Okay, this is a pretty great Halloween costume.
DOJ civil rights division says North Carolina town can’t have non-partisan elections, because black people wouldn’t know for whom to vote. Seems like that is rather racist, no?
Credit card companies respond to tighter regulations by charging fees to people who pay their bills on time.
This op-ed doesn’t make much sense. The authors argue for a ban on domed stadiums for NFL teams. But it conflates teams that play in domes with teams, like this year’s Colts, that play in a closed stadium (and even then, the roof is retractable). It argues that dome teams have some huge advantage, but concedes that two of the worst teams in the league (the Rams and Lions) play in domes. So do the Falcons, who haven’t had back-to-back winning seasons in the team’s history. And only two dome teams have ever won the Super Bowl. I’m not convinced.
“…guy pissed all over himself after he got tazed. Hahaha.”
Rand study says fast food ban in some parts of Los Angeles won’t have an effect on obesity rates. The study says the problem is convenience stores and processed foods, not burgers and fries. Once again, I’d submit that the answer here is to let Walmart open stores in urban areas. But we can’t have that. It would be unsightly.
More mind-blowing pictures of Saturn.
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TheAgitator.com
Re: DOJ
That’s about average. I have this argument with friends who are black, and they look at me like I’ve lost it. Somewhere, MLK is doing a facepalm, I’m sure.
*sigh*
It would be a lot easier to defend capitalism if it weren’t for certain “capitalists”.
Domed stadiums vs. closed statiums vs. open air stadiums. pfui
AFAIAC, they can play on mud lots where the old factory was torn down, just so long as I don’t have to pay for the mud.
Rand study says fast food ban in some parts of Los Angeles won’t have an effect on obesity rates. The study says the problem is convenience stores and processed foods, not burgers and fries. Once again, I’d submit that the answer here is to let Walmart open stores in urban areas. But we can’t have that. It would be unsightly.
And it would close down all those wonderful Mom and Pop stores. You know, the ones that offer no benefits, promote only family into management and cry poverty every time employee wages are brought up.
Wal-Mart is evil.
You mean Ford Motor Company?
Regarding the non-partisan voting, Why are the very things that are labeled as being unAmerican almost always American? There’s certainly nothing uncharacteristic of one political group attempting to doctor the system to gain an advantage over another political group.
Hell, the majority of the governmental activity we attack on this site is unequivocally American and any improvement would most likely come by changing the system to something decidedly less American.
He notes that 4 of the top 6 offenses of all time were dome offenses. Only one of them (1999 Rams) won the superbowl though. Which seems to feed the domes-are-bad idea, by leaving the team less used to playing in the elements.
Also, the Patriots did just put up 5 touchdowns in 1 quarter in the snow. Even if they were playing the Titans.
You mean Ford Motor Company?
The head mofo at Ford Motor (Alan Mulally) came from Boeing. Yes, the Ford family still runs the company (class B stock is a fascinating innovation) but they are smart enough to hire the best and a tad bit more nimble than the company American taxpayers just purchased.
I only have one credit card that I use for gas. I had a second, but the stupid shit they tried to pull with me similair to the story above forced me to cancel it. But let’s be honest, they don’t care if I cancel my card, or anyone else who pays on time either. They don’t make money off of us. It’s everyone who can’t spend within their means that they want to keep on board…and more than likely will.
What happens when people stop using credit cards and just use their debit cards or cash? Will there be a new crowd of people with compromised credit scores because they don’t want to deal with a credit card companies anymore?
It would also almost certainly involve Wal-Mart having the city use eminent domain to bulldoze perfectly viable businesses (ie competitors) so it can build the giant stores that it requires in order to maintain its price levels. Then of course it will have to have the city condemn MORE land in order to get the parking it requires, killing the neighborhood as a community. Naturally, for its trouble, Wal-Mart will get TIFs and other tax advantages that allow it to undersell its small business competitors who don’t get those privleges…
Wal-Mart is BUILT on government privilege. It couldn’t exist otherwise.
“…guy pissed all over himself after he got tazed. Hahaha.”
I suggest giving the cop who wrote this a taser shot to the family jewels. (Assuming he has any.)
Now THAT is faint praise.
