Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Why did Dr. Oz lose? well, according to the exit polls, it’s because Fetterman won.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

We are aware of all internet traditions.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

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94Comments

  3. 3.

    Belafon

    @Anya: Shouldn’t he be allowed to have a gun for each voice? The only way to stop a bad voice in your head with a gun is a good voice in your head with a gun.

    /Serious sarcasm

  4. 4.

    The Red Pen

    Freepers ask the question the media is afraid to:

    How many of the recent mass murderers (Hennard, Holmes, Huberty, Lanza, Loughner, Hasan, Dorner, Alexis, etc.) in the United States alone have any ties to homosexuality?

    The immediate is answer is that the media is pro-Obama.

    I don’t know how they’re going to out-dumb that.

    For the record, several of the anecdotes about Alexis involve him talking about relationships with women. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

  5. 5.

    Betty Cracker

    I don’t care what you call it — that’s an astonishing feat of engineering right there. Wow.

  7. 7.

    The Red Pen

    @Anya:

    Apparenly the gunman was diagnosed with serious mental issues and was hearing voices.

    If we don’t defend the gun rights of insane people, then are they really gun rights or just gun privileges? CONSTITOOSHUN!

  8. 8.

    Alexandra

    (The) (A) (To) Parbuckle(ing)

    Too many syllables to achieve widespread usage… and too awkward to say when drunk.

  10. 10.

    Suzanne

    @The Red Pen: Can’t help but notice that they’re all dudes.

    It’s like we were on to something with the discussion of anxious masculinity after Sandy Hook.

    Consider your man card reissued, indeed.

  11. 11.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @Anya: There’s something wrong because the European Parliament thinks he perhaps deserves honors rather than being called an evil traitor? Well, it certainly puts them in disagreement with Dick Cheney and David Brooks, but I’m not sure anyone should ever call disagreeing with those guys “wrong”.

    Those Europeans. They must live on Parallel Earth

  12. 12.

    Xantar

    Happy Constitution Day, everyone! I’m going to go exercise some free speech. And then I’m going to refuse to quarter any soldiers in my house.

  13. 13.

    geg6

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    Well, it certainly puts them in disagreement with Dick Cheney and David Brooks, but I’m not sure anyone should ever call disagreeing with those guys “wrong”.

    I don’t know squat about Brooks’ views on the matter, but Cheney is pro-gay rights. Are you saying that makes homophobes right?

    Too bad the world isn’t as neat and cut and dried as you would like. In my world, Snowden is no hero. And neither is the NSA. But I find more value in the NSA, overall, than I do in Snowden. He still hasn’t told me anything I didn’t already know or suspect for the last ten to fifteen years.

  15. 15.

    weaselone

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    Something tells me that if the shoe were on the other foot and Snowden had revealed the activities of the BND, BfV, DGSE and DCRI that he would not be under consideration for this award.

  17. 17.

    rikyrah

    Most Awful Farm Bill Ever Moving Forward

    Posted on September 16, 2013 at 3:55 pm by JM Ashby

    On Wednesday of this week House Republicans will vote on the misleadingly-named Nutrition Reform and Work Opportunity Act, which gives you the opportunity to be kicked off food stamps if you can’t find a job in three months.

    From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

    The proposal incorporates all of the SNAP cuts and other nutrition provisions of the farm bill that House leaders sought unsuccessfully to pass in June, which would cut $20.5 billion from SNAP over ten years. It also adds new provisions designed to cut at least another $20 billion in benefits, primarily by eliminating states’ ability to secure waivers for high-unemployment areas from SNAP’s austere rule that limits benefits for jobless adults without children to just three months out of every three years.

    The new House proposal is harsh. It would deny SNAP to at least 4 million to 6 million low-income people — including some of the nation’s most destitute adults — as well as to many low-income children, seniors, and families that work for low wages

    Here’s more. And this part really ticks me off.

    The House leadership proposal would allow states to cut off SNAP benefits to most adults who are receiving or applying for SNAP, including parents with children as young as 1 year old, if they are not working or participating in a work or training program for at least 20 hours a week. This provision, based on an amendment to the original House farm bill offered by Rep. Steve Southerland (R-FL), authorizes states to cut off an entire family’s food assistance benefits, including their children’s — and for an unlimited time — if the parents do not find a job or job training slot.

