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March 10, 2015

People Are Terrible, An Ongoing Series

—JohnE.

Good morning, all. I thought I'd take it upon myself to pass along the truly revolting story to ruin your day. I tried to get it up earlier, but life got in the way. So, apologies if your morning was mostly pleasurable.

A number of years ago, Disney Parks instituted a policy that catered to handicapped (both mentally and physically) children and their families. It was a voluntary policy that sought to make it easier on families that had children with disabilities by allowing them to skip ahead of long lines, among other perks. Lord knows is tough enough trudging around with your own able-bodied family in a hot and sweaty theme park for 8 hours without incident.

I've been to Disney's parks a fair amount and can recall seeing this practice maybe a handful of times. Most park-goers recognized it for what it was, which was simply a nice and thoughtful gesture for families that almost certainly have a more difficult daily routine than you do.

You probably know where this is going.

In 2013, Disney discovered this policy was being badly abused in the most soul-crushing and miserable way possible: rich parents, mostly from New York City, were honest-to-God hiring disabled children to drag around the theme parks, all to skip attraction lines.

The comments by some of these people are almost comically evil.

The “black-market Disney guides” run $130 an hour, or $1,040 for an eight-hour day.

“My daughter waited one minute to get on ‘It’s a Small World’ — the other kids had to wait 2 1/2 hours,” crowed one mom, who hired a disabled guide through Dream Tours Florida.

“You can’t go to Disney without a tour concierge,’’ she sniffed. “This is how the 1 percent does Disney.
The woman said she hired a Dream Tours guide to escort her, her husband and their 1-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter through the park in a motorized scooter with a “handicapped” sign on it. The group was sent straight to an auxiliary entrance at the front of each attraction.

Nice, right?

Finding it difficult to confirm which family actually had disabled children and which were abusing the system, Disney ultimately decided to discontinue the program. Again, the voluntary program.

Naturally, this brought on a lawsuit.

The new Disney program was a “blanket accommodation that did not take into account the nuances between various disabilities,” according to the commission findings, dated Feb. 13.

In 2013, Disney ended its previous program, the Guest Assistance Card, because the older program was abused by wealthy people who hired guests with disabilities to take them to the front of a line. The new program, called Disability Access Service, no longer allowed disabled people to skip waiting, but it allowed them to make a reservation in advance and avoid standing in line until that time.

An attorney for the families, Andy Dogali of Tampa, says he filed complaints on behalf of 27 families with the Florida commission. The commission ruled on five of those complaints recently, finding in favor of the families.


The moral of the story, of course, is people are awful and don't ever do anything nice for anyone, ever. I think that was the basic plot of Bambi, actually.

Posted by JohnE. at 12:11 PM Comments



Open Thread

—rdbrewer


Frederic Bazille, "Flowers" (1868)

Posted by rdbrewer at 10:29 AM Comments



Unpopular President Rips Popular Governor For Giving Everyone Access to Previously Restricted Jobs

—BenK

President Obama has decided to get involved in the 2016 race. I find it interesting that he's chosen to wade in by attacking Scott Walker and not Jeb Bush

I think we'll see a lot more of this as we get closer to the primary voting. The Democrats are going to do everything they can to ensure the next GOP candidate is someone who won't overturn most of Obama's "accomplishments". Aside from the Wall Street Class, Jeb Bush's biggest supporters outside the Republican party will be elected Democrats.

They're hedging their bets on the off chance that Mrs.Inevitable isn't so inevitable.

“Even as its governor claims victory over working Americans, I’d encourage him to try and score a victory for working Americans – by taking meaningful action to raise their wages and offer them the security of paid leave,” Obama said.

Actually, giving everyone access to jobs that were previously only available to union due paying members is a victory for workers. It's just not a victory for the workers who donate to the Democratic party (or whose union dues are donated to the Democratic party against their objections.)

Posted by BenK at 08:15 AM Comments

Morning Thread (3-10-2015)

—Andy

Rumor has it that Hillary Clinton is considering actually lying to our faces about her emails.

It's 1996 all over again.