Yeah, yeah, it’s always the “outstanding” officers with perfect records who seem to have a momentary lapse where they suddenly become total assholes. It’s like they were possessed by invisible force that came out of the blue completely beyond their control. The logic goes like this: If it weren’t so uncharacteristic, they would actually be charged, but the very fact that they’ve never been charged in the past is proof that it’s uncharacteristic.
And typically you find that it is very characteristic, and everybody knows it, but they’ve been using the “uncharacteristic” bullshit to keep it out of the record and therefore have the appearance (to the outside observer) of actually being uncharacteristic.
Hope that made sense.
I am such a total moron. Hard as I try, I can’t see why obesity is something government is responsible to detect, study, or rectify.
I know one thing, however, you don’t get people to cut down on their unhealthy habits by subsidizing or otherwise mitigating the costs they bear from those habits.
Of course, this is precisely why I could never go to college to become a government economist. Anyone with ideas like mine is obviously too stupid to teach.
RE: NFL Dome Teams:
Two of the three best regular season records belong to non-dome teams (2007 Patriots 16-0, 2005 Steelers 15-1, 1998 Vikings 15-1). The Vikings had to win in Green Bay and in Chicago in December to get their record, so they were able to play in the cold/snow just like everyone else.
Not only that, but the Superbowl is played in a dome more than half the time. Since 2000 (and projected to 2012), the Superbowl will have been or will be played in a dome 7 times (Georgie Dome, Superdome, Ford Field, University of Phoenix Stadium, Cowboys New Stadium, and Lucas Oil Stadium).
I don’t see an advantage to a dome team since half of their games are played on the road, and most of those (if not all) will be in the elements. Chances are that one of their playoff games will also be outside (where you would think they would have a disadvantage).
Brother, no truer words were ever spoken. Most people who hate capitalism do so simply because many of its practitioners are unethical lowlife scum. They fail to realize those very same scum would infest a socialist system as well, except they wouldn’t have the option to take their business someplace else.
NC Non-Partisan Voting..
The argument is not that blacks wont vote for blacks unless they are democrats.
It is that whites wont vote for/support blacks unless there is a D next to their name because they are voting along party lines.
From the article…
“Implementation of nonpartisan elections … appears likely to deprive black supported candidates of meaningful partisan based support and to exacerbate racial polarization between black and white voters.”
(sorry if I have offended anyone at anytime ever in my description of this article, or any at any other point in my life)
Re: The cop making fun of his tasered victim
Did anyone see this comment on the news website:
Yes, any of us, under a microscope of SELF-PUBLISHED photos and cheap jokes will look bad. Any of us with a badge, gun and taser giving us special privileges in society will look bad when we take advantage of those prvileges. Let ye [sic] who is with out sin use the first taser. Or better yet, let ye [sic] who is with out sin be the first to laugh at someone who has just been electrocuted.
And, oh yeah, the screen name of the person who left the comment: “civilian”. You know, to make sure we know that he is really one of us inferior proles, bowing to our masters in uniform. Sigh.
#17 Dave K–that is probably the most insightful comment I’ve read on this blog which is saying a lot. I’ll have to remember that when by lefty friends start prattling on and on about the evils of big business.
Well, to be fair, if domes to provide an advantage, the Lions need all the help they can get.
You darn well know that Obama is not going to let the Dems be taken off the ballot!
Right, so the solution is more government, right Alex?
Right, and it would be so much easier to defend civil liberties if it weren’t for certain “civilians”.
Yeah, only “minor” parties should be excluded from having their party affiliation listed.
Actually, I think I concur with Aresen’s comment (unless I’m interpreting it wrong). There is no bigger champion of capitalism than me. I hate almost any law that restricts it. But, I think my praise for capitalism is commonly taken by some to mean I see no wrong in how it’s practiced.
The fact is, there are a lot of sleazy assholes who do business in the free market. If they didn’t exist, capitalism would most certainly be an easier sell. But acknowledging that doesn’t make someone less an advocate of it.
(hope my nested block-quotes work out)
Two of the three best regular season records belong to non-dome teams (2007 Patriots 16-0, 2005 Steelers 15-1, 1998 Vikings 15-1). The Vikings had to win in Green Bay and in Chicago in December to get their record, so they were able to play in the cold/snow just like everyone else.
