity papers before hiring anyone to work for them. The government is collecting massive quantities of data on every financial transaction that isn’t done in cash.

            You close the borders, and you’ll get more illegal immigration. And to crack down on that, you need to send cops to investigate people who might be here illegally. It’s even stupider than drug prohibition, because we, the legally here, don’t look like cocaine; make other humans contraband, and suddenly we are all potential contraband – we become baking soda in a baggie.

          19. Spartan Dad

            Naturally, nobody is thinking that we need to close the borders to people from the Carolinas

            Maybe not from the Carolinas but substitute California and I think you might really be on to something here.

          20. R C Dean

            Except that to cut back on immigration, you need an ever-increasing security state.

            The Patriot Act, mass surveillance, the TSA – none of that was a response to immigration, and to my mind the security state hung off of the threat of terrorism is an order of magnitude worse than rational and effective immigration enforcement (which would be different from what we have now).

          21. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

            Tarran, I appreciate your argument but having read your paper it does not negative in any way the conclusion that closed borders, as a default position of government, is consistent with libertarian philosophy. It only proves that, given such a policy, there must also be exceptions on the principles of economic liberty and freedom of contract.

          22. FreeSociety

            Basically, terrorists are like guns. Sure, if you allow people to buy and sell guns, some will use them to commit crimes. That does not justify a blanket ban on all firearms.

            And guns are self-replicating sentient beings that come with all the culture, beliefs, values and agency that go with sentience. Right?

            Slamming the borders shut, or deporting moslems will do nothing to fix the terrorism problem,

            Yeah, because there are already millions in the west whose ideological commitment to Islam tends to grow with each generation. Do you seriously see no correlation between Islamic terrorism and Islam? They’re the pool from which the terrorists are recruited. They’re the populations who give the terrorists social standing and material support. And this says nothing of events like the mass sexual assaults in Cologne or the spate of sexual assaults in Scandanavia which despite the origins of perpetrators, somehow has no correlation with an increased Muslim population in the west? Hell the hand grenade attacks in Sweden aren’t even categorized as terrorism, just described as violent crime.

            @RC Dean (thanks for the nod by the way, it’s appreciated)

            I’ve heard this called the “magic dirt” theory of assimilation. Given how people who grew up here no longer necessarily seem to have much attachment to freedom and liberty, I’m skeptical.

            You beat me to it. By the same logic that Tarran gives,

            Those ideals are less popular now; the older generations that valued freedom are dying off, and many in the younger generations have lived in a sea of lies that freedom is dangerous, bad or evil.

            this taste for freedom and traditions of liberty are going to be even less respected by immigrants from the Islamic world than by the sliding standards contemporary western man. Unless of course he’s arguing that Muslim immigrants are particularly amenable towards liberty as compared to native born westerners, which I’ll just go ahead assume he’s not saying since that assertion is laughable on it’s face.

          23. tarran

            Tarran, I appreciate your argument but having read your paper it does not negative in any way the conclusion that closed borders, as a default position of government, is consistent with libertarian philosophy. It only proves that, given such a policy, there must also be exceptions on the principles of economic liberty and freedom of contract.

            {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>,

            I’m having trouble parsing your statement.

            Could you take another shot at it?

            /not being snarky, I’m interested in dialogue and am genuinely confused.

          24. tarran

            Unless of course he’s arguing that Muslim immigrants are particularly amenable towards liberty as compared to native born westerners, which I’ll just go ahead assume he’s not saying since that assertion is laughable on it’s face.

            ROFL!!!!!!!

            Look at me free society. I am half Turkish. I have several relatives here. I know a pretty sizeable community of people from Turkey living here. And you know what? After escaping the fascist hell-hole that was Turkey, the vast majority of us became very patriotic. A bunch of us, including me, even served in the U.S. armed forces.

            So, I’ll take my lived experiences, wiegh it against your stereotypes aaaaaannnnnndddd…..

            Gosh, my experiences win. Who would have thunk it?

          25. FreeSociety

            Tarran,

            Interesting that your anecdotal experience trumps others’ anecdotal experience without even knowing what that other person’s experience is, assuming that personal experience is all that relevant in the big picture that is. What you call a stereotype might well be described as a trend. It’s not been my experience, or that of statisticians(!), that Muslim immigrants arrive on Western shores with a distinct reverence for liberty and the culture of the host society. You seem to be a deviation from the norm, aside from the Islamic immigrant that favors unlimited Islamic immigration trope which is pretty damn standard.

          26. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

            For my own edification, are you advocating a position that a good government is one which deports its citizens?
            Corollarily, may a good government strip an individual of citizenship as punishment?

          27. AlexinCT

            Can we define citizen in these questions? I have seen people loosely use it to refer to anyone that is here, regardless of the fact that they have actual legal citizen status.

          28. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

            Yes and we should. For my purposes I use the legal definition. A citizen is made by government according to its laws and enjoys the benefits thereof subject to those laws. More narrowly and for the purposes of debate I think it is also presumed that a citizen has franchise.

          29. R C Dean

            Can we define citizen in these questions? I have seen people loosely use it to refer to anyone that is here, regardless of the fact that they have actual legal citizen status.

            I use “citizen” to refer to actual citizens, “legal resident” to refer to non-citizen legal residents of the US, and “illegal immigrant” to refer to everyone else in the US. Seems pretty straightforward.

            I’m not down with deporting citizens, full stop. This is their country now, there’s no place to “deport” them to. Ilegal immigrants get put on the first transport home, and I don’t give a shit what their home country has to say about it. The legal residents are the hard middle case. I’m not down with deporting them automatically.

            I’m also not down with deporting Muslims per se. I think the immigration moratorium from high-risk countries is probably the best policy option.

          30. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

            I agree RC. Although I note Constitutionally, a legal resident is entitled to due process. What I have always found missing from most judicial decisions on that topic is analysis on the issue of what process is due. The few that have touched it say, in effect, whatever process people set down administratively or legally – which is subject to arbitrary change provided the change is in accordance with law governing the change.

          31. FreeSociety

            No, that’s not a good government. Nor is an Islamic government. I don’t want it to ever get to the point where the choices become strip citizenship or watch Western civilization wither and die under the yoke of an inferior belief system. Since I don’t want it to ever get to that point, I’m not advocating that position. I’m advocating doing everything short of that before it’s too late to do anything else.

          32. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

            That’s what I gathered, I wanted to make sure I was reading your argument right given John is arguing to a different premise. I presume there is some history there.

            Presuming we chose to not rely on the NAP (and thereby remove ourselves from a libertarian framework), I’m curious now as to your other moral arguments for excluding all individuals of a professed faith from society. Which, I think, may be the point of friction.

          33. FreeSociety

            If you believe in the pseudo-freedom of “freedom of movement”, I can see how you would think it’s immoral to discriminate based on religion/ideological/cultural affiliation. If you do believe in “freedom of movement”, that’s another can of worms I’d be happy to open if need be.

          34. FreeSociety

            And also if we’re talking about consistent application of the NAP, the only way to do that is with anarcho-capitalism. Which I’m totally down for.

          35. R C Dean

            I’m curious has to how an ancap society wouldn’t have totally open borders. As an anarchist society, would it even be a country with its own borders? Or would its borders really just be where the neighboring nation-states draw the line and do bordery things?

          36. tarran

            An Ancap society wouldn’t have borders per se, but it would have property lines.

            So, lets posit a Baptist who hates the devil’s drink is living in our ancap society. He could completely close his property to alcohol. If he owned an airline, alcohol could be prohibited. He could keep a list of people who are involved in the manufacture of alcohol and place them on a “do not book” list.

            A sufficiently odious person might find it impossible to find anyone who is willing to allow them on their property – and effectively imprisoned or exiled for life.

            No doubt, due to cultural and social forces, there will be some ersatz borders, eg. guys from Shelbyville might not get a warm welcome in Springfield and choose to avoid it.

          37. FreeSociety

            I’m curious has to how an ancap society wouldn’t have totally open borders. As an anarchist society, would it even be a country with its own borders? Or would its borders really just be where the neighboring nation-states draw the line and do bordery things?

            Well there would be no borders but property borders. There would also be no welfare state. So immigration would just be called “moving” and any and all rights of entry for persons to any particular place could only be considered contractual, and not regarded as “natural rights” in the same vein as the right to life, i.e. taken for granted.

            Without a welfare state and in an ancap system, “immigrants” would be able to move, work and live on their own cognizance and wherewithal instead of the plundered resources of others that make artificially high amounts of mass migration possible. Since there would be no more fertilizer being dumped in the pond to create a destructive algae bloom, social environments would have much greater resistance to sudden demographic changes and the changes that would take place would happen on much more natural and consensual terms and over longer periods of time.

            Unfortunately we have a statist system which has placed onerous restrictions on freedom of association and the right to exclude others has been nationalized. Since the system has been nationalized and that’s not changing any time soon, it needs to be used in the most beneficial way possible. Much like the ill-begotten power of government to take land and taxes to build and maintain roads does not mean we should not be allowed to enforce some kind of traffic laws on those roads.

          38. tarran

            Without a welfare state and in an ancap system, “immigrants” would be able to move, work and live on their own cognizance and wherewithal instead of the plundered resources of others that make artificially high amounts of mass migration possible. Since there would be no more fertilizer being dumped in the pond to create a destructive algae bloom, social environments would have much greater resistance to sudden demographic changes and the changes that would take place would happen on much more natural and consensual terms and over longer periods of time.

            There’s another factor in addition to all those things. A freer society is inherently more prosperous and allows people wider scope to satisfy their aims. In other words, if you want to make something of yourself and make an impact, there are fewer obstacles thrown your way.

            The most dangerous revolutionaries/terrorists are the ones who are over-educated and/or underemployed who are really really alienated and frustrated. The fewer obstacles for people realising their dreams, the lower the number of people who are frustrated – particularly the number of capable people who are frustrated. Humanity will always produce Dylann Roofs, and they will kill and maim people in their quest to matter before they get identified and stopped. But there would be many fewer Mohammed Attas.

            And yes, I agree wholeheartedly that public welfare is utterly corrosive to society. It wrecked Germany. It wrecked England. And it is wrecking the U.S.

          39. FreeSociety

            @Tarran

            Humanity will always produce Dylann Roofs, and they will kill and maim people in their quest to matter before they get identified and stopped. But there would be many fewer Mohammed Attas.

            And yes, I agree wholeheartedly that public welfare is utterly corrosive to society. It wrecked Germany. It wrecked England. And it is wrecking the U.S.

            I can’t find fault with any of this. I’m genuinely glad we have some semblance of common ground. The problem as I see it, we have to muddle through our lives with these statist obstacles lodged firmly in place that create situations with no easy answers. Even though I think open borders are terrible, I believe that no borders would be optimal.

          40. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

            As between nation states, the world is AnCap. Borders are property lines. Trespass as to borders is not consistent with the NAP. The problem is not that the right to exclude is nationalized in all States – exercise of the right to exclude is the sufficient condition for Statehood.

          41. Spartan Dad

            So, I’ll take my lived experiences, wiegh it against your stereotypes aaaaaannnnnndddd…..

            Gosh, my experiences win. Who would have thunk it?

            I have a good friend of the family’s who’s entire village in Lebanon was destroyed by Muslims looking to kill Christians for fun. She watched her parents slaughtered like livestock. They tied knives to the hands of mothers and forced their hands to slit their own children’s throats while laughing. She only survived due to the intervention of Israel which sent a team in to rescue anyone who escaped and brought them back to Israel.

            This wasn’t a lone wolf attack but the mindset of the majority of Muslims living in this area. Enough to wipe out an entire village. “Average” Muslim immigrants that US taxpayers are being forced at gunpoint to spend their money to bring over here.

            Serious question, does my family friend’s experience count or only positive feel-good experiences allowed to be factored? No one doubts that a good many Muslim immigrants are able to assimilate and be successful. That does not detract from the other tens to hundreds of millions with other goals.

          42. tarran

            … here in Boston, there was an armenian terrorist group killing Turks in the 80’s. Turned out that the mastermind was a BU professor. One could argue that makes Armenians particularly dangerous.

            Or….

            You can treat people as individuals, and those who do try to or actually commit crimes, get sanctioned or punished appropriately and those who don’t do those terrible things are allowed to build their lives.

            What Free Society is arguing is that my cousins should be kept far away – despite the fact that if they ever fall into the clutches of ISIS they would almost certainly be decapitated – because they happen to nominally be members of the same religion as ISIS (in much the same way that Baptists are in the same religion as the Pope).

            I’m arguing that it’s fundamentally unjust to punish people for crimes you fear they might commit because some people that you think are like them committed some scary crimes. It would be one thing if – for example, – the conversation was about excluding card-carrying members of the Muslim brotherhood. That’s not what’s happening here.

            As to your friend’s experience, I can see a case for preventing the migration of the actual actors who carried out the massacre. But, doubtless, it’s almost impossible to id the individuals that are responsible. And so the principle of innocent until proven guilty applies here.

            Naturally, if your friend were to refuse to associate with moslems, or people who she suspects are moslems, even yours truly, because she doesn’t want to be vulnerable to sectarian violence that would be her right, and I would honor it (even if I were to disagree with it).

            But her fear doesn’t give her a moral right to veto peaceable transactions involving people she fears – particularly where those fears are effectively the product of her lumping different people collectively in with the perpetrators of that massacre.

          43. R C Dean

            tarran, I’d like to agree with much of what you say, but I keep coming back to the fact that the “known wolf” terrorists were treated as individuals and allowed to stay until they actually committed a crime, and misc. “refugees” are also allowed in and permitted to misbehave until they actually commit a crime, and sometimes even let off because they are barbarian savages who can’t be expected to act like civilized men.

            The results are teenagers blown to bits and a metastasizing security state that seems more interested in putting the boot into the law-abiding population for exercising freedom of speech.

            I don’t like being put in the position of collectivizing people and banning people from certain countries, but I also think that the alternatives are likely to be worse.

          44. Spartan Dad

            I think there’s a couple different things going on here. I was responding to your assertion that Muslims are good based on your experience and Free was using stereotypes. I was merely pointing out that there are indeed actual experiences with the opposite outcome. I think there is little doubt that a large number of Muslims are incapable of peaceful Western assimilation (10’s to 100’s of millions) and the real argument is should that matter? I think it’s disingenuous to argue that Muslims do not represent a threat with a pro-immigration viewpoint. However, I can respect (though disagree with) the pro-immigration viewpoint that we should treat individuals as individuals and immigration is a right which what you present here.

            Should association in groups be taken into account at all? Would you hire a card-carrying communist as your business manager? A vegan as a spokesman for your butchershop? A loud and proud SJW as a valet for your majority white, wealthy country club built on a stolen native american burial ground?

          45. FreeSociety

            If I were to ignore the absolutely fundamental aspect of human nature that man is a social beast, I would be taking no interest in collective identities and group affiliations, but collective identities and group affiliations would still nonetheless be taking a strong interest in me. I won’t pretend they don’t because I saw them take an interest in the women of Cologne and the western children at a concert in Manchester and they’d be perfectly happy to take an interest in my and mine if the conditions were right.

