Obama-Tool and former Clintonista, John Podesta, is all upset that his boss can't ram his crap sandwich down our throats.

"We designed our gov't in such a way as to keep tools like John Podefta in check"
Stuff Jefferson Said
5th Edition (revised).

Posted by: Veeshir at 08:21 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I just watched a story on NBC about Amy Bishop.  Discussed?  Her brother's death.  The pipe bomb issue.  Her husband.  Her kids.

Not discussed?  One damn word that she was an avowed socialist and enormous Obama supporter.

But, you know, if she had a book by Beck that's all you'd hear.

Posted by: alexthechick at 06:40 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Oh Scalzi, you are all the awesome. Everything I need to know about winter I learned from scifi movies.

Personal faves?

1. If it's so cold that your tauntaun wants to stay in, reconsider going out.

2. Also, geeks: When the Super-Winter comes, and everyone else is burning books to stay warm? All that gloating you did about how awesome your Kindle is will finally come back to haunt you

(I'm presuming I don't have to tell anyone reading this crapblog what movie either piece of advice is from)

[also don't even start with the but Scalzi's a liiiiiiiiib crap.  He taped bacon to his cat.  He's Good People.  Also I may possibly love Jane Sagan like burning]

Posted by: alexthechick at 03:18 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Ummm NBC? Michael J. Fox is not dead.

For pity's sake, I knew who Terry Fox was before I became BFF with a Canadian.  He's rather super famous.

I know there's the whole Canada!  It's like a whole other country! thing but this is rather rude.  Is this super important?  Of course not.  But I'm not about to miss a chance to kick NBC about something this obvious.

Posted by: alexthechick at 02:20 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Without further ado, US Olympic ice skater Johnny Weir performing to "Poker Face" by Lady Gaga. Oh, and he is being targeted by EnviroMarxists for unapologetically wearing fur, so I feel obligated to like him despite how ridiculous this is.

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 12:09 PM | Comments (17) | Add Comment
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Probably not. It was like Bill Nye the Science Guy but more fun. Anyway Liza was one of his sidekicks and I remember her as being fairly doable (although I was usually watching drunk in Iceland so doable could be relative).

Anyway turns out she is a big fat lefty so now I can't download copies of Beakman's World for my nieces and nephews.

Posted by: chad98036 at 11:24 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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I found this to be a fairly well balanced article on the student loan debt problem.  I am in basically the same position as the woman in the article, though thankfully not at quite those heights.  I took out debt for law school.  Through a series of things that were not my fault bad life choices, I deferred until I ran out of time.  The principal amount tripled and I'm now making hellishly high payments.  My choices, my consequences and I try not to whine about it too much.  It sucks, it restricts my life choices and I try very hard not to think about how old I'll be before the loans are paid off.

I am somewhat torn about this entire situation.  It is utterly self-serving of me to want there to be student loan reform.  Would I like my interest rates dropped and principal payments lowered and the 20% default fee removed?  Hmmm.  Let me think about that for a minute.  Of course I want that to happen.  But I knew the details of the loans.  I knew the consequences of failure to pay.

I am less than persuaded by those who claim they did not know the details.  Read the fine print, people.  Having said that, the loan process is stunningly opaque.  The schools have a vested interest in getting as many people to take out as many loans as possible.  What does the school care if you can't pay it back?  They got theirs.  Getting answers to questions such as "what will my payments be?" and "how much will I  have to make to not starve in the streets?" are not easy.  So while I don't particularly have sympathy for those who claim they didn't know the terms and didn't know about the default fees, etc., I do think the process can be far more open.

People do not realize that student loans are the one debt that does not go away.  There is no discharge in bankruptcy.  There is no negotiating a lower rate.  There is no bargaining about the amount.  The default fee is usually about 20% or so the then outstanding balance.  Think about that.  A person who has demonstrated that s/he cannot pay is now slapped with another huge principal amount.  Interest then piles up on that as well.  Loan sharks think that's insane. 

What to do?  Again, from a totally self-serving position, I think it should be easier to come up with some type of workout program.  I understand that people who pay on time will be pissed about someone else not paying and then getting a lower rate.  Think about this though.  By the time that point is reached, the outstanding interest will be capitalized and will now be part of the principal.  I think that alleviates some fairness concerns.  There are supposedly limits as to how much can be garnished in order to prevent people from being pushed below the poverty line.  In reality, it is nearly impossible to get any loan servicing agency to correct an error.

I am extremely hesitant to make loans dischargeable in bankruptcy.  Even with the new bankruptcy laws, within 7-10 years that bankruptcy will fall off a credit history.  Absolutely there will be those who use that to get a free ride for law school/medical school/business school.  For that matter, I would argue that is a rational choice to make.  Not moral, mind you, but rational.

If we're going to insist that everyone go to college, then kids need to be told about the true costs.  They also need to be told that there's nothing they can do to get out of the loans.  That's only fair. 

Posted by: alexthechick at 11:04 AM | Comments (24) | Add Comment
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Well, that's not the only question. We also have to deduce who the shrieking, hysterical person it is. Here's a clu—oh, for fuck's sake it's Andrew Sullivan...

I have to say I fear her. Or, rather, I fear a country that has allowed such a person to come so close to power and to dominate its discourse quite so powerfully. It is a sign that all is not well.

Posted by: Sean M. at 05:33 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Megan Fox in Armani lingerie

Posted by: chad98036 at 01:43 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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From here, via Alice.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 09:49 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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I can't embed this type of vid they way they did at Weasel Zippers, but it's pretty darn good of an Apache shooting up a ridge with some unfriendlies on it. Keep the sound on. Pretty good.
Exit question, what's the funniest, single scene? The one that just keeps making you laugh until you just wish it would stop.
Some are funny the first time but not nearly so funny after that. Others just keep making me laugh.
Not just really funny bits, but scenes that keep you laughing for minutes.

