What I imagine it feels like for lotsa people sometimes.
Sep 28, 2014
Sep 27, 2014
Today's Joke
Doctor: "The good news is that your lab results are back, and your crabs are dead."
Patient: "And is there bad news too?"
Doctor: "Yes - we don't know what killed them."
Patient: "And is there bad news too?"
Doctor: "Yes - we don't know what killed them."
Sep 26, 2014
Gotta Love The Onion
Woman Worried Student Loans Could Prevent Her From One Day Owning Entirely Different Kind Of Crippling Debt
PHILADELPHIA—Lamenting that she will spend the foreseeable future paying off her college expenses, local 23-year-old digital marketing assistant Ashley Orlinsky expressed concern Wednesday that her student loans will prevent her from ever owning an entirely different type of utterly crippling debt. “Realistically, it’ll take years or even decades to fully repay $50,000 of loans, which makes me worried that I’ll never qualify for a backbreaking mortgage on a house that I can in no way afford,” said Orlinsky, adding that with $350 in monthly student loan payments, she will likely struggle to even borrow money to purchase a new car that will destroy her credit rating and may one day be repossessed by the bank. “I have dreams of starting my own company at some point in the future, but I just don’t see how I’ll have the opportunity to be saddled for my entire adult life with a suffocating high-interest small business loan if my student debt is following me wherever I go. It’s awful.” Orlinsky was reportedly encouraged, however, after coming to the mistaken conclusion that she could just default on her student loans and have them discharged in a bankruptcy filing.
Funky Friday
Bullets --Bob Schneider
Round And Round --Bob Scheider
Big Blue Sea --Bob Schneider
Tarantula --Bob Schneider
Round And Round --Bob Scheider
Big Blue Sea --Bob Schneider
Tarantula --Bob Schneider
Sep 25, 2014
Today's Quote
"Guy calls me 'commie Jew hippie bastard', so I said, 'What, I look like Jesus to you?'" --John Fugelsang
Narrowly Averted Eternal Sadness
hat tip = Addicting Info
Stopped for a seatbelt violation, the driver makes the near-fatal mistake of trying to cooperate and comply with the cop's instructions. Of course, that near-fatal mistake followed the obvious mistake of having dark brown skin in South Carolina, and then the guy just makes it worse by raising his hands trying to demonstrate he was actually not a threat to the officer - all of which taken together tends to cause a lot of stress in the minds of some people (maybe like this cop) - people who've been over-trained to expect trouble, to the point where their brains will manufacture a threat even tho' all their sensory input indicates otherwise. The cop did in fact shoot that guy at least once AFTER he put his hands up.
More simply - if we teach people to expect trouble, let's try not to be surprised when they find it even where it doesn't exist.
In this case, at least the Cop Shop Mgmt made the right calls in firing that officer, charging him with "Assault and Battery of a High and Aggravated Nature", with bail set at $75K. But I do wonder how they plan to address a pretty obvious failure when it comes to training their officers, and in their reckless inability to identify and neutralize potential fuck-ups like this guy.
And BTW - with so many of these incidents coming to light, at what point do we stop considering these guys "Rogue Cops" and start to understand there's a big fucking problem here? What dots can we connect between cops shooting unarmed citizens, and the proliferation of guns, and the headlong slide into authoritarian governance, and the trend toward militarized policing, and the post-trauma emotional time bombs ticking away in the brains of way too many veterans (many of whom are now cops), and and and?
We need to get this thing unfucked in a big fuckin' hurry.
(As of 10:24am EDT, I'm waiting to hear from Lt Kelly Hughes at SC State Patrol as to how long Groubert had been a trooper and whether he's a US Military Veteran)
Stopped for a seatbelt violation, the driver makes the near-fatal mistake of trying to cooperate and comply with the cop's instructions. Of course, that near-fatal mistake followed the obvious mistake of having dark brown skin in South Carolina, and then the guy just makes it worse by raising his hands trying to demonstrate he was actually not a threat to the officer - all of which taken together tends to cause a lot of stress in the minds of some people (maybe like this cop) - people who've been over-trained to expect trouble, to the point where their brains will manufacture a threat even tho' all their sensory input indicates otherwise. The cop did in fact shoot that guy at least once AFTER he put his hands up.