          46. FreeSociety

            What Free Society is arguing is that my cousins should be kept far away – despite the fact that if they ever fall into the clutches of ISIS they would almost certainly be decapitated
            […]
            I’m arguing that it’s fundamentally unjust to punish people for crimes you fear they might commit because some people that you think are like them committed some scary crimes.

            Not giving, is not taking. I thought we agreed on that or not so much?

          47. tarran

            I have to get back to work, so this is going to be my last response.

            Should association in groups be taken into account at all? Would you hire a card-carrying communist as your business manager? A vegan as a spokesman for your butchershop? A loud and proud SJW as a valet for your majority white, wealthy country club built on a stolen native american burial ground?

            Those are all private decisions. Personally, I wouldn’t do any of those things. But, there’s a difference between refusing to hire an SJW, and passing a law forbidding all country clubs from employing SJW’s whether or not they want to.

            I was responding to your assertion that Muslims are good based on your experience and Free was using stereotypes. I was merely pointing out that there are indeed actual experiences with the opposite outcome.

            Bluntly, I was rebutting Free Society’s claim that there weren’t ‘good’ moslems. That guys like me don’t exist.

            We all know that is bullshit. There are Pakistani bloggers regularly getting hacked to bits because they became atheists. How many moslems living in Pakistan are cowed by the hackers into displays of faith they would rather not make? Presumably free society would welcome them into the U.S. if they would publicly renounce Islam. Except that under his rubric, even if they have a sponsor, the money to pay for room and board, a prospective job etc, they should be jailed in that shit hole.

            I’ve been in the homes of Turks, Iranians, Egyptians and even a Morrocan fellow where they had pictures of their kids in uniform, or plaques/notices of a civic nature. One Iranian fellow for example had turned two rooms in his home into a sort of warehouse for a local charity helping the homeless, and this wasn’t grandstanding. These guys desperately wanted to be productive members of their community, they love America, and recognize that this is where their kids and their grandkids have a chance at a much better life.

            Wahabist islam is not a race. It’s a sect of a major religion. It’s a nasty, barbaric and savage sect. One can make a great case that its more true to the holy books of the religion than the variants that are commonly practiced – much like the Baptists are far more true to the Bible than the Episcopaleans. It’s also a sect that desperately needs fear and violence to avoid being extinguished as people flock to more acceptable religions.

            And… if it weren’t for the execrable alliance of the U.S. with the Saudi king, what is essentially a religious dispute over control of the Saudi Pensinsula wouldn’t actually have any impact on our lives whatsoever.

            Not all moslems are good. In fact, many are pretty nasty characters. And while you find nasty characters adhering to all sorts of religions, islam, especially some of the more radical shia and sunni sects have a disproportionate share of the nasty actors.

            This does not make all moslems bad. It does not mean they can’t be converted to our way of thinking. You slam the borders shut, though, what you are doing is dooming people who would rather join our society, work to make it better to stay in shitholes, laboring for the benefit of these awful people. We lose the wealth they would create here, and the nasty people gain.

            You cannot prevent more Manchesters. As long as people know chemistry and electonic theory and have access to raw materials, and see violence as benefitting them, we will experience such incidents. The biggest bombings (in terms of body count) that I recall off the top of my head in the U.S. were perpetrated by
            1) A school board member who had been voted out of office who sought revenge by blowing up the elementary school who almost killed every child there (and a few hours later assassinated the mayor with a suicide car bomb)
            2) A guy killing himself by blowing up an airliner so his wife could collect on his life insurance.
            3) A disgruntled I-hate-the-government guy (but definitely not a small government type) who blew up an office building housing various federal offices to send a political message of rebellion.

            All of these guys had disparate reasons to commit these atrocities. Most of their reasons were somewhat nonsensical. And – this is the important bit – there was little people could do before the incidents to identify and stop them that wouldn’t snare thousands or millions of people going about their business lawfully.

            Keeping out moslems while possibly reducing terrorist attacks on our shores – maybe – would at best just eliminate one threat – sort of – while not touching any of the other guys who also might want to kill a large number of people. And, this possible reduction could only be accomplished by an intrusive national security state which would inevitably terrorize us, albeit less dramatically – substituting prosecutions and jail terms for lurid bombings.

            If one really wants to reduce the specter of Islamic terrorism, one should utterly end the alliance with Saudi Arabia, stop giving the king financial and military assistance and using the U.S. army to fight his wars for him. You’d be shocked how quickly he’d abandon funding madrassas and mosques preaching hate toward infidels as he started dealing with the threats to his rule personally.

            Anything short of that is just treating a parasitic infection by putting a bandaid over the holes.

          48. FreeSociety

            I never said there are no good Muslims. Hell there were good Nazis, like Oscar Schindler. As with Schindler, Muslims that deviate from the orthodoxy of the belief system, all else being equal, are perfectly capable of standing among the most morally upright people to ever walk the earth. Still I don’t believe that Oscar Schindler represents the true essence of Nazism and nor do I believe that a person like you represents the broad swathes of generally loathsome belief within adherents of Islam. I understand that my views offend you on a visceral and personal level. But that’s no reason for me to tell you something different than a room full of people who believe exactly what I do. I’m honest and I’d appreciate not being told that I said something I didn’t.

            That said, restricting immigration isn’t punishing anyone. Not giving isn’t taking.

          49. tarran

            Wait! Are you seriously asserting that not interfering in other people’s lives is giving them something?

          50. FreeSociety

            Wait! Are you seriously asserting that not interfering in other people’s lives is giving them something?

            They don’t have a natural right to cross a border and reside in that specific territory. There’s no such thing as freedom of movement outside of contractual agreements. Thus, not giving someone a right to access and residence is not the same thing as taking it away from them.

            If you want to claim that restrictions represent a violation of a natural right, then you’re predicating a natural right on either trespassing of private property, or on the existence of public property from which natural rights cannot possibly flow.

    9. Aus

      I have been to one of her shows. My gf, age 26, loves her and so dragged me with. Not my music but I admit Ariana can sure sing and dance well.

  13. Juvenile Bluster

    It’s anonymously cited, so I won’t report it as fact like some other outlets do. But the DNC is allegedly in full-blown pants-shitting mode over the Seth Rich murder potentially being tied to the Wikileaks release of the Podesta (and others) emails which were never confirmed as genuine.

    It’s anonymously sourced all right… the original source was a post on /pol/. I’m dubious, to say the least.

    1. Jefe Hayek

      Yeah, gateway pundit is right up there with infowars.

      1. But not as entertaining.

    2. straffinrun

      Yeah, who the fuck trusts anonymous sources?

      1. Chipwooder

        Only NYT reporters

        1. straffinrun

          I said “trusts” not “fabricates”. Now, NYT readers…

      2. Juvenile Bluster

        I’m not saying that. I’m just saying that I need something more than a post by an anon on 4chan that then gets repeated and repeated some more before going anywhere with a story.

        1. straffinrun

          I was just setting up the response that Chipwooder so dutifully provided.

        2. THAT’S THE POINT OF THE POST!

          1. John Titor

            Look, people are either going to read the link or the post, you can’t have both.

      3. Agent Cooper

        Ha ha. WaPo just ran an article with a source that “knows how Comey thinks” or similar.

        I don’t trust a G-D thing they print anymore.

        1. Fatty Bolger

          “A source familiar with X’s thinking” is the formulation I’ve been seeing more and more, and not just with this Comey business.

          1. straffinrun

            The Goldwater rule obviously has a sunset clause.

    3. WTF

      Although here are things we do know:
      Neither Podesta, Hillary, or anyone else at the DNC ever denied the veracity of the emails, so we can assume they are genuine.
      Podesta is known to have stated he wanted to make an example of a leaker.
      Seth Rich was all but named as the source by Assange dancing around Rich’s murder and who his source might have been.
      The DNC refused to give the FBI access to their servers and computers regarding investigating the “hacking’, the claim it was the Russians comes from a private firm hired by DNC.
      Rich was murdered after the DNC emails were exposed. It was claimed a robbery, but nothing was taken, and he was shot in the back.

      Not necessarily proof of anything, but an awful lot of coincidental “smoke”.

      1. Fatty Bolger

        Some other odd things I’ve noticed:

        A video of the murder has been reported to exist. Yet as far as I can tell, it has never been released publicly. Normally in these situations, the video would be released in case anybody could provide additional information based on it, even if it’s poor quality.

        I haven’t seen any description of the suspects, even though a video reportedly exists, and Rich was reportedly still alive and conscious when he arrived at the hospital.

        I’m naturally skeptical that this was anything other than a botched mugging, but there seems to be a bizarre lack of curiosity on the part of reporters about the actual facts of the murder. They’re quick to debunk the conspiracy theories, though.

        1. WTF

          I am skeptical it was a botched mugging. If it was a mugging, why was nothing taken from Rich? Not his watch, not his wallet, nothing. Why shoot him in the back and then not take an additional 20 seconds to grab his wallet before fleeing? It makes no sense.
          Also, the FBI reportedly has Rich’s computer, for some reason, but no information on that front is forthcoming.

          1. Fatty Bolger

            It’s possible that they panicked after the shooting and ran off. It’s probably common knowledge among criminals in the DC area that the cops can detect gun shots.

          2. WTF

            But Rich was shot in the back, which means he would have had to have been running away with the “mugger” behind him, so why shoot him if you’re not going to rob him? Why risk a murder rap for no gain? It doesn’t make any sense.

          3. Fatty Bolger

            There were supposedly two assailants. He gets in a scuffle with one, the other shoots him in the back.

            Now, is that what happened? Who knows. The police have not been very forthcoming on details for whatever reason.

          4. WTF

            Sounds like CAGW, nothing can falsify the narrative, no matter how improbable.

          5. AlexinCT

            I think it is the DC police department that has the PC and will not release it to anyone or comment on it. By now I bet they lost it even.

          6. wdalasio

            Nah. They just have it stored with Hillary’s e-mails. And the IRS’s. And…

        2. Mookman

          There is also a system in D.C. that detects gunshots and notifies the police. I live here and am not entirely clear as to how this works exactly, but apparently it went off and police responded within minutes. I follow DC MPD on Twitter and they post videos of suspects wanted for this or that all the time, almost all of whom are captured on the MPD CCTV cameras throughout the city (although some private surveillance from stores or businesses is sometimes used depending on what occurred). Point being, I have a difficult time believing that a criminal or criminals who is/are not competent enough to mug somebody without killing him managed to flee a scene that police responded to within minutes without getting caught by the extensive surveillance network that exists in this city, especially considering the suspect or suspects would be close to the only ones around at that time of day and should be easily identifiable. I mean I suppose it’s possible that a couple of guys had an escape route from the area planned or a hideout nearby…but it’s a little tough for me to believe.

          1. UnCivilServant

            There is also a system in D.C. that detects gunshots and notifies the police. I live here and am not entirely clear as to how this works exactly, but apparently it went off and police responded within minutes

            Acoustic sensors that register the location of a sharp, high-decibel incident via trangulation.

            But minutes would still be enough time to grab a wallet, especially after having already shot the guy in the back.

          2. coax

            It works like those Amazon Alexa things, only for gunshots.

            http://www.shotspotter.com/

            But yeah, likelihood seems high that it was a professional contractor.

      2. PBRstreetgang

        Has the FBI still not inspected the DNC server? The last I remember, Comey said in January that the FBI had not done so and, at least inferred, that they were relying entirely on CrowdStrike’s assessment. I cannot imagine that’s in any way normal. Can anyone come up with a plausible non-“They’re hiding something” theory for why the DNC would not allow the FBI to look at the server?

      3. coax

        At least some of the DNC emails had valid DKIM signatures, so that makes it much harder to deny being cryptographically non-repudiable and all.

    4. But it’s not completely anonymously sourced. There are direct quotes from Kim Dotcom and images of what he said. Therefore it is literally infinitely more sourced than the latest WaPo and NYT pieces about Comey’s “feelings” and “thoughts”.

      That’s the point. A somewhat dubious outlet like GP has sourced articles better than the so-called leading papers in America on a serious topic. I think that says quite a bit about the state of journalism in America.

  14. Pat

    ‘Alt-Right’ Leader Loses Gym Membership After Confrontation

    A leading figure in the “alt-right” movement had his gym membership revoked after a Georgetown University professor confronted him during a workout and called him a neo-Nazi.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Spencer is a douchebag but it sounds like they should have kicked her out instead.

      Fair, who teaches at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, published photos of her confrontation with Spencer in a blog post. She said he denied being Richard Spencer when she asked him if that’s his name.

      “I said, ‘Oh, not only are you a Nazi, you’re a cowardly Nazi,” she recalled.

      Fair said another gym member, a white woman, yelled at her “for making a scene” and threatened to call police.

      Spencer said he was “peacefully working out” when Fair confronted him.

      1. WTF

        But she argues the gym had a right to revoke Spencer’s membership because his presence could create a hostile work environment for employees, some of whom are black.

        “There is no First Amendment issue here,” she said. “This is a private club that can regulate speech as it sees fit.”

        No first amendment issue, true. But there could be a breach of contract issue.

        1. straffinrun

          How would GayJay come down on this?

          1. UnCivilServant

            It would be okay to force the gym to have nazi members only if the owners were jewish.

          2. Tundra

            He’d see both sides of the argument, then agree that some common sense gun control was ok for certain bakeries. Provided they were gay.

            He’s complex, man.

          3. WTF

            “What’s a Spencer?”

          4. No, he’d say “what’s Georgetown?”

          5. tarran

            He’d be very happy to discuss the matter at length while raiding his campaign funds to pay off old debts.

    2. PieInTheSKy

      Are there other leading figures there? Because this guy appears 90% of the time when there is a leading alt right figure involved.

      1. FreeSociety

        Richard Spencer is the low hanging fruit of alt-right people to attack. If they were going to attack others, they might have to actually do some research. Can’t have that.

      2. The Zenome Project

        It’s because Spencer is kind of a mirror reflection of SJWs, expect he’s defending white people instead of intersectional people.

        1. WTF

          “Intersectional people” makes me think of Picasso portraits.

      3. John Titor

        Spencer’s deliberately thrown himself into the spotlight as much as possible, and he’s also enough of a stereotype for the media to latch onto.

    3. Scruffy Nerfherder

      I knew I recognized that name.

      Georgetown University associate professor C. Christine Fair is cranky that people don’t like her attacking a Muslim woman who voted for President-elect Donald Trump.

      She continued her month-plus Twitter and Facebook ranting after The Daily Caller News Foundation’s piece revealing her attacks against Asra Q. Nomani.

      1. WTF

        Since Fair thinks it’s fine to initiate confrontations and shriek at people who she disagrees with, people on the right should do the same to her wherever she goes. Although I doubt she would be capable of learning anything.