    The provision gives states a strong financial incentive to take up this option. First, they could keep half of the federal savings from cutting people off SNAP and use the funds for any purpose, including tax cuts and special-interest subsidies or plugging holes in state budgets. Second, states that decline the option and maintain their current approach to SNAP work requirements and job training would face a significant fiscal penalty. States that do not elect the option would lose all federal matching funds for their SNAP employment and job training programs (which all states now operate).

    The bill does not simply eliminate provisions that grant states the ability to cope with persistent high unemployment, it actively encourages them not to. It gives states financial incentives to NOT feed people, including adults with infant children.

    http://bobcesca.thedailybanter.com/blog-archives/2013/09/most-awful-farm-bill-ever-moving-forward-2.html

  18. 18.

    Amir Khalid

    @Bill E Pilgrim:
    A couple of years ago, some qualified party — a member of Iceland’s Parliament, if I recall correctly — nominated Bradley/Chelsea Manning for the Nobel Peace Prize. I would take Edward Snowden’s nomination for the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought as seriously as I do that Nobel nomination.

  21. 21.

    Mark B.

    @rikyrah: The current mythology in the Republican Party is that helping people that need help somehow makes them dependent. If you only starved them and made them freeze in the street, they’ll somehow lift themselves up by their bootstraps and become self sufficient. Or they die. Either way, problem solved.

  22. 22.

    Anya

    @Bill E Pilgrim: Such a stupid argument. It’s strange because some stupid fringe party nominated the guy who sought asylum in the country that persecutes people for loving someone, and jails journalists, not to mention their brutality in Chechnya.

  23. 23.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    I’m concerned that someone with an untreated/poorly treated psychiatric disorder had access to firearms, particularly given a history of using them in anger. And then it ended tragically for the Navy Yard victims, their families, friends and colleagues. Of course that’s yet another horrific example of why the American gun fetish is a dangerous thing, especially given its funding and corresponding political power.

    But please don’t mock psychiatric illness. We may call it mental illness but it’s as physical as diabetes or COPD. It’s beyond the pale to mock cancer, and in my view it should be equally unacceptable to mock brain disorders. Stigma prevents people for seeking or continuing treatment, and we can all work on reducing stigma. Thank you for reading.

  24. 24.

    Eric U.

    @Suzanne: Penn State had a woman shooter, but I suppose that’s the exception that proves the rule. She couldn’t decide if she should shoot up the campus or kill herself.

  25. 25.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    They’re running on it all over the country. It’s nostalgia, basically. Republicans are harkening back to the glory days of welfare reform. They have no actual ideas to offer, so it’s retreat to the 1990’s. Play that again.

  26. 26.

    Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader

    Fuckhead’s New Era of Civility is proceeding apace. However, I do want to stress that it is not my intention to create a hostile environment where creativity and free expression are stifled. Rather, I am attempting to build on John’s “safe place” philosophy. I want to help foster an atmosphere in which we can all grow and thrive together. If this is a problem for you, be warned: I will confront you if I have to. I have been around the internet a time or two. (I’ve even been to the end of the internet once but it scared me so bad, I installed a new browser and started over.)

    Now, who wants to play the pun game?

  29. 29.

    Gin & Tonic

    I am also fascinated and very impressed by the engineering involved in raising the Costa Concordia. To the point that several times yesterday, when I had time, I’d watch the live feed. Yes, I know.

    But I loved the comment from Nick Sloane, the man in charge, when this phase was over – he called it “a good challenge.” Hundreds of people working for over a year at a cost north of 600 million Euros, on probably the largest salvage job ever, which went absolutely as planned – a good challenge indeed.

  30. 30.

    Elizabelle

    @Anya:

    It’s surprising to me that Alexis had the security clearance/base ID, given the two gun-related arrests, one of which led to his discharge from the service.

    What kind of background check did “The Experts” conduct?