AoSHQ Weekly Podcast rss.png itunes_modern.png | Stitcher | Download | Ask The Blog | Archives

Posted by Andy at 06:22 AM Comments

Overnight Open Thread (3-9-2015) - Cop Out Edition

—Maetenloch

Due to hard deadlines and me feeling under the weather you'll get the highly-condensed-but-legally-still-a-contractual ONT. And early to boot!

Because even a lesser piece by Kipling still has more hard-won human wisdom in it than most of what's published in any given year. This comes via Moe Lane.

The Truce of the Bear

Yearly, with tent and rifle, our careless white men go
By the Pass called Muttianee, to shoot in the vale below.
Yearly by Muttianee he follows our white men in -
Matun, the old blind beggar, bandaged from brow to chin.

Eyeless, noseless, and lipless - toothless, broken of speech,
Seeking a dole at the doorway he mumbles his tale to each;
Over and over the story, ending as he began:
"Make ye no truce with Adam-zad - the Bear that walks like a Man!

"There was a flint in my musket - pricked and primed was the pan,
When I went hunting Adam-zad - the Bear that stands like a Man.
I looked my last on the timber, I looked my last on the snow,
When I went hunting Adam-zad fifty summers ago!

"I knew his times and his seasons, as he knew mine, that fed
By night in the ripened maizefield and robbed my house of bread.
I knew his strength and cunning, as he knew mine, that crept
At dawn to the crowded goat-pens and plundered while I slept.

"Up from his stony playground - down from his well-digged lair -
Out on the naked ridges ran Adam-zad the Bear -
Groaning, grunting, and roaring, heavy with stolen meals,
Two long marches to northward, and I was at his heels!

"Two long marches to northward, at the fall of the second night,
I came on mine enemy Adam-zad all panting from his flight.
There was a charge in the musket - pricked and primed was the pan -
My finger crooked on the trigger - when he reared up like a man.

"Horrible, hairy, human, with paws like hands in prayer,
Making his supplication rose Adam-zad the Bear!
I looked at the swaying shoulders, at the paunch's swag and swing,
And my heart was touched with pity for the monstrous, pleading thing.

"Touched witth pity and wonder, I did not fire then . . .
I have looked no more on women - I have walked no more with men.
Nearer he tottered and nearer, with paws like hands that pray -
From brow to jaw that steel-shod paw, it ripped my face away!

"Sudden, silent, and savage, searing as flame the blow -
Faceless I fell before his feet, fifty summers ago.
I heard him grunt and chuckle - I heard him pass to his den.
He left me blind to the darkened years and the little mercy of men.

"Now ye go down in the morning with guns of the newer style,
That load (I have felt) in the middle and range (I have heard) a mile?
Luck to the white man's rifle, that shoots so fast and true,
But - pay, and I lift my bandage and show what the Bear can do!"

(Flesh like slag in the furnace, knobbed and withered and grey -
Matun, the old blind beggar, he gives good worth for his pay.)
"Rouse him at noon in the bushes, follow and press him hard -
Not for his ragings and roarings flinch ye from Adam-zad.

"But (pay, and I put back the bandage) this is the time to fear,
When he stands up like a tired man, tottering near and near;
When he stands up as pleading, in wavering, man-brute guise,
When he veils the hate and cunning of his little, swinish eyes;

"When he shows as seeking quarter, with paws like hands in prayer
That is the time of peril - the time of the Truce of the Bear!"

Eyeless, noseless, and lipless, asking a dole at the door,
Matun, the old blind beggar, he tells it o'er and o'er;
Fumbling and feeling the rifles, warming his hands at the flame,
Hearing our careless white men talk of the morrow's game;

Over and over the story, ending as he began: -
"There is no truce with Adam-zad, the Bear that looks like a Man!"

Continue reading


Posted by Maetenloch at 09:12 PM Comments

Bad Ass: Hillary Clinton Answers Spontaneous, Impropmtu Questions from "Real Women"
Note: Even AP Says These "Real Women" "Appeared to be Reading Their Questions From a TelePrompter"

—Ace

It's a bad idea to mix paranoia and fascist tendencies with incompetency.