      2. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

        I mean, to be fair, I’m sure plenty moved to the US to get rid of the old country. Its hardly surprising.

      3. butt-head

        For the record, I’m a slut and I love sluts.

        *looks at photo*

        Yikes.

    4. wdalasio

      I don’t much care for Spencer. But, I hope he sues the gym into bankruptcy for breach of contract. I’d be happy as a juror to assign punitive damages to such a case.

    1. Pat

      “The inmate has participated in programs specific to addressing behavior that led to incarceration,” according to parole chairwoman Connie Bisbee.

      “Hey, it’s not cool to kidnap people and steal their shit.”

      If only somebody had ever mentioned that to him during the first 65 years of his life.

    2. Old Man With Candy

      Trying to break my record here?

      1. SugarFree

        I assure you that your record number of times jacking off to a Rosie O’Donnell standee in a row will never be broken.

        1. Old Man With Candy

          #NotLorde

    3. Juice

      Interesting. I thought for sure he’d never get out. Can’t wait for his first time guest hosting The View.

      1. Bobarian LMD

        Maybe a co-hosting position with Kelli Ripa?

        I here she’s looking for someone.

        I’d bet he’d kill.

    4. I wonder if he’d pass a background check to coach children’s football. It might defend on the club he volunteered for. I wonder if the techniques he’d teach would include packing a knife.

    1. straffinrun

      Police are trying to determine what happened before charging anyone, Brotherton said.

      New policy?

      1. *opera applause*

  15. Juvenile Bluster

    Germany cracks Europe-wide burglary gang of 500 members

    Munich police say they have broken up a huge burglary clan which they estimate may have been responsible for a fifth of German break-ins.

    The criminal gang was compared by police to an octopus with tentacles across Europe and its members were related by blood or marriage.

    The investigation began when three women were caught trying to break into a property in Munich in January 2016.

    It has led to arrests in Croatia and Spain as well as in Germany.

    1. UnCivilServant

      I notice the article did not say one word about the national origin of the thieves, only where they were operating and were caught…

      1. Juvenile Bluster

        Yeah, was going to mention that, but hit post too early (coffee hasn’t hit my brain yet)..

      2. commodious spittoon

        Gypsies. Duh.

    2. PieInTheSKy

      No Romanians? Color me surprised

      1. UnCivilServant

        They couldn’t compete with the locals.

      2. Negroni Please

        IDK. I immediately blames the gypsies. And we all KNOW that despite claims to the contrary, all Romanians are either gypsies or vampires. So yeah. I feel comfortable blaming this on Romanians

        1. PieInTheSKy

          The Romanians are gypsies thins still gives a lot of my countrymen fits uncontrollable rage.

          1. straffinrun

            Proving they are, indeed, Gypsies?

          2. PieInTheSKy

            Do you want to get cursed? Cause this is …

          3. commodious spittoon

            Fine, fine. They were Irish pikeys.

          4. “Irish Travelers”

          5. commodious spittoon

            Nothing says Irish hillbilly like Brad Pitt.

    3. Pat

      The criminal gang was compared by police to an octopus with tentacles across Europe and its members were related by blood or marriage.

      Goddamn wops.

      1. SugarFree

        Diane Franklin was Jewish?

      2. Juvenile Bluster

        SPECTRE?

          1. Tundra

            Maud Adams.

            Yum.

          2. Slammer

            Creepy. Roger Moore just died.

          3. Juvenile Bluster

            Just saw that. Had no idea when I made the reference.

          4. Rhywun

            RIP Louis Jourdan too (last year).

    4. UnCivilServant

      The criminal gang was compared by police to an octopus with tentacles across Europe and its members were related by blood or marriage.

      The investigation began when three women were caught trying to break into a property in Munich in January 2016.

      It has led to arrests in Croatia and Spain as well as in Germany.

      Croatia, Spain, Germany… Was their family name “Hapsburg” by chance?

      1. *offers congratulatory Zwickelbier*

        1. robc

          I would prefer a Zoigl, but that will do nicely too.

    5. Agent Cooper

      The criminal gang was compared by police to an octopus with tentacles across Europe

      So …. Hydra?

    6. Rasilio

      we need to get the Turtles to Bonn stat

  16. Old Man With Candy

    My second favorite sports radio show is coming to an end. At least I still have Waddle and Silvy.

    1. Rufus the Monocled

      Is Greenberg the guy who feuded with Chris Russo?

      1. Old Man With Candy

        I think that was Mike Francesca.

        1. Rufus the Monocled

          Ah.

          I even thought Mike Fontaine over on 42nd st.

    2. Mike Mulligan and Brian Hanley are far better.

    3. Bobarian LMD

      Meatball and Man-girl in the Morning?

    4. Rasilio

      That was the last thing on ESPN radio worth listening to. Russilio is ok although he was better with Kannel, the rest of the line up is basically social justice talk not sports talk

    5. I hope your favorite is “Sportsy Talk” (Bronwyn Carlton and Jim the Poet) on WFMU 6-7 PM EDT Tuesdays.

      1. Old Man With Candy

        Nope, Waddle and Silvy. Love those guys.

  17. Chipwooder

    Posting this because it’s news. I mean, cmon, it’s being reported by the NY Post!

    Judges give that caboose a 9.8

    1. Pat

      She announced her retirement from gymnastics last summer, revealing her aspirations to become a pop star.

      Anyway, here’s Wonderwall.

    2. Slammer

      Day-um

    3. straffinrun

      I agree if you’re 5 foot 5. She’s 5 foot 3.

      1. Juvenile Bluster

        36-24-36? Only if she’s 5’3″.

    4. As an old black dude I used to work with would say, “Make a blind man see, make a preacher curse!”

      1. Pope Jimbo

        “Make a young man moan, make an old man groan”

        1. straffinrun

          I know this one! Uncle Cracker?

        2. I just love how it’s all heteronormative shitlording to you guys. Oh, no way she could be attractive to a lesbian also. No way she’d get her moaning or groaning as well. Nope! It’s always there SOLELY for the personal gratification of men, whatever age they are. No wonder there’s still such a strong rape culture in America.

          -feminist harpy retard

    5. wdalasio

      Yum

  18. Pat

    Donald Trump budget proposal to force millions off food stamps

    Millions of people will be driven off food stamps as part of the spending cuts being planned for Donald Trump’s first budget.

    The President’s proposals would cut up to $1.7trillion over the next ten years, with saving coming from cuts to programmes such as Medicaid, federal employee pensions, welfare benefits and farm subsidies.

    Women, minorities, police and firefighters hardest hit.

    1. WTF

      So, he is going to try to dial it back to pre-Obama levels. When we all remember people literally dying in the streets due to the lack of vital programs.

    2. PieInTheSKy

      If he manages to cut something from pensions I am impressed

    3. Just a thought not a sermon

      I’m going to re-run one of the classics here:

      9) (first series) So I went grocery shopping this weekend and in the spirit of Christmas season-humility was reflecting on how “first-world” some of the items in my cart were—craft beer and imported cheese and so on. Pure luxuries.

      Do you remember earlier this year when there was a big controversy over Republicans wanting to cut food stamps in the Farm Bill? At first, I was outraged. Even as a libertarian-ish sort of guy, taking food out of the mouths of poor people is pretty far down on the list of what I would cut.

      But then I saw an article in the Washington Post on just how much the benefits for a family of four was declining: from $668 to $632 a month. (I looked up one of the old articles just now to confirm this figure.) I was curious and asked my wife how much our family of four spends on groceries monthly: about $800, it turns out.

      Could we get by on $150 a week, I asked her? Certainly—we’d have to drop the organic milk and vegetables, I’d have to downgrade to Budweiser, we might need to switch to generic breakfast cereals, but we wouldn’t be missing any meals. In short, for slightly less than the actual, post-cut food stamp benefits we’d be fine. Think about that the next time you hear about food insecurity in America.

      1. PieInTheSKy

        No one should have to drink Budweiser (the american one, also called Bud round here. The Czech on s’okay)

        1. King of Beers vs. Beer of Kings.

      2. UnCivilServant

        Ugh, reruns.

        *changes channel*

      3. straffinrun

        Seriously, they amount of money many people on food stamps waste is disgusting. We make way above the median income, but never go out to eat, drive the same car for ten years, shop at the discount markets etc… If we don’t save a third of our monthly income (not including investments) my wife freaks out. Yet, I see relatives that I know are not working and have no source of income other than the state, blowing money on all sorts of shit that I consider out of my price range.

        1. WTF

          It’s easier to waste shit when you didn’t have to earn it.

        2. Pope Jimbo

          My unemployed neighbors buying a new car under the Cash for Clunkers program springs to mind for some reason.

      4. Akira

        To go somewhat off topic here:

        I think it’s a huge misconception that healthy food is prohibitively expensive. You might have to learn some basic culinary skills, but they’re not beyond the grasp of anyone with half a brain (trust me – if I can do it, nobody else has any excuse). Lentils, brown rice, collard greens, and canned tuna are all dirt cheap. You can get buy a whole chicken and cut it up – that’s two thighs and two breasts right there, plus the stock you can make out of the carcass. Bags of frozen vegetables are somewhere around a dollar per bag. I understand that not everybody has the time to cook, but you can do a lot of “cooking ahead” when you have an hour or two. That way, all you have to do during your busier times is warm something up in the microwave.

        I think the misconception occurs when people think “healthy food” means Greek yogurt, fresh raspberries, organic free-range chicken, wild-caught salmon, and pomegranate juice. These things are expensive, but they’re walking right past a ton of healthy food in the grocery store without even knowing it.

    4. Juvenile Bluster

      I still haven’t figured out if he’s actually planning to cut anything or if “cut” means what it usually means in government parlance, e.g. “You’re only getting a 2% budget raise next year instead of 4%.”

      1. SimonD

        On FBN this morning, they said it was cuts to the rate of increase.

        1. The Zenome Project

          Nothing. Left. To Cut…

    5. TripodKat

      A friend of mine is on food stamps (yeah, I have a wide variety of friends). She leaves some in the break area of her work for other people to use because “she wants to share.”

      Wow. Just wow. She’s had 3 children out of wedlock so far (she’s 28). She kept 2 and put the 3rd up for adoption.

      1. R C Dean

        Do you pick them up and throw them away? I would.

        1. TripodKat

          She doesn’t work with me.

        2. Throw them away? I’d put them to work in my monocle factory.

          Oh, you meant the food stamps, didn’t you?

          1. Private Chipperbot

            Dammit, Ted.

        3. Private Chipperbot

          You can’t throw away kids after they are a few months old.

      2. l0b0t

        When I worked at a liquor store next to FSU many, many years ago, we would accept food stamps for 1/2 of face value for alcohol. We would put our own Federal Reserve Notes into the register and then go by fancy food at Publix. The dirty looks one gets when purchasing live lobsters and $60 bottles of balsamic vinegar with food stamps is a treat.

        1. Rhywun

          We never ate steak or lobster when we were on food stamps when I was little. Then in college, long after we got off the dole, I worked a lot of supermarket cashier jobs and on food stamp day every month it was carts full of fancier food than anything I saw growing up. Pissed me off.

          1. l0b0t

            The fraud and abuse inherent in the system, along with the astounding amount of waste, fraud, and abuse I witnessed while in the Army, were what drove me towards libertarianism.

  19. Pat

    The reason why men marry some women and not others

    He’s not a dating expert, nor an advice columnist, psychologist or relationship therapist. His expertise lies in the field of market research and he applies his scientific skills to educate women with all they need to know about men.

    In his book, “Why Men Marry Some Women and Not Others,” author John Molloy says that women will discover the proven facts and figures that will help them find and marry Mr. Right. Here’s an excerpt

    1. PieInTheSKy

      Sounds like peddlin bullshit to me.

    2. Certified Public Asshat

      Where’s the excerpt?

    3. WTF

      She said, “You reinforce the myth that the reason men don’t commit is that the women in their lives do something wrong. That’s nonsense. In most cases, it’s the man in a relationship who decides he isn’t ready or doesn’t want to get married, and he makes this decision without any help from the woman.”

      He fails to understand women can never be responsible or at fault for anything. It is only men who can be at fault in a relationship.
      Hey honey, what you’re doing right there? That’s why he doesn’t want to marry you.

      1. Suthenboy

        I am thinking back and remember that there were defining moments where I decided not to invest more of myself and my time in relationships

        “I am just using you to get over my divorce”

        “Remember that guy I told you about that I used to date? He is driving in from Georgia. Can you give me a week or so? I’ll call you when he leaves.”

        “Ok, yeah I did. You are just gonna have to find a way to get over it.” —“Ok, I will.”

        “Sometimes I dream I have cancer. I think I should get a mastectomy.”

        *2am* “Where are you going?!” –“uh…the bathroom. I have to pee.” —*follows me and stands outside bathroom door*

        Yeah, it was me. It’s nonsense to say some bitches be crazy.

        1. Mr Lizard

          Hmmmmmm. Ohio or Florida?

          1. Suthenboy

            Pick a state. I have a story from all of them.

          2. robc

            Should I point out the common element to all your stories?

          3. R C Dean

            They all have chicks in them, amirite?

          4. Rasilio

            So you’re saying he should join Jessee’s team?

      2. The Elite Elite

        “In most cases, it’s the man in a relationship who decides he isn’t ready or doesn’t want to get married, and he makes this decision without any help from the woman.”

        Oh, I think the woman is a big help in his decision to not get married. Just not in the way this harpy, err lady, thinks.

      3. commodious spittoon

        Beth, one of my better researchers, said that men who were averse to commitment were drawn to her like bees to honey

        You know that line about meeting assholes all day… well, here’s the dating world corollary.

        1. WTF

          Listen, Beth? Maybe they’re not averse to commitment, maybe they’re averse to committing to you?

          1. commodious spittoon

            I’ll allow for an alternative hypothesis: she’s attracted to higher-status men of a certain age, and that puts her in a transitional pool of dating choices, namely, upwardly-mobile men for whom she’s a fun diversion but not wife material.

            I’m willing to bet her response to downscale men who are more open to commitment is: ick.

          2. commodious spittoon

            Also, I can’t help but notice that a good chunk of at least the opening paragraphs is devoted to education attainment, somewhere women are already finding themselves overrepresented and starting to complain about the paucity of similarly or better-educated mates (because, of course, fewer men graduating with degrees is primarily a problem for women). So the tradesman who gets certified with minimal debt and starts working at $20+/hr., with steady work expectations and regular overtime… well, that asshole loses out to the aspiring corporate attorney who graduated with a quarter million dollars in debt and will spend the first several years of his truncated career working 60-80 hours a week to help pay off his student loans, because, hey, he doesn’t work with his hands like that numbskull greasemonkey.

          3. Rasilio

            And once he gets done paying off those student loans and finally has excess money he’s gonna dump your sorry ass for a hot 23 year old anyway

      4. Noting was ever Mom’s fault. If couldn’t find a way to blame Dad, she’d blame god.

        Part of the reason I’m a non-believer is that she had screaming fits saying god was punishing her for missing church… and then she had one where she screamed that she’d been to church every week for a long time and god was still punishing her.