More simply - if we teach people to expect trouble, let's try not to be surprised when they find it even where it doesn't exist.
In this case, at least the Cop Shop Mgmt made the right calls in firing that officer, charging him with "Assault and Battery of a High and Aggravated Nature", with bail set at $75K. But I do wonder how they plan to address a pretty obvious failure when it comes to training their officers, and in their reckless inability to identify and neutralize potential fuck-ups like this guy.
And BTW - with so many of these incidents coming to light, at what point do we stop considering these guys "Rogue Cops" and start to understand there's a big fucking problem here? What dots can we connect between cops shooting unarmed citizens, and the proliferation of guns, and the headlong slide into authoritarian governance, and the trend toward militarized policing, and the post-trauma emotional time bombs ticking away in the brains of way too many veterans (many of whom are now cops), and and and?
We need to get this thing unfucked in a big fuckin' hurry.
(As of 10:24am EDT, I'm waiting to hear from Lt Kelly Hughes at SC State Patrol as to how long Groubert had been a trooper and whether he's a US Military Veteran)
Sep 24, 2014
Charlie Gets It
(My own 2¢: remember when Bond villains were the only guys who had private armies?)
Ripped entirely from Charlie Pierce:
Ripped entirely from Charlie Pierce:
BILL O'REILLY IS NOT A MILITARY -- OR ANY OTHER KIND OF -- GENIUS
By on September 23, 2014
On the September 22 edition of his show, [Fox News' Bill O'Reilly] claimed that the only credible plan to defeat the Islamic State had to include a mercenary force of 25,000 "English-speaking" fighters that would be recruited and trained by the United States. O'Reilly explained that his mercenary army would be comprised of "elite fighters who would be well-paid, well-trained to defeat terrorists all over the world." O'Reilly also detailed how the mercenary force would be trained, recruited, and funded.
As the "war" on terror has ground on, I have been waiting for years for a nuttier concept than Saddam's balsa-wood escadrille. Hold all calls. We have a winner, as O'Reilly's guest from the forgotten land of Knowing What The Fk You're Talking About pointed out to him.
"Well, Bill, I understand your frustration. I really do. But this is a terrible idea, a terrible idea not just as a practical matter but a moral matter. It's a morally corrosive idea to try to outsource our national security. This is something Americans are going to have to deal for themselves. We're not going to solve this problem by creating an army of Marvel Avengers or the Guardians of the Galaxy...There's nothing theoretical about it. It's the worst of both worlds. You're asking these forces to operate as though they're U.S. military forces and you're treating them as though they're mercenaries merely because you don't want to have to use American military forces. And I think that that undermines the whole notion of our own security. "
I would laugh even harder at this whole thing had not former Blackwater barbarian Erik Prince oozed up again earlier this week to pitch something of the same notion, albeit with an adorable nostalgic flavor to his proposal.
"It's a shame the [Obama] administration crushed my old business, because as a private organization, we could've solved the boots-on-the-ground issue, we could have had contracts from people that want to go there as contractors; you don't have the argument of U.S. active duty going back in there," Prince said in an on-stage discussion featuring retired four-star Gen. James Conway. "[They could have] gone in there and done it, and be done, and not have a long, protracted political mess that I predict will ensue."
Because, if there's one thing that Blackwater knew how to do, it knew how to go in there and do the job, without leaving a long, protracted political mess behind.
We are in the hands of the madmen now.