I think you’re forgetting a couple teams there. The ’85 Bears and ’84 Niners both went 15-1, and if you’re going by winning percentage the 14-0 ’72 Dolphins are just below the ’07 Pats. Oh, and for the record all three of those teams played outdoors as well.
Quick edit to my comment above… By winning percentage, the ’07 Pats and ’72 Fins are tied. What I meant by placing the Dolphins below the Pats is that the Pats had more overall wins. But technically, my initial comment was inaccurate.
Dave K @ 4:28
You got my meaning exactly right.
Corporate assholes who squeeze incessantly with fee after fee or jerk their customers around (AOL anyone?) make it much harder to defend the free market.
And, as you pointed out, the same people would be jerks no matter what socio-economic system you had. At least under capitalism, I can deal with someone else.
Well, um, not in this particular case. The solution to Wal-Mart is to force them to actually pay for their costs of doing business rather than subsidize them.
As long as the crowd is enthusiastic, domed stadiums can be extremely noisy, which can certainly make it very difficult on the opposing offense. There is a rule on the books about a 5 yard penalty on the defense for excessive crowd noise. Detroit is the only team that’s ever been penalized for it.
Northern teams that play outdoors often have a huge advantage late in the year. (How does a team from the south prepare for a trip to Green Bay in December?)
@ #9 Mattocracy: they DO make money on those who pay on time. It is the merchant fees collected when you use the card.
Dave and Arensen,
Yes, and it would be oh so much easier to defend things like free speech without Fred Phelps, the Klu Klux Klan, and other rather despicable characters. Civil liberties would be an easy sell if everyone was…well…civil.
We are all saying pretty much the same thing it seems with one exception, as Dave noted. With capitalism you don’t have to associate with the assholes. With socialism you are stuck with them. Thus, selling capitalism is actually easier. The problem is that many of the people arguing for socialism like to argue for a utopia–a socialist system with no assholes.
Classically Liberal has a good story on this,
http://freestudents.blogspot.com/2009/10/reality-its-bitch.html
The selling point for capitalism isn’t that there are asshole capitalists, but that with capitalism you are free to run away from them and do business with people you find more agreeable. Just as the selling point for civil liberties isn’t that Fred Phelps can spew his vile crap, but that the rest of aren’t going to be curb-stomped by the police.
Despite my libertarian, small government sensibilities I’m willing to sign off on NASA sending more spacecraft to the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. It’s just too fascinating an opportunity to pass up and the prospect of finding a liquid water ocean on one of those moons is, to me, worth spending more than a few bucks.
There are lots of prospects for various topics, but that isn’t enough to justify the costs. Please explain how it justifies it to you, especially in light of the ruinous economy of this country, the entitlements, the living beyond the means … all for the prospect of finding something that no one knows it exists (can you say Bigfoot? Sasquatch? Holy Grail? Fountain of Youth?). If a moon/planet with water did exist, what does that get you? Nothing.
jppatter @ #19
The comments left on the news site concerning the story about the cop posting the picture of the guy wetting his pants after being tasered are pretty disturbing.
Apart from what I thought were some very reasonable criticisms — in fact, less inflammatory that the kind of thing that goes on here (and that I also contribute to, by the way) — there are some people that see nothing wrong with it. I mean, the cop is just a youngin’ — right, Hoss?
The justification is that the cost is a drop in the bucket of the federal budget, we won’t know if there’s a liquid water ocean until we get a look from close-range and finding such an ocean entails a very good chance of finding the first life in the universe not to have originated on earth. I’d say that’s worth something. Cut a few agricultural subsidies and you could send 3 probes to each of Europa, Titan, Io and Ganymede with the savings with a few billion left over in change.
Steve V @ 7:05
You are correct, of course.
Freedom of Speech would be easier to defend without Fred Phelps, the KKK or Michael Moore.
Freedom of Religion would be easier to defend without Fred Phelps or the Scientologists.
The right to a fair trial would be easier to defend without the likes of Ted Bundy.
And Freedom of Commerce would be easier to defend without the likes of Kenneth Lay.
And it is because libertarians are committed to the principle of these freedoms that we have to defend the scumbags’ rights in order to protect our own.