    4. Easy. Dat ass.

      Or dem titties. Sometimes both.

      1. WTF

        Want to get married, ladies?
        1. Be hot.
        2. Don’t be an obnoxious harpy.
        3. Be hot.

        1. UnCivilServant

          If she has lower standards, she can get away with just not being an obnoxious harpy.

          1. WTF

            Well sure, but almost all women think they are entitled to the love of a high-value man, regardless of what they may or may not bring to the relationship. Most women are always talking about what they “deserve”.

          2. Rasilio

            Actually as long as she just stays within her own league in the apperance/wealth category she can get away with just not being an obnoxious harpy

          3. thrakkorzog

            Hell, I’ve got a sister who is a professional obnoxious harpy. (She’s a Lawyer.) She still managed to get married and have three kids. Our parents’ attitude towards her husband is, “We hate him, but he puts up with her shit, so she’s not going to find anyone better.” He’s pretty much a trophy husband.

        2. Michael

          Is “have your shit together” part of “don’t be an obnoxious harpy”?

          1. WTF

            Yes, it encompasses much, because I needed to shorthand it.

          2. TripodKat

            This. So. Much. This. I’ve broken up with a long series of women because they simply couldn’t take care of themselves, either financially or emotionally. I don’t have time for that shit. I sure as shit ain’t willing to support you financially when we’ve only been together for 3 months.

            I finally got smart and started waiting for a woman up to my standards.

    5. Diane Reynolds

      This is usually an arrangement agreed to by the man but devised by the woman.

      As Chris Rock rightly noted, men surrender.

      ‘Ok, ok, I’ll marry your ass, just tell me the day before and I’ll be there…’

  20. Rhywun

    Commie mayor and council leader might want to reconsider gracing this with their presence.

    1. Pat

      The parade always causes controversy, doesn’t it?

      1. Rhywun

        I thought that was going to be about the shootings/rapes that tend to occur.

        That summary is like from an alternate universe – I have never seen this. And I’ve seen every episode at least two dozen times. Methinks TBS is keeping it under lock.

        1. Pat

          It’s rarely played in syndication. If you can find it somewhere streaming online, watch it. One of the best episodes of the final season and the last episode before the finale.

          1. Rhywun

            I’m reminded of the black planet episode of ST:TNG that never appears in syndication. Only in this case it’s probably out of embarrassment.

          2. UnCivilServant

            Something bugs me about that episode unrelated to the problems other people have noticed and mentioned. If they could save the woman with the speaking role, why did no one do a darn thing to help the spectator who got hit?

          3. commodious spittoon

            IIRC it caused some consternation in the Puerto Rican community, which is to say, Puerto Rican community organizers complained about it, because if you’re not complaining, you’re not eating.

        2. WTF

          The episode was too accurate. Manhattan is to be avoided at all costs during the Puerto Rican Day parade.

        3. Chipwooder

          I’m sure TBS has intentionally buried it. People whined about it even in the ’90s when there was much less whining about such things.

          1. Rhywun

            I’m really surprised they’ve buried it this whole time. Even the wikipedia article says it’s back but I’ve never seen it.

        4. Evan from Evansville

          It absolutely is. I have every episode memorized, but this one I have never, ever seen.

          Given that it’s at the very very end of the show’s run, when it was still very funny but no where near as good as it had been when Larry David was still running (part) of the show, I haven’t ever felt the need to really seek it out.

          It’s kinda fun leaving something unturned for once. One day I’m sure it will come up. It should be interesting.

    2. straffinrun

      If Maxine Waters can support the scumbags who beat the hell out of Reginald Denney, why can’t the commie mayor do this?

    3. Slammer

      ATT should revoke their sponsorship as well

    4. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Parades are collectivist bullshit anyway.

      Now get off my lawn.

      1. UnCivilServant

        It is the people’s lawn, comrade.

        1. straffinrun

          Tragedy of UnCiv’s lawn.

          1. UnCivilServant

            The only ‘lawn’ I have is the grassy margin between the sidewalk and street. that reminds me, I need to mow it soon.

          2. Schnirt Gurgleburger

            Euphemism? Double Entendre? Either way, nice one.

          3. UnCivilServant

            Neither. It was a plain statement of fact.

        2. Rhywun

          The city council speaker is, believe it or not, even worse than the mayor. He’s just attending because that’s what mayors do and being a commie himself doesn’t need to think twice about it. But she has been all over this for months; “freedom fighter” this, “political prisoner” that. And she naturally sees herself as heir apparent after Deblasio sails through his second term.

          1. Juvenile Bluster
          2. Scruffy Nerfherder

            “We march to honor our history and uplift our people. . . .We stand in solidarity with Oscar and express our full support for the Board’s decision to recognize and uplift the legacy of Oscar Lopez Rivera,” she said in the letter.

            Solidarity… there’s a word that set off my alarm bells.

          3. WTF

            The left sure does love them some murderers, don’t they?

          4. Rhywun

            She’s dangerous, and I hope to hell this nips any future ambitions of hers in the bud.

            I mean, Goya pulled out! She’s on her own now.

          5. Chipwooder

            They hate Latinos, obviously.

            /derp

    5. Rufus the Monocled

      “Before President Obama commuted his sentence in January, López Rivera spent 36 years in prison for his role as a leader of the FALN, which was behind a series of bloody attacks, including the 1975 bombing of Fraunces Tavern in lower Manhattan that killed four people and a blast that maimed a cop at Police Headquarters in 1982.

      López Rivera’s defenders say he never directly participated in plotting a terror attack.”

      Obama sure loves himself some ter’rists.

      1. Chipwooder

        I love the weasel word “directly”. “Hey, he didn’t directly participate, you cis-male white shitlord!”

    6. Longest day in my life was a Puerto Rican parade. Or maybe it was a funeral procession. Either way, I learned a lesson that day: if you’re the only one with a set of jumper cables in line with 200 Puerto Rican’s driving, you’re gonna be a busy motherfucker.

  21. Juvenile Bluster

    Thread on ISIS taking responsibility for the Manchester bombing and the possibility that the bomber hasn’t actually been caught

    tl;dr:

    3. What’s key is what is not mentioned: ISIS says explosive devices (plural) were placed at venue. Makes no mention of martyrdom of attacker

    4. Remember this is a group that glorifies the death of its own and proudly proclaims it. Could this mean the attacker is still at large?

    1. Stinky Wizzleteats

      Absolutely could be unless he isn’t.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    Poor David Brooks, his communitarian wet dream keeps turning into a nightmare

    The last four months, on the other hand, have been an education in the shortcomings in populism. It’s not only that Donald Trump is a bad president. It’s that movements fueled by alienation are bound to fail.

    Alienation, the sociologist Robert Nisbet wrote, is a “state of mind that can find a social order remote, incomprehensible or fraudulent; beyond real hope or desire; inviting apathy, boredom, or even hostility.”

    ———-

    Worse, alienation breeds a distrust that corrodes any collective effort. To be “woke” in the alienated culture is to embrace the most cynical interpretation of every situation, to assume bad intent in every actor, to imagine the conspiratorial malevolence of your foes.

    Alienation breeds a hysterical public conversation. Its public intellectuals are addicted to overstatement, sloppiness, pessimism, and despair. They are self-indulgent and self-lionizing prophets of doom who use formulations like “the Flight 93 election” — who speak of every problem as if it were the apocalypse.

    When I saw the headline, I thought maybe it was about the sort of people who would set off bombs in crowds of strangers just trying to enjoy their lives. Silly me.

    1. Stinky Wizzleteats

      Any piece that quotes a sociologist can be safely ignored.

    2. “To be “woke” in the alienated culture is to…”

      support Donald Trump?

      No? Then where’s he going with this?

    3. Scruffy Nerfherder

      David prefers it when people subscribe to a national ethos and submit themselves to their betters. All for one.

      1. Chipwooder

        Clearly, sir, your pants crease is lacking.

    4. “The events of the past four months illustrate that we do need a political establishment in this country, or maybe a few competing establishments. We need people who have been educated to actually know something about public policy problems. We need people who have had gradual, upward careers in government and understand the craft of wielding power. We need people who know how to live up to certain standards of integrity and public service.”

      I think there’s some tension between the two final sentences.

      1. The last two sentences in the quoted passage, I mean.

      2. Agent Cooper

        We need people who have been educated to actually know something about public policy problems.

        WFB weeps.

    5. commodious spittoon

      Couldn’t be that alienation is symptomatic of Trump’s candidacy, rather than the disease itself. Nah.

      They are self-indulgent and self-lionizing prophets of doom who use formulations like “the Flight 93 election” — who speak of every problem as if it were the apocalypse.

      And obviously this flaw exists solely on the right. No lefties ever overstate their case, or succumb to hysterics. Nope.

    6. R C Dean

      Shorter Brooks:

      “Why won’t you proles submit to the Better and Smarter Than You people?”

      1. UnCivilServant

        I was confused, because I doubted P Brooks would say that.

        Then I saw P Brooks was quoting David Brooks.

        There are too many Brookses involved…

  23. The Late P Brooks

    And then, we get this:

    The first task for this better establishment is to not make the political chasm worse. As the impeachment investigation proceeds, it’ll be important for us Trump critics to not set our hair on fire every day, to evaluate the evidence as if it were against a president we ourselves voted for. Would we really throw our own candidate out of office for this?

    Impeachment investigation? Seriously? Don’t they have editors, anymore?

    1. WTF

      They have become truly deranged. Shouldn’t there be some actual evidence of actual criminal behavior before impeachment id brought up?
      Or are they actually coming right out and saying they want to overturn the results of a free and fair election because they don’t like the result? In other words, participating in a coup.

      1. R C Dean

        This is an attempted coup. Its by bureaucrats, so of course its slow and boring.

        1. UnCivilServant

          Look, we had to develop the forms and approval processes for executing a coup before we could file them.

          Give us a break.

      2. AlexinCT

        They have become truly deranged. Shouldn’t there be some actual evidence of actual criminal behavior before impeachment id brought up?

        The plebes not only voted for this douchebag instead of their savior Shillary, but rejected the liberal-statist agenda by giving this wrecker the weaponized government Obama built for Shillary to use on the enemies of the left. That’s the crime these people believe was committed.

        The shrieking and shit flinging is all about making sure everyone knows that the left will not tolerate anyone not sanctioned by them to be in charge and that nobody will be allowed to undo the things the left does, no matter how horrible they are.

    2. FreeSociety

      He says as he lights his own hair on fire.

  24. commodious spittoon

    In September 2015, a new team of police investigators was assigned to look into the backlog. Two months later, police at last interviewed and arrested Staten.

    Two months later still, two sergeants and seven detectives were suspended from the unit.

    Good job, guys, who’s going to look into that backlog with all the suspensions you’re handing out?

    All have been reassigned since then, including Detective Travis Menuey, who was originally assigned to investigate the Staten case.

    Well, at least they’re still on payroll. #bluelivesmatter #heroes

    1. straffinrun

      Have you looked at the string of blunders the Norwegian police went through in the Breivik shootings? At one point, the Delta force was stranded in a dead boat in the middle of the water because too many of them got in.

      1. Chipwooder

        The subject obviously isn’t funny, but that particular nugget of info is hilarious.

          1. Chipwooder

            Good lord, that’s Naked Gun-level lunacy, like when the SWAT team can’t get out of the truck because the rear doors are blocked by a telephone pole in 33 1/3.

          2. straffinrun

            They thought there were multiple shooters so they wanted to go in numbers. So they loaded them all in one rubber boat to get to the island. They had to commandeer a civilian’s boat to get to the island.

          3. commodious spittoon

            You know who else gambled on showing up in force by boat…

          4. WTF

            The Vikings?

          5. UnCivilServant

            William the Barstard?

          6. The Imperial Japanese Navy?

          7. AlexinCT

            Kublai Khan?

  25. Rufus the Monocled

    Hear me out and humour me.

    Why not stop immigration temporarily from those Muslim countries identified as being terrorist manufacturers? In the meantime, we let law enforcement slowly catch those in the planning of attacks and slowly let the situation slowly peter out that way? Suffocate it like an anaconda does its prey.

    1. Tundra

      *ducks behind sofa*

      1. Rufus the Monocled

        How about restrict?

        /reaches over to help Tundra out.

        1. Bobarian LMD

          Suffocate it like an anaconda Florida Man does its girlfriend/prey.

    2. UnCivilServant

      Oh that’s unconstitutional because of past comments.

      If someone else suggested it, then it’d be okay.

      1. WTF

        Exactly.

    3. Stinky Wizzleteats

      That’s just crazy talk.

    4. SO RACIST!!!

    5. bacon-magic

      Impeachable comment.

  26. robc

    Who was it at reason that kept calling voter fraud a myth? Was it Bailey?

    1. WTF

      Among others, I believe.

    2. Bob

      You only find where you look for it, so if you’d stop looking for it…

      1. AlexinCT

        And you are an evil racist thug trying to suppress voters when you find it (it usually being democrat profiting from fraud)?

    3. Chipwooder

      I wanna say Sullum has as well, but I can’t swear to it.

  27. Slammer

    RIP Roger Moore

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      -1 Saint

    2. Mike Schmidt

      Damn. That sucks.

    3. Rhywun

      Shit. My Bond 🙁

      1. Atanarjuat

        Yeah. I don’t care what anyone says, he was great.

  28. Private Chipperbot
    1. straffinrun

      Yeah, that’s sad. Of course this is controversial, but ,for me anyways, he was the perfect blend of cheesy and cool for Bond.

      1. Mike Schmidt

        And despite his more than a decade in the role, Sir Roger rates himself as the fourth best Bond.

        The self-effacing actor claimed he came ‘a little bit behind George Lazenby.’

        1. Rhywun

          The self-effacing actor claimed he came ‘a little bit behind George Lazenby.’

          Heh that’s funny.

          But yeah, I suppose he was my Bond primary because he’s the one I grew up with but “perfect blend of cheesy and cool” is pretty spot-on.

          1. Mike Schmidt

            I grew up with Moore as well. And he was my favorite until I read the books. Then I turned into a little bit of a purist snob. Now Connery is my fav. Although I really like Craig as well.

          2. egould310

            That is exactly my experience as well. Get out of my head!!

          3. Bobarian LMD

            Craig is the truest Bond to the books, and Lazenby would be next.

        2. Stinky Wizzleteats

          Roger Moore-best scene from a terrible movie-Cannonball Run II. I had the misfortune of seeing this in the theater and this was the only thing I laughed at.
          https://youtu.be/JJcPsEkJaEk

        3. Michael

          In a way, he’s right.

          1.) Connery (manly as fuck)
          2.) Craig (revived Bond’s manliness after many long years)
          3.) Lazenby (because why the fuck not)
          4.) Moore (had the best gadgets and was super sleazy in a fun way)

          5.) Fags

          1. Old Man With Candy

            You left out Woody Allen.