We should have realized that six years into Obama's assault on America.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Hillary Rodham Clinton's silence on the email controversy swirling around her is getting louder by the day.


...

Clinton spoke at a carefully choreographed two-hour event involving her No Ceilings project at the Clinton Foundation, highlighting economic and educational opportunities for women and girls. She took no questions. When she sat down to lead more informal conversations with invited speakers, participants appeared to be reading from teleprompters.

Yes, all "informal chats" are mediated via Telemprompter.

Incidentally, all the emails between the President and his alleged top diplomat?

Pretty much exposed for the world to see, because Hillary Clinton's side of it was unsecured.


So now Iran knows Obama is just as big of an anti-American terrorist sympathizer as they figured he was.


Melinda Gates, Chelsea Clinton, and Hillary Clinton
Just Three Real Women, Bein' Real

Hillary Clinton shops at the same place as Dr. No.

She actually wants you to know she's Evil.

Posted by Ace at 08:54 PM Comments

Seven Wealthy Men Keeping Their Money at the Scandal-Plagued HSBC Have Donated/Bribed $81 Million to Hillary Clinton's Bribery Storefront

—Ace

When the HSBC banking scandal broke again last month, I wondered if the Clintons were connected to it.

Duh. Of course the Clintons are connected to it.

The charitable foundation run by Hillary Clinton and her family has received as much as $81m from wealthy international donors who were clients of HSBC’s controversial Swiss bank.

Leaked files from HSBC’s Swiss banking division reveal the identities of seven donors to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation with accounts in Geneva.

...

Hillary Clinton has expressed concern over growing economic inequality in the US and is expected to make the issue a cornerstone of her widely anticipated presidential campaign in 2016. However, political observers are increasingly asking whether the former secretary of state’s focus on wealth inequality sits uncomfortably with the close relationships she and her husband have nurtured with some of the world’s richest individuals.


...

Another Clinton foundation donor who had a HSBC account in the tax haven is Jeffrey Epstein, the hedge fund manager and convicted sex offender who once flew the former president on his private jet for charity events in Africa.

One guy, named Caring, gave the foundation -- which, by the way, is largley a front group to keep the Clintons' political staff paid between elections -- one million dollars from his tax-free HSBC account in exchange for Bill Clinton's appearance at his lavish costume party in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Caring arranged for 18th century Russian costumes, borrowed from the Hermitage Museum, to be tailor-fitted for each guest at the event at Catherine the Great's Winter Palace. Photographs from the event in November 2005 show Bill Clinton, dressed as a Russian general, partying with other VIP guests such as Elizabeth Hurley. Entertainment was provided by Tina Turner and Elton John.

Caring fundraised during this event, and sent some money, he says, to a British Children's charity and.. the Clinton foundation.

But Ms. Clinton is totes a crusader against income inequality. And also, closing tax loopholes for the rich. Like HSBC.

"One of the issues that I have been preaching about around the world is collecting taxes in an equitable manner, especially from the elites in every country," Hillary Clinton told audience of the Clinton Global Initiative in 2012, when she was still secretary of state. "It is a fact that around the world, the elites of every country are making money. There are rich people everywhere. And yet they do not contribute to the growth of their own countries. They don't invest in public schools, in public hospitals, in other kinds of development internally."

...

A spokesperson for Hillary Clinton declined to comment about her family foundation’s receipt of money from donors with accounts in Geneva.

Jeffrey Epstein, Bill Clinton's convicted pedophile sex party buddy, also has several HSBC accounts in Geneva, and also donated to Clinton.

Other HSBC Geneva clients who donated $1m or more to the Clinton foundation include ex-Formula One racing driver Michael Schumacher, billionaire businessman Eli Broad, and the French hedge-fund manager Arpad Busson.

And:

Another client of HSBC Geneva to donate to the Clinton foundation is Denise Rich, the ex-wife of the late billionaire and commodities trader Marc Rich, who fled to Switzerland in 1983 after being indicted by US authorities for tax evasion, fraud and racketeering. Mark Rich was was controversially granted a presidential pardon by Bill Clinton just hours before the former president left office in 2001.