Radley,
The DOJ thing gets even better: check out their original letter. I’ll quote you a good part:
Got it? In other words, black people won’t know who to vote for, and white people are too racist (although, apparently, partisanship trumps racism, now) to vote for black officials. Therefore, you can’t have the non-partisan elections approved overwhelmingly in a majority-black city because… well, yeah. Lovely bit of condescension, there.
Read the whole thing for more yuks.
Wal*Mart as the answer to obesity? lol, Have you ever been inside of a Wal*Mart?
Dagnabbed tags. Let’s try that link again:
http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting/sec_5/pdfs/l_081709.pdf
Whoda thunk Walmart would create skinny people?
FWIW, Los Angeles has a few urban Walmarts already. The closest to me is on the corner of MLK and Crenshaw. Not quite the exurb settlement often associated with Walmart stores. I don’t know who needed to be convinced, whose palms had to be greased, whose property had to be appropriated, but it occupies what I think used to be a Sears building. I believe this store may be within the boundaries of the fast food ban, but I could be wrong.
Not to say LA could not use more Walmarts. Nor deny the opposition Walmart gets. My own little village of Santa Monica would achieve critical mass in conniptions if Walmart were to announce a new store there. But a huge factor is that desirable real estate is mostly already accounted for and quite pricey when it goes up for sale. That alone discourages all kinds of new development.
Re: credit cards…
“Having a credit card is handy, but I don’t like paying interest on balances, so I like to pay it off every month if I’ve used it. NOW I’m getting hit with this ‘annual fee’ because I pay my bills on time? WHY GOD OH WHY?”
“Well, Timmy, those banks are in business to make money. It used to be that they could extend credit to so many thousands of cardholders with no annual fee because a certain percentage of those cardholders ran a balance every month. Now with the economic difficulties, more people are paying off balances, reducing their debt load, which means those banks are seeing less return on their investment.”
“Investment?”
“Well, yes. You see, a credit card can be viewed as a financial institution’s investment in a person – that person might go shopping for clothes, borrowing the money from the bank, and then make payments on the balance, which earns the bank interest. If too many people pay off their balances, the bank doesn’t make as much as it wants so they start looking for ways to augment the black ink each month.”
“Well, I don’t want a card that has a fee for no balances or paying my bill or other similar nonsense!”
“That’s fine, Timmy, call them up and tell them you don’t agree to the change in terms, and they’ll help you close your account. You’re free to not use a product you don’t like, and a credit card is a product, after all. You said yourself it’s a handy thing to have, but apparently it’s not worth $99 a year.”
Yeah, I think I have to agree with Peter with respect to credit card companies. Adding and increasing fees was done as a response to anticipated government regulations that will impact their bottom line. They’re simply playing by the rules they’re forced to live with.
Companies don’t get slammed for bilking those who can afford it (ie: those who pay their bills). It’s only evil exploitation when it involves people who bite off more than they can chew.
That’s not to say that credit card companies are the image of virtue. They aren’t. In fact, their most prominent claim to fame is their proven track record of sophisticated and cold blooded bait and switch techniques.
Contrary to the way most people think the world should work, businesses are not benefactors who feel obligated to make sure you don’t make any bad consumer decisions and always get the most for your money. Nor does capitalism make any claims that they are. The object of business is to get you to give them your money for which they give you something in return. Unlike socialism, that transaction is voluntary and the responsibility for looking out for the consumer’s interest lie almost entirely with the consumer.
Unfortunately, many businesses (and non-profits, by the way) depend on the snake-oil strategy of being as deceptive as possible while still staying just inside the law (or not quite far enough outside the law to attract law enforcement). You see it every day. The only thing ethical about it is that it’s not boldly illegal. The government has taken on responsibility for consumer protection (giving people a false sense of security), but government is often in bed with the commercial interests responsible for these ugly practices.
Having said that, the real power over business lies with the consumer. They can avoid doing business with a company, they can challenge the company to rectify a problem, they can sue, they can go to the press, they can start a boycott, etc. If these options weren’t available or were controlled by some bureaucrat or political committee, the consumer would be completely screwed. They would call that socialism.
http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/
Check out all the skinnies!
The good news is that I went through all those pictures and there aren’t any of me wearing my giant Halloween penis costume. The bad news is that my brain is now so poisoned with disgusting images that I’m going to have to kill myself.
^ lol, I should’ve considered the unintended consequences!