          2. Mike Schmidt

            I see Woody on the list. Right there at #5

          3. Old Man With Candy

            He was banging a hot Asian female teen. At the age of 55. I should be such a fag.

          4. AlexinCT

            Would you adopt her first as well?

      2. Pat

        Timothy Dalton is the best non-Connery Bond. Fite me IRL.

        1. straffinrun

          Now your Soundgarden hatred makes more sense.

        2. Mike Schmidt

          I am sure that even Timothy Dalton wouldn’t make that claim.

        3. Scruffy Nerfherder

          aka Emo Bond

          1. Pat

            No more so than Craig, IMO (who I actually prefer to Dalton, I just like to stir shit with Bond fans). A better executed Licence to Kill could have been to the ’80s what Casino Royale was to the aughts.

        4. Chipwooder

          I don’t think I will go that far, but I do think Dalton was much better in the role than most people believe.

          1. Pat

            My actual non-shit-stirring ranking goes Connery>Craig>Dalton>Moore>Brosnan>Lazenby. Yes, I know about David Niven and Barry Nelson. Nobody gives a shit about those movies.

            Favorite Bond flick: Thunderball

            Least favorite: Moonraker

          2. spqr2008

            I love Thunderball. It’s amazing the limitations they had to deal with doing those underwater scenes.

          3. UnCivilServant

            I couldn’t even remember which one it was until you said that.

      3. Juice

        Exactly. Roger Moore was James Bond. He did it exactly the way it should have been done.

    2. Rufus the Monocled

      My favourite Bond. Well, mostly because he was the first Bond I saw.

      1. straffinrun

        Probably why I’m partial to him, too.

        1. Tundra

          Still gotta give the nod to Connery, but I think the hate directed toward Sir Roger is ridiculous. He was great!

          1. Bobarian LMD

            I’ll say that Moore made my favorite Bond movie (Live and Let Die) but he also made the 3 worst Bond movies (Moonraker, Octopussy, and Man with the Golden Gun). The Spy Who Loved Me was a great movie as well (#4?)

      2. WTF

        I’m partial to Sean Connery myself. .

        1. UnCivilServant

          The way he Connery played the part was too unlikable to actually want him to win.

          Moore embraced the silliness that the series had become filled with at that point, and it made for fun films.

          1. Mike Schmidt

            That’s because Connery played him much closer to the way Ian Flemming wrote him.

            But you are right. Moore’s films were not as serious as the Connery (or Craig) Bond films. I think both of them were perfect for what their individual films asked of them.

          2. straffinrun

            ^This is how we should look at it.

          3. Tundra

            Totally.

            Brosnan in Goldeneye was a good combination of their styles. I like the brutality and depressing nature of the Craig films, too.

          4. WTF

            Connery played him much closer to the way Ian Flemming wrote him.

            And since I had read the books before seeing the movies, this is why I tend to prefer Connery.

          5. Chipwooder

            Exactly. Fleming’s Bond was rougher around the edges, a hard man who had taken on a veneer of sophistication and manners for the role of spy. Connery had that roguishness to him.

          6. And Fleming didn’t want readers necessarily to like Bond or want him to win. Nor did Moore want viewers to like Fleming.

          7. Rhywun

            Octopussy is the perfect Bond movie to me. Loads of fun and they threw everything but the kitchen sink at it.

          8. Tundra

            And Maud Adams.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    Also, over at the NYT- Monica Lewinsky is dancing on Roger Ailes’ grave.

    For those of you who don’t know,

    Monica Lewinsky is an anti-cyberbullying advocate and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair.

    1. Atanarjuat

      As Chris Rock said, the US president can legitimately say, “Suck my dick, there’s a future in it!”

  30. Rufus the Monocled

    Comment of the day:

    “Obama politicized the DOJ, IRS, and others.
    Firing Comey was part of Trump’s “Draining the Swamp.”
    What happens when you drain the swamp?
    The Swamp Creatures come out and fight.”

    1. SimonD

      My father had a small sign on his office wall that said:

      When you are up to your ass in alligators, it’s hard to remember that your original plan was to drain the swamp.

      I had mentioned somewhere that if Pres. Trump really wanted to ‘drain the swamp’ he needed a phalanx of woodchippers circling Washington to deal with the critters slithering out.

  31. Agent Cooper

    They seem to always win.

    Except when they play those darned Cleveland Indians.

    1. Brett L

      Seem to be having trouble with the AL Central in general. Luckily, they get to play something like 20 games against the Mariners.

  32. straffinrun

    Adam Carolla punching way down. (Not that it isn’t deserved)

    1. Stinky Wizzleteats

      Good clip. Comments are kind of a cesspool though.

      1. straffinrun

        As usual. Those idiots don’t even realize Carolla would probably despise them.

      2. FreeSociety

        From the comments

        Devos is a billionaire who RUINED Michigan’s schools by giving them choice. Michigan’s charter school are amongst the worst in the country. But you guys aren’t researched so you wouldn’t know that. I dare you to type in “Michigan Charter school” to see Devos’ handy work.

        You can’t let the proles have choices.

        1. kbolino

          Michigan’s charter school are amongst the worst in the country.

          That says more about Michigan than charter schools.

  33. Brett L

    I like this Bloomburg article where the author makes lots of hand-wavy statements at why Maine lobster is booming and the price per pound has stayed nearly constant (not “accounting for inflation” constant, rather between $3.50 and $5 would buy you a pound of lobster in whatever year you were in), but basically comes back to fishery management works.

    1. UnCivilServant

      I don’t have the source, but I remember a few years back there was a study in fisheries management which determined (with regular fish) that a size limit ends up selecting for smaller fish, as those that don’t get big enough to be kept produce more offspring. The setup was simple – they had three fish tanks with a similar starting population. they periodically culled from one tank a random selection of the largest fish; from the second a random selection of the smallest fish; and from the third just a random selection. The intent being to replicate the effects of ‘minimum size’ the inverted ‘maximum size’ (not used in real life) and ‘no size controls’. The tank with the minimum size conditional did worse in terms of final population sizes for individuals than the control. (I believe they extended the study over several generations of fish).

      The lobster article reminded me of it.

    2. Pat

      I kept reading waiting for the reference to climate change.

  34. Pope Jimbo

    Great. We are starting the annual purge where we pay cops overtime to give us more bull shit tickets.

    http://www.startribune.com/a-three-time-crash-survivor-says-seat-belts-saved-her-life/423710983/

    Maybe you should learn how to drive and you wouldn’t need seatbelts so much?

    1. Tundra

      Fuck, do I hate this justification-by-anecdote shit. Remember that this law was never supposed to be a primary offense (cops couldn’t pop you for a seatbelt). It didn’t take long for that to fall.

      1. Lachowsky

        I hate seatbelt laws. It’s one of the many things that drew me to libertarianism in the first place. Yes, I realize that making people wear seat belts session lives on the whole. Locking people in padded rooms also saves lives. Fuck nanny-statism.

      2. Pope Jimbo

        Absolutely remember the promises that were made that it would never be a primary offense. It would only be tacked on if you were stopped for something else. Then it swithed like a year later or something.

        Now I watch the fucking local cops sit on the freeway exit ramp a couple times a month racking up revenue for our fair city.

      3. Akira

        I’ve brought this up, and most pro-statists don’t really disagree with the premise that an adult should be able to put themselves (and only themselves) at risk of a violent death. Instead, what they usually say is “well, there’s a public interest in preventing injuries because when someone gets injured or killed in a car crash, Medicaid and other public agencies sometimes end up paying for it!” And then they look at me like I have three heads when I suggest that government programs end up costing people their personal freedom.

        If seatbelts do in fact save lives, then it seems like it might actually be LESS of a burden on “public healthcare” agencies if people stop wearing them. After all, if someone’s dead, they’re not going to cost the system as much money as someone who requires a great deal of emergency room care, at least a few nights in the hospital, and physical therapy that could last several years. I’m not saying it’s better for people to just hurry up and die; I’m just pointing out how that “public safety benefit” argument doesn’t fly even under the stupidest premises.

  35. bacon-magic

    Excuse me while I whip this out. Hey, it worked, didn’t it?

    That’s just bragging right there.

  36. TripodKat

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2760170/Ariana-Grande-said-hoped-fans-f-ing-die.html

    Um… is Ariana Grande a suspect?

    Sorry if this was already linked above, I don’t have time to go through all the comments today.

    1. The Zenome Project

      One would think that Ariana will be a little bit redpilled after this, but considering that she “hated” America just a few years ago I think it’ll probably take more than this, unfortunately.

      1. TripodKat

        I often wonder about this stuff too. How many of these concert-goers will come out of this “red-pilled?”

    2. Stinky Wizzleteats

      Apparently that was said last summer. I don’t care for her because she’s a vapid moron and I’m older than twelve but the Daily Mail is pushing it here.

      1. Pat

        The article’s from 2014.

        1. Stinky Wizzleteats

          Ah, got it. Dates, how the fuck do they work?

        2. TripodKat

          Clearly it was a plot years in the making..

          1. Pat

            She’s been self-radicalizing since then, obviously.

    3. Pat

      “I sure wish all these cunts would stop giving me tens of millions of dollars!”

    4. WTF

      So, a kid who becomes a famous millionaire as a teenager is an insufferable bitch.
      Gee, who could have seen that coming?

      1. UnCivilServant

        If they’re so famous, how come I’ve never heard of them?

        1. Rhywun

          I remember her brother was on Big Brother a few years ago (yeah, I know) and he kept his “famous” sister a secret until he made a big reveal and all the other hamsters were gushing with delight and I was like “who?” A few months later I did start hearing her name by accident here and there but at that time I had literally never heard of her.

      2. AlmightyJB

        I think someone needs to go see Willy Wonka.

        1. These euphemisms…

      3. Akira

        “So, a kid who becomes a famous millionaire as a teenager is an insufferable bitch.”

        Don’t forget to factor in the whole “hot as fuck and getting praised and idolized for it” thing.

    5. I have a hard time crying for anyone who can retire a millionaire at 22, but I also can’t ignore that she’s a product of the Disney machine. Child stars that come out of that seem to be much the worse for wear, albeit stinkin’ rich. I’m just sayin’ that I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s a serious headcase, possibly with an addiction or to, and that’s gotta be worth at least a little bit of sympathy. Then again, she’s an average-attractive midget with an old face, so she should count her lucky stars she’s making this money now while she can, because my bet is that in ten years she’s gonna look like the rough side of an elbow. I mean, for real, she’s gonna look like a Puerto Rican Andy Rooney when she’s 35. Nobody’s gonna be interested in her dick bicycle then.

      1. The Zenome Project

        She actually came from Nickelodeon and not Disney, but I’m sure that the same sort of child abuse happens at that place, as well. How much money they get is not really the point here: often times these kids see money well before they can even understand what that means. Getting that much money early in your life is actually really bad for their mental health IMO, because people befriend you just because you’re rich and they start taking advantage of them.

    6. Evan from Evansville

      She’s the only starlet in the past ten or so years that I’ve really gotten behind. Not on any talent way, duh.

      But. Yeah. That’s like the pinnacle of of my Wooden Would Mountain. I literally almost can’t look at her it sets my brain off so.

      1. The Zenome Project

        Ariana can actually sing well and is mostly in-tune, so in that sense she is talented. The diva bullshit turns me off, though.

        1. Evan from Evansville

          Eh. Yeah. As was said before, been in the Disney Factory since she was 15.

          I shall, as it were, overlook all of that.

          *Insert gif of Scratchy drooling blindly as Itchy shoves scissors into his brain*

  37. The Late P Brooks

    Maybe you should learn how to drive and you wouldn’t need seatbelts so much?

    No shit.

    1. UnCivilServant

      I don’t wear a seatbelt because of my poor driving.

      I wear a seatbelt because of the poor driving of every other bastard on the road.

  38. Mainer

    So Patterson claims he killed her with his dick.
    Respect.

  39. The Late P Brooks

    Curious about Trump’s budget? NYT elucidates:

    The wildly optimistic projections balance Mr. Trump’s budget, at least on paper, even though the proposal makes no changes to Social Security’s retirement program or Medicare, the two largest drivers of the nation’s debt.

    To compensate, the package contains deep cuts in entitlement programs that would hit hardest many of the economically strained voters who propelled the president into office. Over the next decade, it calls for slashing more than $800 billion from Medicaid, the federal health program for the poor, while slicing $192 billion from nutritional assistance and $272 billion over all from welfare programs. And domestic programs outside of military and homeland security whose budgets are determined annually by Congress would also take a hit, their funding falling by $57 billion, or 10.6 percent.

    The plan would cut by more than $72 billion the disability benefits upon which millions of Americans rely. It would eliminate loan programs that subsidize college education for the poor and those who take jobs in government or nonprofit organizations.

    Blood in the streets. Starvation. Pestilence. Anarchy!

    1. Yusef drives a Kia

      A good start?

    2. The Zenome Project

      To compensate, the package contains deep cuts in entitlement programs that would hit hardest many of the economically strained voters who propelled the president into office.

      This is a lie – Trump voters were on average wealthier than Clinton voters. Most are probably getting what they want, but NYT just wants to rile the leftist base, because they CARE about da poorz!

      1. AlmightyJB

        “but NYT just wants to rile the leftist base”

        I’m not sure there is anything they can say that can make them hate Trump any more than they do. It’s all superfluous white noise at this point. Pretty funny actually.

        1. AlmightyJB

          I think other commenters have alluded to the fact that he should go ahead and do whatever he wants right now because they can’t scream any louder or shit their pants any more than they are right now. Just pummel the shit out of them.

          1. robc

            Honestly, I think that is part of his strategy, re: stuff like twitter.

            The outrage of the day covers up when the outrage is actually something to be outraged about.

        2. It’s May and we’ve already hit “Trump is a Russian plant.” How much further can it go?

    3. WTF

      Um, I’m pretty sure most of the people on welfare and food stamps tend to vote Democrat.

      1. The Zenome Project

        Elitist bigots tend to think that rural flyover people = poor people. Often that’s not the case.

      2. Rhywun

        And the NYT is conveniently ignoring the fact that lots of “the poor” would rather have an honest job than sit around on the dole.

    4. R C Dean

      hit hardest many of the economically strained voters who propelled the president into office. Over the next decade, it calls for slashing more than $800 billion from Medicaid, the federal health program for the poor, while slicing $192 billion from nutritional assistance and $272 billion over all from welfare programs.

      I wonder which candidate won the Medicaid and foot stamps demographic? Seriously, I’d like to see some data. Don’t suppose the NYT provides any, do they?

      1. UnCivilServant

        I think “Didn’t vote” won that demographic by an overwhelming majority.

        For some reason, “Didn’t vote” gets a lot of people, but never gets into office. I smell a rigged election.

        1. commodious spittoon
        2. The Zenome Project

          “Didn’t vote” always wins no matter who’s running. The beauty of non-mandatory elections.