Denise Rich contributed as much as $500,000 to the Clinton foundation. Now 70, she is reported to have recently renounced her US citizenship, becoming tax-resident in Austria. She did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The biggest donor, who may have donated more than $50 million to Clinton (we don't know for sure), is a Canadian mining magnate named Frank Giustra.

Per Wikipedia, in between forming Lionsgate Entertainment, which then distributed Michael Moore's Farenheit 9/11, Giustra seems to get a certain amount of economic benefit from his sponsorship of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign:

Mr. Giustra became close with former US President Bill Clinton during fundraising efforts for tsunami relief in 2004. Giustra is a member of the board of trustees of the Clinton Foundation. Giustra provided his corporate jet for Clinton's fundraising campaign in Africa. The two play the card game Oh Hell during flights. In September 2005, Giustra flew Clinton to Kazakhstan as part of a three-country philanthropic tour. Clinton praised the Kazakh autocrat for "this statement you have made about opening up the social and political life [of Kazakhstan]". Within two days of the former President's meeting with Kazakhstan’s president Nursultan Nazarbayev, Giustra's fledgling uranium company signed preliminary agreements giving it the right to buy into three uranium projects controlled by the state-owned uranium agency, Kazatomprom. "The monster deal stunned the mining industry, turning an unknown shell company into one of the world’s largest uranium producers."[14][15] In 2006, in the months after Mr. Clinton's visit helped secure Giustra's company the right to mine uranium in Kazakhstan, Mr. Giustra donated $31.3 million to the Clinton Foundation.[14] This figure is at variance with the one released by the William J. Clinton Foundation (on the 18 December 2008), as part of an arrangement with President-elect Barack Obama. It reports Frank Giustra as giving between US$10–25 million.[16]
Posted by Ace at 07:13 PM Comments

Shock: Hillary Clinton Sent Over 55,000 Physical Paper Pages of Email Print-Outs to State, Which (and I'm Sure This Is Just a Happy Incident) Cannot Be Searched Except by Hand

—Ace

Scumbag.

Like a mobster paying his bail in nickels -- the Clintons are gangsters and, as criminals tend to be, are innately contemptuous of the law.

Why did Mrs. Clinton have her staff go through the trouble of printing out, boxing and shipping 50,000 or 55,000 pages instead of just sending a copy of the electronic record? One can only speculate, but there is an obvious advantage: Printed files are less informative and far harder to search than the electronic originals.

Because State has only printouts of emails, department personnel responding to a Freedom of Information Act request have to go through the whole haystack rather than type "needle" into a search engine. At best, that would mean long delays in FOIA compliance.

Likewise, printouts are not subject to electronic discovery in the event of investigation or lawsuit. The Times reports that department lawyers responding to a request from the House Select Committee on Benghazi took two months to find "roughly 900 pages pertaining to the Benghazi attacks." And printouts do not include electronic "metadata," which can provide crucial forensic evidence.

I'm sure this is all just an accident.

Taranto points out that Politifact, the alleged "fact" checking organization, claimed that Clinton turned over 55,000 emails.

Accurate as ever, Politifact.


Thanks to @comradearthur.

Posted by Ace at 06:02 PM Comments

Obama: Um, Okay, Actually I Did Know Hillary Was Using a Private Email Service

—Ace

Just a few days ago, the White House claimed that it only became aware of this issue in August 2014, when Hillary inveighed upon them to keep it quiet.

Now Josh Earnest "clarifies" -- "clarifies" is a White House euphemism for "completely reverses a previously-told falsehood" -- that in fact Obama did notice that Hillary was using private email since like forever ago, but didn't know the exact extent of her usage of it, nor that she had completely refused to even set up a government email.

"I would not describe the numbers of emails as large.... He was not aware of the details of how that email address and that server had been set up," Earnest said.

That's a shift from Saturday, March 7, when Obama told CBS that he learned about Clinton’s private email system at "the same time everybody else learned it through news reports."