One From Way Back
A little perspective from Michael Moore in The Guardian, 2002:
I have never been attacked by a black person, never been evicted by a black person, never had my security deposit ripped off by a black landlord, never had a black landlord, never had a meeting at a Hollywood studio with a black executive in charge, never had a black person deny my child the college of her choice, never been puked on by a black teenager at a Mötley Crüe concert, never been pulled over by a black cop, never been sold a lemon by a black car salesman, never seen a black car salesman, never had a black person deny me a bank loan, and I've never heard a black person say, "We're going to eliminate 10,000 jobs here - have a nice day!"hat tip = Crooks and Liars
I don't think that I'm the only white guy who can make these claims. Every mean word, every cruel act, every bit of pain and suffering in my life has had a Caucasian face attached to it.
So, um, why is it exactly that I should be afraid of black people?
I look around at the world I live in - and, I hate to tell tales out of school, but it's not the African-Americans who have made this planet such a pitiful, scary place. Recently, a headline on the front of the Science section of the New York Times asked Who Built The H-Bomb? The article went on to discuss a dispute between the men who claim credit for making the first bomb. Frankly, I could have cared less - because I already know the only pertinent answer: "It was a white guy!" No black guy ever built or used a bomb designed to wipe out hordes of innocent people, whether in Oklahoma City, Columbine or Hiroshima.
Sep 23, 2014
Today's Dots
Here's another guy with a dash cam and a fair understanding of his rights under the US Constitution:
The problem here tho' is that the driver didn't demand Probable Cause. No matter what the cop says about roadblocks, the dragnet is extralegal. The cops have no authority to presume everybody's guilty (IMHO just so they can sift thru the population looking to collect a few bucks in fines because their budget's pretty tight again this year) None zero zip zilch nada.
The 2nd trooper yells about how driving's a privilege not a right, and that you're required to have your license and proof of insurance etc. But that's a dodge on his part. His in-your-face tactics are meant to intimidate in order to coerce your "voluntary" cooperation and deflect from the fact that his actions are outside the fucking lines. Anyway, the cops couldn't demonstrate why they suspected that particular driver of violating the law. Detention by law enforcement without probable cause is illegal.
OK, so how 'bout this one:
Somebody sees this guy walking down the street with his gun, and the cop shows up to "check him out". The rationale is that the cop just needs to make sure the gun's not stolen, but again, there's no reasonable expectation on the part of anybody that any laws have been broken. If Citizen Hung-Like-A-Hamster wants to press the issue, then he has no obligation to provide any information to the officer. He could've refused to allow the cop to record the serial number of his weapon, and he didn't have to give his name.
Connecting the dots - suddenly, we have the hippie-dippy ACLU groupies making common cause with the Ammosexuals and the Peter Pan Libertarians. Strange bedfellows indeed.
The problem here tho' is that the driver didn't demand Probable Cause. No matter what the cop says about roadblocks, the dragnet is extralegal. The cops have no authority to presume everybody's guilty (IMHO just so they can sift thru the population looking to collect a few bucks in fines because their budget's pretty tight again this year) None zero zip zilch nada.
The 2nd trooper yells about how driving's a privilege not a right, and that you're required to have your license and proof of insurance etc. But that's a dodge on his part. His in-your-face tactics are meant to intimidate in order to coerce your "voluntary" cooperation and deflect from the fact that his actions are outside the fucking lines. Anyway, the cops couldn't demonstrate why they suspected that particular driver of violating the law. Detention by law enforcement without probable cause is illegal.
OK, so how 'bout this one:
Somebody sees this guy walking down the street with his gun, and the cop shows up to "check him out". The rationale is that the cop just needs to make sure the gun's not stolen, but again, there's no reasonable expectation on the part of anybody that any laws have been broken. If Citizen Hung-Like-A-Hamster wants to press the issue, then he has no obligation to provide any information to the officer. He could've refused to allow the cop to record the serial number of his weapon, and he didn't have to give his name.
Connecting the dots - suddenly, we have the hippie-dippy ACLU groupies making common cause with the Ammosexuals and the Peter Pan Libertarians. Strange bedfellows indeed.
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