          1. Rhywun

            Sometimes I wonder if Australia has the right idea about mandatory elections… yeah, yeah it’s authoritarian as hell but I am truly curious what the results might be. Would it lead toward or away from more freedom?

          2. commodious spittoon

            “Votey McVoteface” wins by a landslide.

          3. kbolino

            If Australia is any indication, it’s a wash at best and a net loss for freedom at worst.

  40. The Late P Brooks

    “We’re not going to measure our success by how much money we spend, but by how many people we actually help,” Mr. Mulvaney said as he outlined the proposal at the White House on Monday before its formal presentation on Tuesday to Congress.

    CRAZY TALK.

    1. WHY DO YOU HATE THE POOR???

  41. wchipperdove

    I love how this site is mostly comments. It’s like opening a pack of baseball cards and getting all rookies. Or a box of Lucky Charms and it’s 95% marshmallows.

    1. The Zenome Project

      It’s what Reason would’ve been if it was ran by the commentariat instead of the cocktail brigade. Everything that the readers want, nothing that they don’t.

    2. bacon-magic

      There are other sites. Have fun. There’s one site where only 4 people comment over and over and over and over and over and over.

      1. Raven Nation

        Fist is still there. And some from here are two-timing.

    3. Old Man With Candy

      Why do you hate marshmallows?

    4. commodious spittoon

      like opening a pack of baseball cards and getting all rookies

      I can’t tell whether that’s a bad thing or good.

      1. TripodKat

        Rookies always have potential. I’m taking this as a good thing.

        1. robc

          Rookie cards are valuable (well, I don’t know if that is true anymore) if the player excels, worthless if he doesn’t.

          For all I know, the market for baseball cards has cratered in the last 20 years.

    5. As a child, I never finished a box of Lucky Charms. We just replaced the old box of stale cereal bits with a new one that still had marshmallows in it.

      1. commodious spittoon

        I hated Lucky Charms. The marshmallows were chalky until they hit milk, then slimy. Raisin Bran, now… or Chex. Or Cracklin’ Oats.

        1. Tundra

          Cap’n Crunch was my go-to in college. I liked how it sandblasted the top of your mouth. Really took your mind off the hangover

          1. Rhywun

            Honey-Nut Cheerios is my go-to but I hardly eat any cereal any more.

          2. straffinrun

            My mom insisted on buy us that Nabisco wheat thing that looked like scarecrow stuffing. Coated that bugger in sugar.

          3. Mike Schmidt

            I give Fruity Pebbles the nod over Crunch Berries, but just barely.

          4. Rhywun

            Fruity Pebbles

            Oh God those are like crack.

          5. This is gonna sound weird, but my favorite way to eat Fruity Pebbles has always been to put just enough milk in to get cover, and then wait about ten minutes so they get mostly soggy. It’s like eating Fruity Pebble grits.

          6. AlexinCT

            Fruity Pebbles was good stuff. I also like Apple jacks despite the lack of anything related to apples.

        2. Chipwooder

          I agree. Never liked any marshmallow cereal.

          My faves were Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Apple Jacks, Raisin Nut Bran, and Corn Chex. Only corn, though – hated Rice Chex.

    6. Mike Schmidt

      Are you saying we are all young looking and sweet?

      Awwwww! You say the nicest things!

    7. Slammer

      I still remeber the Rusty Kuntz baseball card

      1. AlexinCT

        What’s the difference between a bunch of jogging blondes and tribe of African pigmees?

  42. The Late P Brooks

    a box of Lucky Charms and it’s 95% marshmallows.

    That’s good, right?

    Or re you just another Bleeding Heart Libertarian like our pal Robert the other day who came and registered just to give us a stern tut-tutting about our lack of social relevance and failure in our duty to promote the glorious ideals of the revolution?

    1. AlmightyJB

      I would consider 95% marshmallows a total score

      1. commodious spittoon

        Incorrect. He’s calling us inedible.

      2. Yusef drives a Kia

        Cap’n Crunch makes “oops” Berry Crunch, all Berry, sweet!

    2. straffinrun

      That was weird. There was a “Robert” at the other site that was rather reasonable. Mostly just asked relevant questions. That new “Robert” had my spidey senses tingling.

      1. Chipwooder

        He definitely set off my Bo-dar.

        1. straffinrun

          I can’t find the thread. When was it? Kind of want to take another look.

          1. Slammer

            That was Saturday.

        1. straffinrun

          Robert on May 19, 2017 at 3:02 pm
          It seems in the case of this article, my timing was just bad. I seem to have jumped on early, when there were only 5 comments; others were being written as I was writing mine. It seemed like a great article to discuss, yet hardly anybody was discussing it. Most of the comments were perfunctory, brief, boring, and off-topic.

          Passive agressive and worthless. Whoever that was, troll description fits.

          1. Mike Schmidt

            I came to post the same quote.

            The next line kind of puts a exclamation point on it:

            Maybe it needed me. Or maybe if I’d just waited a few minutes, it would’ve been better.

          2. Christ, what an asshole.

          3. I wasn’t trolling deliberately, but I see it was worth it because of how your reactions here crack me up! I should take up trolling, if only I could get that effect deliberately. Usually I’ve been a thread killer instead. Like not only does nobody want to discuss the points I bring up, but somehow I bring the entire thread down.

            You can tell this me from that me, in that over there I abbreviate like crazy, due to the characters limit, even when I was well under it. I notice now that I’m posting here I’ve stopped abbreviating in other venues too. It’s a matter of habit.

          4. Not only that, but I’ve a talent for getting kicked off discussion forums, by continually finding new ways to unintentionally offend people. (Venues dominated by women are the easiest to get kicked off.) One weekend about 3 months ago I managed to get kicked off WFMU’s comments twice; station manager Ken Freedman says I now have to limit myself to no more than 3 comments per show, so I’ll think before I post.

          5. Maybe be a little less of an asshole? Your choice.

          6. R C Dean

            Is that a catbutt I see coming this way?

          7. Nah. He ain’t worth it or earned it.

  43. The Late P Brooks

    Story Time

    (and then I should seriously consider doing something productive)

    Yesterday, I was subjected to a series of commentaries by a group of people (people who may yet impel me to drink at the bowling alley). There were a range of topics.

    One topic was an individual who owns and operates a venue for special events like weddings. He apparently has a set of strict rules regarding hours of operation (driven largely by neighbors’ past bitching), afterparty clean-up, et c. This is oppressive and needlessly cruel.

    Another topic was the necessity for operators of trailer parks (see: “housing, affordable”) to engage in a sternly paternalistic activism in the lives and activities of their tenants.

    Can you see where I’m headed? Because these people certainly cannot. They are not all fire-breathing progressives, but they are perfectly willing to operate under the assumption that everybody but *they* require a strong hand on the reins, and a ready whip hand.

    We’re fucked. Freedom is not so highly prized as some of us would like to believe.

    1. KibbledKristen

      operate under the assumption that everybody but *they* require a strong hand on the reins, and a ready whip hand.

      This is my experience with 99% of the population. They are OK and can handle own lives, but nobody else is. It’s very paternalistic, and it’s also instinctual, so I’m not sure there’s any way to overcome it. I was talking to the guy I train dogs with and talked about the principle of self-ownership. He agreed with me in principle (about weed, etc.), but could not overcome his overwhelming desire to monitor & control others’ behavior.

      1. spqr2008

        My mom is exactly this way. She literally wrote on Facebook the other day the she actually feels guilty that we moved before I entered 2nd grade to a better school district with less single parent families and a lot more parental volunteerism (she was one of the very few moms who would do anything for the class in the first school), not to mention much better academics. I posted that she should support school choice if she feels guilty over that, since it allows those kids of single parents greater opportunity in better school situations, and she just kept trying to imply those folks don’t know what is best for their kids. Yes, a parent may make mistakes if given a choice, but at least a portion of those children will become more successful because they are given a better opportunity at a better school.

        1. straffinrun

          Damn, I left an entire country to get away from those problems and I don’t feel guilty at all.

      2. commodious spittoon

        They need a Total Perspective Vortex to give them some idea of just how goddamn many people are out there. Sure, you hear about a couple thousand murders a year, or overdoses, DUIs, accidental handgun discharges, people diving into gator-infested waters or messing around with venomous snakes, getting trapped in foyers because they’re pushing the pull door, unable to manage snowy driving conditions, knocking up their teenage girlfriends, eating tainted egg salad at a family gathering, getting into fistfights over sports teams, tossing fast food wrappers on the ground when the trashcan is right there, extemporizing at length on an internet forum to make a point… point is, there are millions of dumb ways to screw up multiplied by hundreds of millions of people in our country. And we get by easily enough. Hell, we have such an easygoing lifestyle that real tragedies like murder are exceedingly rare, and the little tragedies of indolence like heart disease are far more representative. I’d call that a win for anarchy.

        1. Evan from Evansville

          Trapped in foyers?

          Tsk tsk. Too soon.

      3. Holger-da-Dane

        I have this conversation with people all the time, particularly with the kind of people who are very vocal about wanting to help others. It turns out they want to control, more than help, and that they think their own way of life is so superior that everyone else should be forced to live in the same way.

        If they have a modicum of empathy, you can sometimes reach them by turning the tables and make them realize how selfish and patronizing it is to assume others are incompetent at living their own lives, or that they shouldn’t be free to make mistakes.

    2. WTF

      There’s a reason people never say “well, it’s a free country” anymore.

  44. KibbledKristen

    Looks like Manchester was a suicide bomber. Perp is smart to have killed himself in the bombing, because killing a bunch of children…I think his death at the hands of the victims’ friends and family would have been extremely painful.

    1. WTF

      They don’t have the death penalty in England. He would have been released in 15-20 years.

      1. KibbledKristen

        I’m talking about on the scene.

        1. R C Dean

          Well, the locals didn’t do shit about a years-long child rape operation in England, so I wouldn’t be so sure about their reaction to this.

          Seriously, I cannot comprehend a community where child predators assault literally dozens of children over years, even prostituting them to their buddies, and none of the perps wind up dead or beaten severely by fathers, brothers, hell, anyone.

          1. F. Stupidity Jr.

            But you know what a little vigilante justice would have wrought, no? “Oh, those poor Muslims, getting beaten and killed by racists!” The sentences for the vigilantes would have been YUGE. And the British intelligentsia would have informed their audiences about the nuances of young brides in Muslim countries, how Western standards of age of consent are too restrictive and ahistoric, and how all of this is a tempest in a teapot because RACISM.

          2. thrakkorzog

            If we’re talking the UK in general, there was also that one cabbie in Glasgow who tore a tendon from kicking a terrorist’s balls too hard. And it’s not like Manchester has a rep for being too nice.

          3. WTF

            Yeah, but that was a crazy Scot in Glasgow.

          4. As an American with very limited anecdotal experience of British culture, it seems like they’re wired to be a little more passive over there. Like they’re more likely to see a problem and look to the government for help, or at least to institutions of some kind, rather than do something about it themselves.

        2. John Titor

          If you’re a good bomber you’re already at least four blocks away by the time it goes off.

  45. The Late P Brooks

    That new “Robert” had my spidey senses tingling.

    No kidding. I tend not to be free with the “TULPA!” card, but that had a very familiar foul odor.

    Swiss- I can’t remember what day it was, but I think it was a fairly recent morning linx.

  46. The Late P Brooks

    And the NYT is conveniently ignoring the fact that lots of “the poor” would rather have an honest job than sit around on the dole.

    I believe the NYT has run several head-scratchers about “Why don’t more of the eligible “poor” jump on the gravy train?”

    1. UnCivilServant

      One thing that set my family apart from our neighbors was the fact that we regarded taking welfare as something a person should be ashamed of, and didn’t do it.

      I think what I’m saying is – buy my books, I want to stop taking tax dollars.

      1. Rhywun

        My mom DID take welfare for awhile – divorced my deadbeat father and moved her four kids back east to live with her mom – but she got us off it eventually. By the time a couple older brothers had moved out (I am the youngest) and I was in high school, she had a good job and a good man. There were some rocky times in between though, hoo boy.

        1. AlexinCT

          The problem is the people that think the system is there so they DON’T have to get their shit together and get off it. I suspect that is by design though, as the system is replete with perverse incentives that reward those that make the wrong choices and punishes those just momentarily stuck in a bad place.

      2. Lachowsky

        My younger cousin got pregnant in highschool. She took the welfare benefits (free child care, food stamps, tuition, etc) She went to school for a few years, got certified to do speech therapy, and started working. As soon as she started making it on her own, she got off the benefits. I think she was on the government dole for 2 or 3 years. She is happily married now to an HA tech and just had her second kid. I’m no proponent of the welfare system, but if we are going to have one, this is how it should work.

        1. UnCivilServant

          The incentives are definately not geared towards getting people to get off.

          1. KibbledKristen

            Incentivizing getting off benefits defeats the purpose of the benefits. Control over the very lives and livelihoods of millions of people.

          2. WTF

            Having a big constituency of government dependents guarantees lots of votes for the party of government dependency.

          3. AlexinCT

            ^^^^^^SOOOO much this^^^^^^^

            Today’s welfare state is riddled with perverse incentives that are destructive, is not created for people that need a helping hand at the beginning or when things go wrong, but instead is there to help one party keep the serfs on the plantation and voting for them to keep that gravy train going.

        2. Pope Jimbo

          If everyone was like you cousin, the safety net/welfare system would be tolerable.

          Look at the grief Jesse Ventura got when a single mom yelled at him because he wasn’t giving her more money to got to college.

          During a protest rally in which Minnesota students decried the fact that the governor’s education budget didn’t reduce tuition, Ventura got into an ugly verbal skirmish with a single mother. According to newspaper accounts, Ventura argued that there were ways to earn money for college other than handouts from the government, mentioning his four years as a Navy SEAL and his time at North Hennepin Community College on the GI Bill.

          “What about single parents?” yelled a woman.

          “I don’t want to sound hard-core,” Ventura responded, “but why did you become a single parent? Is it government’s job to make up for someone’s mistakes?”

          The inability for people to admit they fucked up and are grateful for help is a huge problem.

          1. Pope Jimbo

            Sorry forgot the link to the “gaffes” of Jesse Ventura. TW: Salon. I wouldn’t even characterize most of them as actual gaffes myself.

            http://www.salon.com/1999/05/07/gaffes/

          2. WTF

            In politics, speaking the raw unvarnished truth is a gaffe.

          3. AlexinCT

            When the stigma was removed people felt they could demand whatever they wanted and make others pay for it…

      3. Bob

        My mom had welfare but looking back it wasn’t necessary. Her parents were professionals and had a big empty house. She could have moved in to finish her degree and me and my brother probably would have had a better school, and maybe not been so delinquent. Maybe we would have, but I think the point remains welfare is often uses as an option, not just the only option and possibly not the best option.

  47. R C Dean

    Suthen:

    I gave my machete a good workout over the weekend (no euphemism), and it needs some work (damn rocks). You posted a how-to not too long ago on sharpening these things. Could you repost or link to it? Thanks.