This constant dissembling from the White House, in which broad and emphatic untruths are later replaced, less prominently, but selective disclosures, is a calculated technique of deception. The White House knows that people firm their strongest, most enduring perceptions of an issue just as they form perceptions of a person -- first impressions dominate all subsequent information learned.

So the White House always -- always -- chooses to lie very big in the beginning, to establish that First Impression in the minds of the public, which will never completely dislodge, that they "didn't know" this or that.

Then, once that deception is implanted, they offer less false (but often, still pretty false) accounts.

Posted by Ace at 04:39 PM Comments

Apple Unveils Apple Watch

—Ace

They claim their cold-forged stainless steel makes the watch "60% more gayballz".

Looking at the alleged "best apps for the Apple Watch" -- all of which are easily done on a phone -- I can't help thinking that the Apple Watch is a $600 solution in search of a problem (and that's the cost of the watch with the base (lame) watchband --the watchband you actually want will cost you up to $400 more).

I thought this product was an unlikely gamble, but John Ekdahl pointed out, correctly, that given the new Fitness Monitor craze, there exists a potential pre-existing audience for a watch that can do a bunch of things. While the Apple Watch canceled a bunch of planned fitness-monitor technologies, they apparently kept the heart-rate monitor, allowing the Watch to compete, in theory, with Jawbone, Fitbit, Garmin, and so forth.

But I don't know. I have a heart-rate monitor and I find it to be a not very useful thing. I don't know what to do with it. It's largely trivia, rather than useable information.

So I don't know about spending $600-1000 for the midrange Apple Watch.

The lower cost "sport" version, made of aluminum, will cost $350 for the smaller (woman's) version and $400 for the larger (man's) version. The midrange version, in stainless steel, will cost $550 for the woman's version, and $600 for the men's. And then add on several hundred dollars for a decent band.

The top-of-the-line gold version, I don't even want to get into.

One thing I think was potentially attractive about the Apple Watch was price. The Apple Watch would be a stylish little gizmo, as most Apple products are. That means it could, say, compete in the Stylish Wrist Jewelry market with, say, Tag Heuer.

But I assumed, stupidly, it would be cheaper than a Tag Heuer.

If it's pretty much the same price as a Tag Heuer, why not just buy the Tag Heuer?

Eh, I thought this would flop, and then John Ekdahl was all like "no, it will be soooo awesome," but never listen to John Ekdahl. He's an idiot.

Posted by Ace at 03:48 PM Comments

The Obama Administration Found That US Companies' "Charitable Donations" To Foreign Governments, When They Had Business Before That Government, Constituted Disguised Bribes; Why Would Foreign Governments' Donations to the Clinton Foundation Not Count Then

—Ace

Because they're The Clintons and The Rules Don't Apply to Them?

Only possible answer. Mollie Hemingway's case is airtight.

Last week the Washington Post reported that Algeria gave half a million dollars to Bill and Hillary Clinton's foundation while at the same time lobbying Hillary Clinton at the State Department. At a forum in Miami this weekend, Bill Clinton defended taking money from Algeria and other countries while his wife held a high-level government position....

One interesting way to look at the ethics of such a donation is how the U.S. government handles donations to foreign charities by U.S. entities lobbying government officials. Remember this part of the Post story:

The money was given to assist with earthquake relief in Haiti, the foundation said. At the time, Algeria, which has sought a closer relationship with Washington, was spending heavily to lobby the State Department on human rights issues.

If the money was given for the stated purpose of earthquake relief, does that make the donation clean even though Algeria sought something from Hillary Clinton's agency?

In 2011 and 2012, the Obama administration’s Securities and Exchange Commission levied large penalties against U.S. pharmaceutical companies for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. These included Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, and Eli Lilly and Company. Among the charges was making donations to a charitable foundation in Poland.

That charitable foundation was run by an official with a regional health ministry who had the authority to make pharmaceutical purchasing decisions. The charitable foundation was legitimate and the foundation’s work was for a good cause. But the U.S. government found that the donation still had a corrupt purpose.