I think the tractor tipping scene from Cars has to be considered.
So does the NSEA Protector leaving space dock in Galaxy Quest.
Both of those just keep getting funnier and funnier until it's just like watching Felix the Cat.

Posted by: Veeshir at 09:29 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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I love Dick Cheney.
He was the only one in the Bush admin who ever fought back against the NYTimesWashPostCNNABCCBSNBCetc.
His job was to say the most reasonable things in such a way as to get those leftist tools to freak out.
So they'd report his words accurately in an article that was basically one, long, "Do you believe he has the nerve to say that?"
No real arguments, just a shrill screech of OUTRAGE!.
Like him saying that Obama should be thanking Bush.
Well, that's just self-evident to everybody who doesn't froth at the mouth over the number "43" or who has to type double "v"s because they removed the "W" from their keyboards.

And notice that Cheney praises Obama for Afghanistan.
Heh.
So Cheny is showing all the class Obama and Biden don't have and making sure Minitru blares it to the world.

That's just full of Win!
Drudge link yeah, but I figured maybe I was the only one to notice it. I mean, how many people click his Center-Top headlined articles?

Posted by: Veeshir at 03:43 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Yes, they are. This is still Fail, but there's some Win! in there.
David Fullard, 47, was prosecuted for attacking the two strangers who forced their way into his home and threatened to rape his partner and kill his two teenage children.

Posted by: Veeshir at 02:07 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Sounds like a win right? Read the article carefully, I'm not quite sure that's waht he actually said:

He also agreed that there had been two periods which experienced similar warming, from 1910 to 1940 and from 1975 to 1998, but said these could be explained by natural phenomena whereas more recent warming could not.

He further admitted that in the last 15 years there had been no ‘statistically significant’ warming, although he argued this was a blip rather than the long-term trend.

I don't know who wrote this, but that first paragraph is misleading as hell. What it says is that Jones is now ascribing the 1975 to 1998 warming to natural rather than AGW causes. That is incorrect. 1975 to 1998 is the main period in which AGW is supposed to have occurred. The second paragraph is also misleading as hell. A quick read and it appears he is admitting global warming has stopped, but that isn't what he is actually say. He is actually claiming that the process is continuing we just are seeing an output from it at the moment.

The other major mistake in the article is the claim that he is admitting the medieval warming period could have been global. Read the article carefully. That is not what he says:

Professor Jones departed from this consensus when he said: ‘There is much debate over whether the Medieval Warm Period was global in extent or not. The MWP is most clearly expressed in parts of North America, the North Atlantic and Europe and parts of Asia.

‘For it to be global in extent, the MWP would need to be seen clearly in more records from the tropical regions and the Southern hemisphere. There are very few palaeoclimatic records for these latter two regions.

‘Of course, if the MWP was shown to be global in extent and as warm or warmer than today, then obviously the late 20th Century warmth would not be unprecedented. On the other hand, if the MWP was global, but was less warm than today, then the current warmth would be unprecedented.’

Posted by: chad98036 at 12:50 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
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Anybody remember Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.?  In case you don't, he's the black professor who got arrested after a concerned neighbor thought someone might be breaking in to his home.  Obama said the white cop who arrested him "acted stupidly".  Then, in his capacity as Teh Won, he invited the cop and the professor out for a beer.  Because white cops are bought off with beer, apparently.  We know that sophisticated Harvard professors are probably above that shit.

Anyway, in what may or may not be the greatest act of hubris so far this year, Professor Gates just donated the handcuffs used to arrest him to the Smithsonian Museum of Black History.

'Twas an historical moment.  Unprecedented, even.  After all, the President of the United States saw fit to get involved with a relatively minor local issue, criticize an individual citizen who was just doing his job, and turn the whole thing into a PR stunt.  One to be remembered forever.

Posted by: Ember at 12:46 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Simple syrup can be used as a weaker form of napalm. 

Ah, the things we'd learn if only we went to prison.  Like how to punish someone who should have gotten the death penalty, except that the UK doesn't have the death penalty.  Except, wait, he shouldn't have been in a position to end up needing a good death-imposition, because the nanny state observation of children and making sure that each child has adequate medical care through socialized medicine should have made sure that this guy was never in a position to need the death penalty applied to him, but it didn't.

Posted by: Alice H at 10:48 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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I loathe google. I'll admit that I'm an enormous hypocrite and I do use gmail but I definitely reconsidering that. Why? Because of the whole buzz clusterfuck.

Did you know if you manage to find the fucking turn off buzz thing that's not the end of keeping your info private? Nope.

Here's all the steps you have to do to fucking opt out of something you never oped into.

This is an internets pet peeve of mine - companies that auto opt everyone in and then make it nearly impossible to opt out. 

Bite me google.  This is enough to make me reconsider getting that droid phone I want so much.  Fuck you if I'm using anything android based.  At least Microsoft is open about wanting to control the internets. 

Posted by: alexthechick at 10:03 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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If they keep this dumb shit up, *I'll* start calling them teabaggers. 

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 09:08 PM | Comments (44) | Add Comment
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She also shot and killed her 18 year old brother during an argument in 1986.  Turns out Rep. William Delahunt  (then DA Delahunt) ordered the charges be dismissed and Bishop released,detectives were pulled off the case, files in the case have been missing since 1987.  Bishop's mother was on the town's Personnel Board when Amy killed her brother.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 06:56 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Okay, shut the Intertubes down for the day.
This guy wins.


Via The Agitator

Posted by: Veeshir at 02:49 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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