    1. commodious spittoon

      Do you even angle grinder, bro

  48. The Late P Brooks

    You posted a how-to not too long ago on sharpening these things.

    I had a fleeting interest in real old-timey scythes (before I came to my senses and just bought a Husqvarna weed eater) and there is bunch of stuff out there about hammer-sharpening blades. Would that be similar?

    1. R C Dean

      Nah, it was a good paragraph on how to use a file and stone. Which is what I need. Angle grinders are bad for blades, I’ve been told, because they put a concave edge on them on account of the grinding wheel is round. They make belt grinders which can put a proper edge on a blade, but I don’t have a machine shop.

      1. commodious spittoon

        If it works for lawnmower blades, it works for anything.

        /thisiswhyican’thavenicethings

      2. Holger-da-Dane

        Blades are made harder by heat treating them. Heating them back up could reverse this if you accidentally go above a certain temperature, ruining the blade so it will never hold an edge again.

        Anything that spins fast against metal, like an angle grinder will heat it up.

        1. coax

          That’s where you bust out the garden hose for cooling. Or just rub it on a brick or concrete.

          1. Private Chipperbot

            These euphemisms.

  49. Ken Shultz

    “At least 22 deaths and scores of injuries after a suicide bomber terrorist attacked an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England.”

    Robby blames the conceptual penis.

    1. ZARDOZ

      ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS CHOSEN ONES.

      THE PENIS IS EVIL, THE GUN IS GOOD.

      1. The Elite Elite

        Don’t you have a delivery to make?

  50. If you just judged by this article, you’d think the Washington Post was anti-socialist.

    ““It’s not only the nationalization of land,” said Carlos Machado, an expert on Venezuelan agriculture. “The government has made the decision to be the producer, processor and distributor, so the entire chain of food production suffers from an inefficient agricultural bureaucracy.””

    1. KibbledKristen

      The government has made the decision to be the producer, processor and distributor, so the entire chain of food production suffers from an inefficient agricultural bureaucracy

      Isn’t that literally what Chavez was selling when the people elected him? He thought he could do better than Pol Pot?

      1. He thought he could do better than Pol Pot?

        Not even close! Pol Pot killed 1/6th of his populace!

        Oh, wait…

        1. AlexinCT

          Pol Pot killed 1/3 of his populace Swiss. Cambodia had 6 million people when he took power, and when he finally took a dirt nap, that number was a cunt hair above 4 million.

          That guy sure knew how to make fertilizer, and he went after the intellectuals first.

  51. commodious spittoon

    SHAME ON IVANKA AND IVANA FOR DISGRACING AMERICA BY REFUSING THE HEADKERCHIEF WHILE VISITING SAUDI ARABIA.

    OTOH, [t]he former First Lady looked especially glamorous as she stepped out in a flirty shoulder-baring top, paired with a high-waisted khaki-colored pants while visiting the Siena Cathedral in Tuscany.

    1. Rhywun

      She thicc.

      1. R C Dean

        That is not a flattering look on her.

    2. The Last American Hero

      I’ve never understood why on earth American diplomats/officials would cover their heads like that. Fuck that, we are the king-shit most powerful country on Earth and House of Saud needs us far more than we need them. We should bow to nobody over their and quite frankly, Ivanka should drive to the meetings in her own convertible wearing a tank top and mini-skirt. Rub these rubes noses in it.

      1. Pope Jimbo

        I’d rather she rub her pubes in their noses.

        1. AlexinCT

          My nose!

    3. Stinky Wizzleteats

      Is the shame on Melania stuff really an angle you’ve seen pushed?

      1. commodious spittoon

        There was some grumbling from the usual corners, for the usual reasons having little to do with headscarves. Ivana/Ivanka = Trump = terrible, awful, no good people.

        It’s a stupid obsession in either case, both the slavish infatuation for Democrat first ladies and the undisguised contempt for Republican first ladies.

        1. coax

          I see no problem in infatuation with Slavs here.

          1. Chipwooder

            Especially young Ukrainian women.

      2. I’ve seen a lot of “Trump is a hypocrite!” And he may very well be, because apparently he gave Michelle the business for not wearing a head scarf. Or he may have suddenly realized that just because your wife is a trophy doesn’t mean she’s not a wife, and if she doesn’t want to wear a scarf, it’s best to just shut up and let her do her.

  52. Stinky Wizzleteats

    CNN going with Brennan testimony instead of the London bombing. The Dems are practically sucking the guy’s dick…it’s disturbing.

  53. Vhyrus

    Tuesday TDS, courtesy of the New York Slimes:

    When the World is Led by a Child

    Yes, actually the title of the article.

    1. The Zenome Project

      If you’re going to NeverTrump, do it like Ben Shapiro and actually take the time to research your target. Of course, being the NYT, it’s easier to not research and just resort to character assassinations instead.

  54. commodious spittoon

    Jewel Topsfield
    @JewelTopsfield

    Caning of woman postponed after 9 lashes to check medical condition. Guilty of kissing & cuddling outside marriage

    (((Susan)))
    @shoshido

    Where all my woke #HandmaidsTale feminists at???

  55. The Late P Brooks

    Ivanka should drive to the meetings in her own convertible wearing a tank top and mini-skirt.

    Nice.

  56. Raston Bot

    http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/california-professor-bans-college-republicans-from-womens-history-month-events/article/2623472

    The Orange Coast Republicans Club have filed a formal complaint against Orange Coast College professor Jessica Ayo Alabi for preventing Republican students from attending public events on campus. According to the club, three of its members were shut out of the African-American/Women’s round table discussion in the Multicultural Center hosted for Women’s History Month in March of 2017.

    The professor admitted to blocking the OC Repubs in an email to the college president: “If the college will not stand up to the Republicans club, I have decided to stand up for myself and other students.”

    …next link is even more typical…

    1. commodious spittoon

      the OC Repubs

      Don’t call it that.

      1. Raston Bot

        okay, Walter, what is the preferred nomenclature?

        1. R C Dean

          OG Repubs, yo.

    2. Raston Bot

      http://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/news/tn-dpt-me-occ-protest-20170522-story.html

      Various student groups, including the Feminism and Sociology Club, held signs and chanted “We pay tuition to this place, get them up out of our face” and “Hey hey, ho ho, admin neutrality has got to go.”

      neutrality has got to go. i’m going to remember that.

      maybe it was a public event, maybe not…

      OCC spokesman Juan Gutierrez​ initially said last week that the round table was a public event. The next day he corrected himself, saying it was not. Gutierrez said Monday that the college is investigating the matter and is “fact finding.”

      1. Vhyrus

        Everybody is okay with a vindictive authority as long as the boot is on the other guy’s neck.

      2. WTF

        he college is investigating the matter and is “fact finding.”

        The college is dicking around and doing nothing until it blows over.

      3. Chipwooder

        These people really, really don’t think their ideas out through their logical conclusions.

        1. WTF

          That’s because “logic” is Western patriarchal oppression, shitlord!

      4. antisthenes

        What makes a good man go neutral? Lust for gold? Power? Or were you just born with a heart full of neutrality?

      5. R C Dean

        We pay tuition to this place,

        So do they.

    3. Rasilio

      It couldn’t have been her, she has an alibi

    1. Vhyrus

      Oh, but don’t you know how bad women in America have it? I mean, a woman walked around New York for 8 hours in a tight top and yoga pants and men SAID THINGS TO HER! #PATRIARCHY!

      1. WTF

        Actually, only minority men in the hood actually had anything to say to her.

      1. Raston Bot

        this is the state of academia.

        1. AlexinCT

          Credentialed idiots, given said credentials by other credentialed idiots of like mind and suffering from the same mental disorder, run these circuses these days. I can’t wait until they demand that teaching engineering and medicine become PC and people start dying because of the idiots coming out of that nutness mill.

      2. Holger-da-Dane

        Molon Labe

  57. Diane Reynolds

    So I just heard the Brits arrested Nigel Putley of #13 Dorchester Lane, Shoreditch just off the A3 in this bombing attack.

    1. Mike Schmidt

      Apparently he doesn’t know how not to be seen.

      1. WTF

        And if young Nigel says he’s happy
        He must be happy
        He must be happy in his work

      2. WTF

        I always liked XTC.

  58. Raston Bot

    https://www.thecollegefix.com/post/32734/

    the correct response to some censorious scold cornering you at the gym is to move to an open space and do cleans without first informing he/she you’re going to wrench the weight off the ground violently into the air.

    ear buds and music probably work pretty well too.

    1. Vhyrus

      You know how to tell when you’re doing it wrong? When someone like me has sympathy for an actual nazi. THAT’S when you’re doing it wrong.

      1. Raston Bot

        i’m nearly convinced he’s another Milo. a professional troll earning money triggering the perpetually aggrieved.

        1. Vhyrus

          I’m pretty sure Spencer is the real deal, although he seems like the kind of guy I could at least speak to, which is more than I can say about the SJW crowd.

        2. John Titor

          Meh, Spencer’s been around longer than he’s been in the spotlight. I think it’s fair to say he’s a true believer when he wrote on obscure blogs for years before Clinton threw the alt-right onto the stage.

          1. The Zenome Project

            He’s also well-dressed and non-violent unlike the radical leftists and antifa. That probably scares the MSM more, actually, because he’s “NORMALIZING RACISM!”

          2. Vhyrus

            This is the sad part: If your claim is that your opponents are all screeching, violent knuckledraggers, and in response you get a lot of screeching and violence directed at you, aren’t you proven right?

          3. Bobarian LMD

            No it just proves that you are a racist for making reasoned claims.

      2. Dude, last night I read about this and thought, “Well, that guy’s definitely a dick, and the gym has a right to boot him if they want, but who the fuck is this bitch to just lose her shit at people she doesn’t like as they mind their own business?” I’m sure there are more than a few people that woman pisses off, but I’m sure that if they had screaming meltdowns at her in public places she’d have a restraining order on them quick as shit.

        1. Also, in Bill’s Fantasy Fairytale Land, other members of the gym of all ethnic backgrounds cancel their memberships in protest.

          1. Tundra

            That would require principles over principals.

            I’m not hopeful.

          2. tarran

            Also, in Bill’s Fantasy Fairytale Land, other members of the gym of all ethnic backgrounds cancel their memberships in protest.

            Sadly, that’s not how human societies work. Go outside the overton window, and the other primates see you as a threat to the band’s survival rather than as marginally OK to have around.

            And no doubt when reading,

            First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
            Because I was not a Socialist.

            Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
            Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

            Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
            Because I was not a Jew.

            Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

            She doesn’t understand that the guy uttering those words didn’t like jews, didn’t like trade unionists and didn’t like socialists.

          3. I mean, you’re right, but a guy can dream.

  59. The Late P Brooks

    “If the college will not stand up to the Republicans club, I have decided to stand up for myself and other students.”

    IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

  60. Raston Bot

    and one to grow on: https://www.thecollegefix.com/post/32754/

    Lawrence University will not recognize a student group that promotes free speech a week after the group’s screening of Can We Take a Joke, a comedy documentary, descended into mayhem.

    the heckler’s veto alive and well at Lawrence University.

    Student critics of the documentary at last week’s screening said it was intentionally “triggering” and offensive. The school said it’s reviewing several bias incident reports that were related to the screening.

    During the council meeting’s open forum Monday, junior Sabrina Conteh said that Free Thought co-founder Wand allegedly told her at last week’s screening: “If you don’t shut up I will have to call campus security.”

    She wrote a letter to the editor in The Lawrentian Friday calling Students for Free Thought “white terrorists on training wheels,” apparently because in her view, they didn’t warn the audience about the film’s content.

    “Last night, I went to a sloppy white supremacist propaganda screening veiled as a forum for ‘free speech and logical thought,’” wrote Conteh, who came to Lawrence from the prestigious Georgetown Day High School in Washington, D.C. “As it was advertised, it became immediately clear that this was a hotbed for rape jokes, racial and gender slurs.”

    i haven’t watched the documentary. is it really a hotbed for rape jokes, racial and gender slurs? b/c that sounds like a Louis CK routine.

    1. Vhyrus

      If you have to get permission to peaceably assemble, I got bad news for you.

    2. Chipwooder

      The film promotes “white nationalist rhetoric” because it tells “black and brown bodies and [sic] that our lives don’t matter,” she wrote.

      There’s that “bodies” shit again.

      1. Rhywun

        No idea about this documentary, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen lots of comedy routines specifically targeting “white bodies”.

      2. Holger-da-Dane

        Only people who deny individual agency would refer to others as “bodies”.

      3. Raston Bot

        I prefer the term “meat popsicle” as used by Corbin Dallas in Fifth Element

    3. Juvenile Bluster

      The documentary is related to FIRE. Ironically, it’s about how oversensitive to everything people on college campuses are.

    4. Juvenile Bluster

      Here’s the trailer for the documentary. It’s pretty good.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI9emLcjMOk

    5. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Along those lines

      The official Star Wars Twitter account pushed out a tweet early on May 22 to share a little-known factoid about C-3PO. As with everything the account posts, the tweet quickly went viral, earning a massive number of retweets and favorites within the span of minutes.

      “Upon seeing Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber, C-3PO’s programing mandates he request to close down so he won’t divulge any of his former master’s secrets,” read the caption, which was taken from the official Star Wars Galactic Guide. The Twitter account humorously captioned the picture “Triggered.”

      You can probably guess the response from the perpetually aggrieved

    6. R C Dean

      Free Thought co-founder Wand allegedly told her at last week’s screening: “If you don’t shut up I will have to call campus security.”

      Optics are not good, but its a perfectly valid response to someone attempting the heckler’s veto.

      And I find the “bodies” trope when talking about POCs to be astonishingly objectifying and dehumanizing. So of course its a fave of the proggies and SJWs.

      1. Holger-da-Dane

        One might even call it “othering”.

  61. Slammer

    Good thing the UK cops and citizens are monitoring one another for hatred today:

    https://mobile.twitter.com/KTHopkins/status/867046170878672896/photo/1

    1. Vhyrus

      Good job, Met. You let a goat fucker blow up 20 children last night, but AT LEAST NO TWITTER HATE SPEECH ON YOUR WATCH, MATE!

      Hopefully V for Vendetta was a documentary.

      1. Drake

        Wow! I don’t typically throw around the “cuck” word, but damn, DarrenB. What pathetic snitch wimp. No wonder European women want to import Muslim males.

        1. DarrenB needs a curb party, desperately.

    2. FreeSociety

      There should be no doubt that western governments are working very hard to destroy their own people.

    3. Raston Bot

      someday our country will be enlightened enough to enjoy the rest of the world’s speech laws.

    4. What in the actual fuck?

      When’s the next English civil war? Soonish, I’d think, if the DarrenB’s of the world keep that shit up.

    5. thrakkorzog

      What’s the English version of “Snitches get stitches?”

        1. Can’t decide between “using the nanny-state as a weapon” or “genuinely lacking any sense of agency or personal responsibility”. Of course, both could certainly apply.