And the US government fined those companies nearly thirty million dollars for those barely-disguised bribes.

What penalty will Ms. Clinton pay?

Posted by Ace at 02:58 PM Comments

Report: Brian Williams Blocked Stories Critical of Obama on the Grounds That They Were "Divisive"

—Ace

Via Hot Air, Gabriel Sherman makes this disclosure at New York magazine:


The Nightly News crisis exposed deep-rooted anger among many NBC journalists, who felt frustrated that Williams had been allowed to gain so much power. In recent years, the anchor had churned through executive producers who challenged him.

Others complained about Williams’s unwillingness to go after hard-hitting stories. Multiple sources told me that former NBC investigative reporters Michael Isikoff and Lisa Myers battled with Williams over stories. In February 2013, Isikoff failed to interest Williams in a piece about a confidential Justice Department memo that justified killing American citizens with drones. He instead broke the story on Rachel Maddow. That October, Myers couldn’t get Williams to air a segment about how the White House knew as far back as 2010 that some people would lose their insurance policies under Obama­care. Frustrated, Myers posted the article on NBC's website, where it immediately went viral. Williams relented and ran it the next night. "He didn’t want to put stories on the air that would be divisive," a senior NBC journalist told me. According to a source, Myers wrote a series of scathing memos to then–NBC senior vice-president Antoine Sanfuentes documenting how Williams suppressed her stories. ­Myers and Isikoff eventually left the network (and both declined to comment).

Brian Williams, you may remember, wanted to become the host of the Tonight Show, but NBC said "no."

I mention that because Brian Williams seemed to have the exact same policies about negative stories about Obama that Saturday Night Live did, a show he had occasionally appeared on. And of course SNL and left-wing comedians in genera are not interested in criticizing Obama; they too find it "divisive."

Williams seems to have had the same conception for news that a very partisan comedy show did.

Posted by Ace at 01:15 PM Comments

Open Thread

—rdbrewer


Wassily Kandinsky, "Houses in Murnau on Obermarkt" (1908)

Posted by rdbrewer at 11:01 AM Comments

DOOM: I make the cloak of sorrow

—Monty

DOOOOM

Welcome to the DOOM Room, hepcats and kittens. It's the only club in town that serves brown liquor and bad news in equal portions. Here's three fingers of catastrophe in a short glass. Drink responsibly.

Yet another example of why defined-benfit pensions are a horrible idea. I'm sure the AARP (the geezer arm of the Democrat propaganda ministry) intends this piece as a call for more welfare spending on the elderly -- because that's really the fundamental message of everything the AARP publishes -- but they unintentionally make the point that relying solely on a pension (or Social Security, for that matter) for your retirement income is a bad idea. It's vital to plan to have multiple sources of retirement income -- personal savings, investments, assets, etc. in addition to pension and Social Security benefits.

There is no such thing as a guarantee in the financial world -- or in the world more generally, for that matter. A promise to pay is only as good as the ability to pay.

Ferguson and the modern debtor's prison. Ferguson isn't about race, except as viewed through the warped lens of the current Administration. The Michael Brown story, as reported, was a media fiction, but there was an actual outrage being committed in Ferguson. The larger story is about runaway government using the legal system as a stealth tax-collection agency. It's an outrage, and Ferguson is far from the only place where this is a problem. This isn't about cops catching murderers, rapists, and thieves; this is about the justice system shaking down citizens for tinted windows and beautician's license violations. A truly free people wouldn't stand for this kind of crap. (And don't get me started about the relentless creep of government regulation on things that don't need to be regulated.)

As Kevin D. Williamson writes: "When the law does not apply to the lawmakers and law-enforcers, you are not being governed: You are being ruled. And we are ruled by criminals."

Mr. Williamson also has some wise thoughts about student debt. Buyer's remorse is not sufficient reason to repudiate a legally-incurred debt, kids. If you signed on the dotted line, you're responsible for paying off the debt. If you find the terms too onerous or the return on the investment too meager...well, that mistake is on you, not the bank. One of the responsibilities of an adult is to educate yourself on how to conduct your own financial affairs. If you can't bothered to do that, then maybe you're not ready to be an adult yet, and shouldn't be borrowing money.