    This seems like suicide by military cop, after taking out a bunch of military employees. WaPost story quotes Texas friends who pegged him as a suicide risk (but not a threat to others); restaurant owner’s wife says he felt mistreated by his employers and the military.

    Those who knew Alexis in recent years describe him as a “sweet and intelligent guy” (a regular customer at the Thai restaurant where he had been a waiter) and “a good boy” (his landlord**), but also as “very aggressive,” someone who seemed as though he might one day kill himself (a lay worker at the Buddhist temple where Alexis worshiped).

    That angry streak flared often enough to create an arrest record in three states.

    ** note: landlord is Thai and has limited English

  31. 31.

    Botsplainer

    I just like how they’re naming a Russian agent who is a toady to a journalist and opposition assassinating thug Russian strongman as a candidate for a prize named after a Russian dissident.

    LOL

  32. 32.

    WereBear

    @Eric U.: Actually, there was some talk in sociological circles, in the first decades of Women’s Liberation, that one of the things that kept women from mass murder and serial killing was cultural pressure.

    Since men were once socialized to “do what they want” and women were urged to NEVER “do what they want” it made the differences between the sexes look more stark and pre-ordained than they actually were.

    The Third Deadly Sin, by Lawrence Sanders, was published in 1981, positing a female serial killer motivated by oppressive cultural practices and male mistreatment. Way ahead of his time, as Aileen Wuornos, (as far as we know,) started in 1989; apparently motivated by extremes of the same pressures.

  38. 38.

    MomSense

    @WereBear:

    Scrooge wasn’t born in the US and sources say they are a bit hesitant to have two non US born frontrunners this early out. If Cruz crashes and burns — they have Scrooge and the Grinch well positioned.

    ETA: obviously pre-conversion Grinch

  39. 39.

    Bobby Thomson

    @Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: Oh, yeah? Well, because the receptivity of the subject, its capacity to be affected by objects, must necessarily precede all intuitions of these objects, it can readily be understood how the form of all appearances can be given prior to all actual perceptions, and so exist in the mind a priori. That’s right, I said it.

  40. 40.

    JGabriel

    Anya:

    Apparenly the gunman was diagnosed with serious mental issues and was hearing voices. I don’t understand why he had access to guns then?

    Because FREEDOM!

    When the libtards came to take away the guns of paranoid schizophrenics, I said nothing because I wasn’t a schizophrenic … when they came for mine, there was no one left to defend me with overwhelming ballistic force from the commie demoncrat gov’t goons.

  42. 42.

    DecidedFenceSitter

    @Elizabelle: Unfortunately, it looks like all the gun related incidents were dismissed, and a dismissal isn’t a conviction. I’m curious why the various incidents I’ve heard – shooting out the tires, discharge while “cleaning” the gun didn’t go any further, why were the charges dropped.

  44. 44.

    WereBear

    @DecidedFenceSitter: I’m curious why the various incidents I’ve heard – shooting out the tires, discharge while “cleaning” the gun didn’t go any further, why were the charges dropped.

    Heck, you can kill your own child with such behavior and no charges are filed in the first place.

  46. 46.

    Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader

    I hate it when we attempt to criminalize the actions of a mass shooter in hindsight. Up until yesterday, he was part of America’s great militia tradition, protecting us from enemies foreign and domestic, keeping tyranny from our own elected officials at bay and almost superhumanly being able to prevent the actions of others like himself by virtue of His Gun and Training.

    Then he had a bad day. Move on.

  47. 47.

    MattF

    @Elizabelle: You get background checks only with ‘Top Secret’ clearance or above. A ‘Secret’ clearance basically means you’re a citizen and not a felon– and you are able to fill out the required forms.

  48. 48.

    DecidedFenceSitter

    @WereBear: A-friggen-men, and while I’m one of those that tends to be on the looser side of gun control than most here, there’s just little room for error and losing focus when you possess one.

  49. 49.

    Anya

    @Elizabelle: I know! This is a major failure with tragic consequence. It’s just not right how non existant our rules are as they relate to guns but you would assume the military would have better clearances.

    @Amir Khalid: I should know better. It’s just one tragedy after another and nothing changes. The same stupid arguments are made.