    6. Holger-da-Dane

      Ironically the left thinks 1984 was written about a right-wing society run amok.

  62. Fatty Bolger

    CNN: But for months, media outlets have floated unproven theories that President Trump and the Russian government colluded to provide Wikileaks with thousands of internal DNC emails, and suggested HIllary Clinton’s defeat was due to this leak. No real evidence has been provided to support such claims.

    Finally they’re making some sense. OH WAIT, silly me, I got that wrong, they were actually talking about the Seth Rich theories. Ooops.

    CNN: But for months, right-wing media outlets have floated unproven theories that Rich was the person who provided Wikileaks with thousands of internal DNC emails, and suggested his death was retribution for the supposed leak. No real evidence has been provided to support such claims.

    1. Vhyrus

      There is more evidence to support a Seth Rich cover up then there is to support Trump collusion with Russia.

  63. Juvenile Bluster

    2 hours later, Cosmo still hasn’t corrected this

    Stick to terrible sex advice, people.

    1. thrakkorzog

      Cosmo SF’d a link?

    2. R C Dean

      “That page does not exist”.

      1. Fatty Bolger

        It worked when I looked earlier. They must have finally deleted it.

      2. Juvenile Bluster

        Looks like they finally deleted it. Here’s a screenshot

        1. R C Dean

          I love that the t-shirt that says “Deadly Denim Firetrap”. Not a good look after a bombing, you know?

        2. It’s funny, because in the picture it’s as if the guy is giving a pointed look at Cosmo, as if to say, “Muslim? Come on, Cosmo. You can do better.”

    3. Oh, wow, they took it down. About time.

    4. Chipwooder

      I’m fucking triggered as hell by Cosmo confusing Sikhs with Muslims. So un-woke!

      1. Holger-da-Dane

        #NotAllSikhs

  64. Chipwooder

    The Puritans can put another notch on their belts – a kid in Chicago taped himself having sex with his girlfriend. Showed the tape (which apparently was so dark it was really just audio) to some friends. The school administration finds out, brings in cops to threaten him with child pornography charges……and the kid throws himself off a roof.

    The most infuriating part is when cops and school officials protest that, gee, they weren’t really going to have him charged. They were just trying to scare him straight!

    1. Chipwooder

      dammit! SFed the link

      1. Tundra

        Maybe the fucking terrorists have won.

        Awful story.

    2. Juvenile Bluster

      Jesus Christ.

      And of course the government says they did nothing wrong. Not even any goddamn self reflection.

      I wish pain on the school administrators and officers involved and every soulless spokeshole quoted therein.

      1. Pope Jimbo

        You would think that if you had fucked up so badly that you would quit your job and spend the rest of your life trying to atone. But not these assholes.

        Fuck, I have no idea how those parents go on. I sit here and think of something like that happening to one of my kids and I am sick to my stomach.

    3. Vhyrus

      The saddest thing is that had he not thrown himself off a parking garage you could very well be reading “TEEN SEX OFFENDER ARRESTED AT LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL!”

    4. Vhyrus

      Also, whichever one of his ‘friends’ told school officials about this needs a fucking good kicking.

      1. R C Dean

        $5 says it was an ex girlfriend.

        1. Tundra

          Maybe, but these little fuckers have been Stasi-trained since preschool.

        2. Pope Jimbo

          The article made it seem like it was the girl who was “mortified” that he had shared it with his buddies.

          What is the over/under on her jumping off a bridge too? The article seemed like she was embarrassed and just wanted a bit of help. She didn’t seem vindictive and wanted the kid to kill himself.

          1. Vhyrus

            Welp that’ll learn her good about trusting authority.

          2. Chipwooder

            I can believe she was mortified. Hell, what he did was pretty shitty. I can understand if she was upset, and if she were my daughter I’d want the little bastard to be punished. However, there’s a huge gulf between that and wanting his life destroyed by kiddie porn charges. There is a perfectly applicable law in this case that forbids the filming without consent. Had he been charged with that, then I wouldn’t be outraged, and I seriously doubt the kid would be dead right now. The particular stigma of a sex conviction and being on that registry is so massive.

    5. “allegedly threatened that he’d be put on the state’s sex offender registry”

      I’m not the Puritans’ biggest fan, but they’d put in the stocks maybe for a few hours, not for the rest of your life.

    6. Stinky Wizzleteats

      Ugh… the comments over there make me want throw myself off a parking garage (just a joke). People really are shit.

    7. Raston Bot

      teaching your kid to STFU and NEVER!!!! listen to authority is my takeaway here. anyone else?

      1. Chipwooder

        That, and don’t fucking tape or photograph yourself nude and/or having sex. Nothing good is going to come from that.

        1. Excellent idea – though I wonder why the legislature wanted to put juvenile offenders on a lifetime watchlist like they were Raincoat Sam the Pervert Man.

          Do juvenile *burglars* have to be on a lifetime list?

          1. Chipwooder

            I honestly don’t know. There are unjust laws out there that I oppose that I can nevertheless see the logic of its supporters, though I don’t agree with it.

            This? I have no idea how any functioning human being thinks it’s reasonable to brand a minor as a sexual offender for the rest of his life because he taped himself having sex, or because his girlfriend sent him a nude selfie.

          2. Rasilio

            Because if Charlie the molested gets his hands on the tape he might get off on watching it thereby encouraging more teens to tape themselves or some shit.

            Yeah there is no logic to it whatsoever it is one of the ultimate “we have to do something and this is something so we have no choice but to do this” situation.

          3. Raston Bot

            during my childhood, it was Chester the Molester.

          4. Old Man With Candy

            Don’t get personal.

          5. Vhyrus

            Not even adult burglars have to be on a list. I did something stupid at 19 that was plead down to a high level misdemeanor which is now expunged.

    8. Raston Bot

      WTF?

      Corey’s parents continue to struggle with their son’s death and the circumstances surrounding it. Several weeks ago, Edward Hospital notified them that 19 employees from the hospital and its affiliates had accessed Corey’s medical records after his death without authorization, an unsettling invasion that reflects the widespread curiosity about his suicide and compounded the family’s grief.

      1. R C Dean

        Several weeks ago, Edward Hospital notified them that 19 employees from the hospital and its affiliates had accessed Corey’s medical records after his death without authorization, an unsettling invasion that reflects the widespread curiosity about his suicide and compounded the family’s grief.

        At my hospital, that sentence would be followed by this one: “All 19 employees were terminated immediately.” Because I have done exactly that when hospital staff looks at records out of this kind of publicity-driven curiosity.

        1. Raston Bot

          glad there’s some accountability left somewhere. obviously not at Edward Hospital. no mention of HIPAA in the article.

  65. Slammer

    What’s the Glib record for number of comments?

    1. SugarFree

      740

      1. Tundra

        Book thread?

        Or immigration?

    2. Ryan

      I was just thinking that. Whelp, I’ve done my part.

    3. Chipwooder

      Oh, we’re smashing that motherfucker today.

      1. Slammer

        We still have 50ms til the evening links

  66. Vhyrus

    TIE BREAKER! WOOT!

  67. Worker and Parasite

    TIL: It’s completely libertarian to have the government deport every citizen of a certain religion.

    1. Chipwooder

      Sounds fair.

    2. antisthenes

      They could take the minimal step of deporting those citizens (and especially noncitizens) who display allegiance to an enemy state with which we are de facto at war. They can treat its saboteurs, spies, and propagandists as appropriate for wartime. It might relieve the increasing pressure to take a less defensible and broader action.

    3. thrakkorzog

      To be fair, If there was a ballot initiative to outlaw Californians from moving into my state I’d probably support it, or at least be really conflicted about it.

      1. coax

        If they don’t secede, is there some mechanism for kicking them out of the union?

    4. Where?

      I mean, where did you learn that, not where would you deport them, although that’s also a good question.

  68. Chipwooder

    Today at Hn’R – Shikha Dalmia plays her biggest hits!

    1. Vhyrus

      Can we call her Shreekha from now on?

      1. R C Dean

        “Ignoring her completely” is working pretty well for me.

    2. thrakkorzog

      The ‘Trump is making Indian nationalists dislike Muslims’ article is still peak Dalmia.

      1. Chipwooder

        I can’t argue with that.

        1. Private Chipperbot

          I’ll argue that enforcing immigration laws = fugitive slave act was peak.

      2. John Titor

        No, I still say peak Dalmia is when she went after Bobby Jindal for daring to identity as an American rather than an Indian American and being Christian. That remains the glowing example of her scumbaggery and collectivism.

    3. Lachowsky

      Damn, that may be the stupidest shiva article I have ever read, and that’s a high bar to clear.

    4. Old Man With Candy

      She has forced me to approve of suttee.

      1. __Warren__

        What’s a tiny piece furniture got to do with anything?

      2. Lachowsky

        That’s one of those (((words))) I don’t understand.

    5. Raston Bot

      I miss Shack and ENB. Dalmia not so much.

      1. Chipwooder

        I don’t get the soft spot a lot of you have for ENB. She’s Weigel in drag, probably only a couple of years away from writing totally woke articles for HuffPo.

        1. Tundra

          Libertarians get weak-kneed around chicks.

          1. Chipwooder

            “The goals of social justice are noble” – Elizabeth Nolan Brown.

            Hey, maybe she can write articles in tandem with her pal Jill Filipovic, whose writing she praised so effusively.

        2. R C Dean

          ENB gave the impression, at times, that even though she was from a proggy place, she was moving toward a more libertarian place. At times.

          1. Chipwooder

            She is fine on some issues, not so much on others. The general tone of her pieces, however, usually gave the impression of someone whose defense of libertarian principles was fairly reluctant.

        3. John Titor

          She can be ‘woke as fuck’ sometimes (i.e. your quote is a good example), but at least her articles tend to be well researched and thought out. I mean, low bar, but it’s a lot better than Soave’s clickbait, Richman’s rants or Dalmia’s outright delusions.

          1. Holger-da-Dane

            Alliteration fail.

          2. John Titor

            Soave’s…slop?

          3. Holger-da-Dane

            Hair gel or…?

        4. Trolleric the Goth

          she wasn’t bad until fairly recently – maybe coinciding with dating someone from progland?

          also she ain’t ugly

          1. Raston Bot

            she’s dating a prog? i haz disappoint

        5. Raston Bot

          she’s hardcore pro-prostitution. i don’t give a shit about the rest of her views.

      2. Holger-da-Dane

        I don’t even recognize half the contributor names over there any more.

        And it looks like TDS and cocktail party invites all the way down.

      3. It’s Tucille and Hinkle for me, the rest I can take or leave. Mostly leave.

        1. Private Chipperbot

          And Loder on Friday mornings.

        2. Chipwooder

          2Chili is the king. Love his work.

          I miss Moynihan big time.

  69. Mustang

    When do we start having our own cocktail parties? I was told that if I left the other site there’d be better parties, with blackjack and…and hookers.

    1. __Warren__

      I only want to play whitejack.

      1. Mustang

        Which you are free to do, I assume.

        I’m only here because I have nothing to add and want to drive up the comment count.

      2. Slammer

        I like the new avatar. Different, but just as creepy

        1. __Warren__

          Readily available if you look in the right place!

      3. Vhyrus

        I’d rather play Jack White.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTH71AAxXmM

  70. R C Dean

    Nice summary of the dangerous insanity infecting our ruling class and their media sycophants. Longish, but there’s a lot of ground to cover.

    1. __Warren__

      Favorited that. Though I disagree that Obama didn’t earn impeachment.

      1. __Warren__

        Also it’s a great summation of why I no longer care about anything the left says on any issue. In the last couple of years I went from being wiling to listen to any point of view to having just had it with the left.

        I never used to block people but now it’s just routine. The moment they come out with some anti-market or anti-gun bullshit they’re gone. The same if they are SJW symps.

        The only value they have is negative. You can go your whole life without interacting with them at not lose a thing. In fact you will be better off.

        They are utterly worthless.

    2. Raston Bot

      that was strong

  71. Slammer

    800

  72. R C Dean

    We’re learning a little more about the latest bomber:

    Born in Manchester in 1994, the second youngest of four children his parents were Libyan refugees who came to the UK to escape the Gaddafi regime.

    His parents were both born in Libya but appear to have emigrated to London before moving to the Fallowfield area of south Manchester where they have lived for at least ten years.

    Another “second generation” terrorist. This phenomenon just baffles me.

    1. John Titor

      Martyrdom appeals to a certain brand of loser.

      1. Holger-da-Dane

        The evil kind?

        1. John Titor

          The kind that’s stupid enough to buy the idea that they get glorified as a martyr and fast-tracked into the nicest part of heaven if they blow themselves up.

      2. FreeSociety

        Zoroastrians? Formosan aborigines? Vegans? Plumbers? I guess we’ll never know for sure.

        1. __Warren__

          Iuz is to blame.

    2. Abedi grew up in the Whalley Range area, just yards from the local girl’s high school, which hit the headlines in 2015 when twins and grade A pupils, Zahra and Salma Halane, who were both aspiring medical students, left their homes and moved to Isil controlled Syria.

      So what’s going on in that community? Seriously, Islam isn’t inherently more or less prone to terrorism than any other religion, but there’s obviously something common to immigrant communities where Islam is the dominant religion that seems to produce this kind of shit.

      “The method of attack is likely to downgrade the likelihood that this was perpetrated by a far-right individual or group, as they have not typically used suicide bombers.”

      Jesus H. Christ. Well thank god they’ve been able to rule out far-right extremists. I’m sure everyone was totally at sea as to that point.

      1. John Titor

        Saudi-funded Wahhabist influence over the past three or four decades is one of the bigger issues. They throw funding a mosques in the West and suddenly the local soft Indian imam is replaced with a firebrand.

      2. R C Dean

        Islam isn’t inherently more or less prone to terrorism than any other religion.

        Uh, I think it kind of is, at that level of generalization. Sure, there are sects that are less explodey, but a terror attack is committed by a Muslim somewhere in the world every few days. Other religions, not even close.

    3. thrakkorzog

      It actually makes a fair amount of sense. I’ve known a few Muslim immigrants whose attitude towards things like Sharia could be summed up as, ‘I came here to get away from that shit.’

      The thing is that their kids try to get in touch with their roots, and go overboard with it. I’ve seen it with Christian and Jewish kids trying to be more religious than thou. Or more woke than thou for the secular types. It’s just that with the Christians and Jews, they just dress up conservatively and get oddly specific about what they eat. With the Muslims, it’s screaming Allahu Akbar while blowing up teenage girls.

      1. Fatty Bolger

        Was just thinking about this phenomenon the other day, and I don’t think it’s limited to religion. A relevant anecdote – I had a friend whose parents immigrated from China. She went full on American, much to the consternation of her parents, who wanted her to fit in, but not go 100% native. But her brother, also born and raised in the US, went in the opposite direction, rejected his identification as American, and even signed up for a year in a Chinese martial arts training camp. His ultimate goal was to move to China permanently.