Continue reading


Posted by Monty at 09:30 AM Comments

Morning Thread (3-9-2015)

—Andy

I want my hour back.

Posted by Andy at 05:18 AM Comments

Overnight Open Thread (3-8-2015)

—Maetenloch

Quote of the Day

The Clintons are creeps and liars and scoundrels and misfits, always have been, always will be. They are the penicillin-resistant syphilis of American politics.

...A self-respecting people would have sent this clan of scrofulous grifters and po-faced con artists into whatever passes for exile (comfortable exile, of course) in the 21st century. Instead, we are giving them a serious shot at a return to the White House.

At least this time, we'll know to keep an eye on the silver.

-- Kevin Williamson in Next!

Quote of the Day II

Civilization is not the enemy of mankind; it is an advancement. The chief beneficiaries of civilization -- PhD's -- love to mock it.

-- Don Surber on the supposed racism and anti-scientism of three regular meals a day

SNL vs. Hillary!

Brutal. But then Hillary has always been an unlikeable person and a poor politician.

Hillary Clinton to Take Down Iconic Photo of Her Holding Blackberry

After going through a week of embarrassing media coverage about a secret private email account she used exclusively while serving as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton is set on Sunday to disappear from her Twitter account a famous photo of her holding a Blackberry that has become politically inconvenient as it reminds viewers of the email scandal instead of her 'badass cool.'

Clinton announced Saturday she will be taking her social media photos down as part of a conveniently timed Clinton Foundation women's rights campaign called "Not There".

hillaryblackberry2

And here are some of the other Hillary private email addresses that were created and presumably used since a hacker was able to compile this list:

Other accounts included:
  • hdr@clintonemail.com
  • hdr18@clintonemail.com
  • hdr19@clintonemail.com
  • hdr20@clintonemail.com
  • hdr21@clintonemail.com
  • h.clinton@clintonemail.com
  • Hillary@clintonemail.com
  • contact@clintonemail.com
  • mau_suit@clintonemail.com (?!)

Continue reading


Posted by Maetenloch at 09:05 PM Comments

Footsteps of the Ewok - A Journey of Discovery [Weirddave]

—Open Blogger

I mentioned yesterday that I spent the day in New York City. I decided to have lunch at a little place in the East Village called Sunny and Annie's. I was curious to try their pho sandwich. Guess what? It really does taste like pho. Sitting in Tompkins Square Park, munching on a soup sandwich, I couldn't decide where to go next. Finally deciding on midtown, I walked over and caught the L to 8th Ave. As I exited train and came into the station, what to my wondering eyes should appear but this:

Continue reading


Posted by Open Blogger at 07:31 PM Comments

Food Thread: The Existential Threat of DNA Laden Foods [CBD]

—Open Blogger

200_DNA_Double_Helix-02.jpg

A recent survey by the Oklahoma State University Department of Agricultural Economics finds that over 80 percent of Americans support "mandatory labels on foods containing DNA," about the same number as support mandatory labeling of GMO foods "produced with genetic engineering."

WARNING: This product contains deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). The Surgeon General has determined that DNA is linked to a variety of diseases in both animals and humans. In some configurations, it is a risk factor for cancer and heart disease. Pregnant women are at very high risk of passing on DNA to their children.

Maybe SMOD really is the only answer.

Continue reading


Posted by Open Blogger at 04:00 PM Comments

Weekend Thread: SOOie! Iowa Ag Summit [Y-not]

—Open Blogger

Many of the 2016 GOP hopefuls attended the Iowa Agricultural Summit this weekend.