  52. 52.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @DecidedFenceSitter: There are records that *should* show the dismissals and what the charges were. In Ohio, unless a dismissed charge is expunged, it shows on the record. Even then, it is available to LEAs for limited purposes (e.g. determining eligibility for an expungement, which is a single time opportunity).

    But without that, in OH, all dismissed charges show on a criminal history. In domestic violence cases, a “first conviction” with multiple previous dismissals is not going to be sentenced as a first offender, for example. Getting multiple states’ criminal records requires more clearance, but background checks for firearms should include that access (duh) and dismissals should be considered based on type. Yes I’m aware that I’m dreaming here.

  54. 54.

    Linda Featheringill

    @newdealfarmgrrrlll:

    Men as killers:

    I’ve long suspected that half of all bad people are female but that isn’t true of all violent people. The guys are way ahead of the girls in the shoot-em-up category.

  57. 57.

    WereBear

    @Elizabelle: To be honest, we would have to examine the ways our culture makes men that way.

    I’ve seen crying toddlers told to “shut up and be a man!” Look at how adolescent males are urged toward suppressing their feelings, dehumanizing their “lessers,” and developing a cut-throat attitude towards competition. As as adults, they are urged NOT to grow up, and remain teens.

    The amazing thing is that so many good men do come out of it.

  59. 59.

    hildebrand

    I was absolutely gobsmacked by something one of my students said in class yesterday. She declared, during a discussion about Reconstruction, that the 13th amendment was a bad idea because the slaves were not ready to be freed, that they were happy to be slaves because they didn’t have the ability to be anything else.

    She was just utterly perplexed that I didn’t see the merit of her statement.

    Unbelievable.

  60. 60.

    Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader

    @WereBear:

    The amazing thing is that so many good men do come out of it.

    Maybe with enough research we will be able to figure out what causes 99.99999% of men to not go on a shooting spree.

  61. 61.

    newdealfarmgrrrlll

    @Linda Featheringill: All the years I’ve been in the workforce most coworkers are great people but when it comes to being stupid, asshole jerks etc – women are just as capable as men in that regard. But when it comes to violence in the workplace, always men. Of course, my experience is limited.

  62. 62.

    PurpleGirl

    @hildebrand: What grade or age group do you teach? That is the type of information that children pick up from hearing parents talk.

    You’ve got to be carefully taught….

  63. 63.

    Keith G

    @Elizabelle: It would seem that each gender has it’s strengths and weaknesses. I have found members of each to be completely delightful or totally unbearable each in their own gender specific way.

    In regards to the specific topic of the book, the cost of male-caused crimes in this country, I would think that an important culprit might be our society’s ignorant response to crime – it’s causes and punishments. Males will, for the foreseeable future, tend to act out differently than females. That much is given. The question becomes what our society can do to deal successfully deal with this.

    Yes this would be a very good topic for conversation.

  64. 64.

    PurpleGirl

    Just an bit of information — the Titanic was engineered to an incredible extent, it didn’t capsize before sinking. The Costa Concordia capsized, the Andrea Doria capsized, other ships capsized before sinking. Titanic sank but it didn’t capsize. (Remembered from one of those TV shows about recent analysis of the Titanic.)

  68. 68.

    Jay C

    @PurpleGirl:

    The lack of capsize in the sinking of the Titanic might be due to the fact that the ship had been holed way forward, and had begun taking on water in its forward sections, which pulled it down by the bow: all accounts agree that Titanic sank nearly vertically.

    The Costa Concordia, OTOH, got bashed amidships, which imbalance likely started it to roll – eventually rolling over. There are some good pics at the BBC site of the now-exposed port side – Let’s just say that FUBAR is an appropriate acronym in this case: if there was a recycle bin big enough, this ship would belong in it….

  69. 69.

    The Red Pen

    @hildebrand:

    She declared, during a discussion about Reconstruction, that the 13th amendment was a bad idea because the slaves were not ready to be freed, that they were happy to be slaves because they didn’t have the ability to be anything else.

    I’m pretty sure that they had bankable farming skills.

    She was just utterly perplexed that I didn’t see the merit of her statement.

    I’m also sure that there’s some value in knowing that she’s a blithering idiot. I can see why she would expect people to appreciate the disclosure.

  72. 72.

    The Red Pen

    @newdealfarmgrrrlll: I really don’t see the value in the gender observation. Is there something about the boys-club aspect of mass shooters that can help us cut down on mass shooting?

    My father-in-law was murdered by his schizophrenic wife. She poisoned him. Women use poison way more often than men. Are we going to celebrate when women shoot more people and men poison more people?

  76. 76.

    hildebrand

    @ruemara: Deep South Texas. Our university is roughly 85% Hispanic, the student who uttered this bigoted tripe was one of the small number of anglos. My guess is she grew up here – likely from McAllen – the anglos from here are a pretty insular and bigoted bunch (not all of them, but far too many for it to be much of a coincidence).

    It was stupendously depressing.

    Of course, I then spent the rest of the class period on refuting the point, and stating quite clearly that it was an argument born of ignorance and faulty reasoning. To which she said, ‘That is just your opinion.’ I, as calmly and as rationally as possible, (probably not as calm as I should be have been – but, honestly) walked through a rather long recitation of evidence. When I finished, she scowled and rolled her eyes. Two bits I will be hearing from the local AM talk radio folks soon enough – they always seem to ask for interviews with professors after something like his happens.

  77. 77.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @ranchandsyrup:
    Holy moly. Surely that article is a parody. What a pile of amoral IGMFY, with added ‘I’m better than you because I’m rich’ drizzled on thick!

    EDIT – For anyone not getting out of the boat, it is that bad. It is worse. It is Poe’s law material, straight out of Ayn Rand. It QUOTES Ayn Rand.

  78. 78.

    Paul in KY

    Miley will soon invent ‘partwerking’ or ‘twerkbuckling’! @1st Century, bitches.

    Getting ‘buckled’ was an old Victorian phrase meaning completely satiated and/or drunk on whatever it is that is going to get you ‘buckled’.

  79. 79.

    The Red Pen

    @WereBear: Worth investigating for what? We already know that “suicide by cop” is more common among men, as are shooting sprees. How does this information help us stop future tragedies?

  80. 80.

    Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader

    @burnspbesq:

    I liked you better when you were overtly dickish. This passive-aggressive DK lushness has gotten old really quickly.

    Burns, be warned that I will confront you mercilessly and with no qualms. You long ago outlasted your welcome here and I, for one, intend to make you misfits and raconteurs keenly aware of your temporal nature in this virtual space.

  83. 83.

    Paul in KY

    @PurpleGirl: Think that had to do with the type of injury it received. The Lusitania didn’t capsize either. Both ships took bad damage below the waterline that seemed to allow the water to come in & spread out evenly. The Lusitania’s damage was much more catastophic & that is why she went down in 15 mins.

  87. 87.

    WereBear

    @The Red Pen: @WereBear: Worth investigating for what? We already know that “suicide by cop” is more common among men, as are shooting sprees. How does this information help us stop future tragedies?

    For instance, it’s my theory that men refuse to seek help for mental troubles even more than they do for physical ones, and thus find themselves backed into a corner where their mental sufferings are great and they see no way of ending them except suicide.

    Yet, through whatever mechanism, they feel unable to take that option.

    Thus, we arrive at our problem. “Lifting the stigma” helps, but so does accepting that anyone could need help, and should ask for it.

  88. 88.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @WereBear: Among the ways we get to the point of

    accepting that anyone could need help, and should ask for it

    is by eliminating the stigma. It’s hard to get the strong silent types or loudly macho men to recognize that they need treatment when there’s a stigma of “weakness.”

    And language is a part of that. We don’t talk about needing/asking for “help” for heart disease or cancer, we encourage people to seek “treatment.” Just phrasing getting medical treatment as “asking for help” perpetuates the stigma. It will take a concerted effort to be mindful of language to erode the stigma. I talk to docs in training and beyond about this. I’m not trying to be pissy; it’s a real thing.

    Hence Team Bella Q.

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