Some were well-received:

(More here)

Some... not so much:

Continue reading


Posted by Open Blogger at 12:27 PM Comments

Is There A Cure? Will Pharmacology Save Us? [CBD]

—Open Blogger

Open Thread......and a little tidbit of joy below the fold

Continue reading


Posted by Open Blogger at 11:10 AM Comments

Sunday Morning Book Thread 03-08-2015: Hating Normal Life [OregonMuse]

—Open Blogger


BayBridge.jpg
The Summer of Love

(pic stolen from here)

Good morning to all of you morons and moronettes and bartenders everywhere and all the ships at sea. Welcome to AoSHQ's stately, prestigious, and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread. The only AoSHQ thread that is so hoity-toity, pants are required. Or kilts. Kilts are OK, too. But not tutus. Unless you're a girl.


Book Quote

Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?

-Henry Ward Beecher


Civilization And Its Discontents

You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone:

Dr. Dylan Evans, a respected behavioral psychologist, and an expert on robots and artificial intelligence...in 2006, sold his house in the Cotswolds and its contents, and moved to the Black Isle in Scotland to found a self-sufficient community in a remote valley, with a group of acolytes he had recruited on-line. The project was called the Utopia Experiment, and the idea was to attempt to imagine, through real-life role-playing, the conditions that might exist in the aftermath of society's collapse.

So was this an earnest attempt at Utopia, or an honest-to-goodness attempt at it? This review seems to think that Evans was a serious nutter who wanted to, and thought he could, create a utopian society out there in the wilderness.

But whatever it the case, it didn't work out so well:

Factions formed with different views about the future of the human race, and competition and fighting broke out. The yurts they lived in leaked rain. The vegetables they farmed wouldn't grow. Dylan began to fear for his sanity, and then his life.

Fighting? In Utopia? Whoever heard of such a thing?

...by the time he came to write this book [Evans] realized he was delusional. Though he had no difficulty recruiting like-minded eccentrics to join him in his 'experimental community'...Evans admits that his utopia was doomed to failure.

But he did write a book about this experiences, The Utopia Experiment, wherein he presumably learned to appreciate cooked food, clean sheets and a hot shower.

This appears to be a recurring conceit in modern life. Every now and then, someone gets bored with the comfort and prosperity they've grown accustomed to. and thinks they can just do away with civilization and everything will be just fine. Like 50 years ago when a group of people in California started experimenting with marijuana and LSD and soon the drugs so addled their brains that they began to delude themselves into thinking they could build a sustainable civilization on panhandling, free sex, and selling beads to tourists. They were like 3-year-old children who think they're actually flying when their Daddy lifts them up in the air and swings them around. A number of histories have been written about this cultural breaking point, for example, this one, which is a .pdf file you can download for free) and I think they tend to be a bit hagiographic, since "the 60s" are looked upon with great reverence by the culturally dominant baby-boomers. However, writer and critic Tom Wolfe observed things that the boomers would prefer to forget:

In 1968, in San Francisco, I came across a curious footnote to the hippie movement. At the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic, there were doctors treating diseases no living doctor had ever encountered before, diseases that had disappeared so long ago they had never even picked up Latin names, diseases such as the mange, the grunge, the itch, the twitch, the thrush, the scroff, the rot. And how was it that they now returned?...The hippies sought nothing less than to sweep aside all codes and restraints of the past and start from zero...Among the codes and restraints that people in the communes swept aside...were those that said you shouldn't use other people's toothbrushes or sleep on other people's mattresses without changing the sheets...or that you and five other people shouldn't drink from the same bottle of Shasta or take tokes from the same cigarette. And now, in 1968, they were relearning...the laws of hygiene...by getting the mange, the grunge, the itch, the twitch, the thrush, the scroff, the rot.

All of this and bedbugs, too. And STDs. Which is why the expression "dirty hippie" or "filthy hippie" is more than mere invective. That whole social experiment really did create some serious health issues for the city of San Francisco that the "free clinics" that were set up only partially addressed.

This was from his article 'The Great Relearning' which was reprinted in Hooking Up (Ceramic Transactions), an anthology of Wolfe's essays which can actually be read in its entirety online here.

There are a couple of other essays in the collection that I think are worth noting. The first is 'The Invisible Artist', a biography of American artist Frederick Hart (who died way too young in 1999) who went against modern art trends and sculpted figures of people that actually looked like people. His best known sculpture is probably 'Daughters of Odessa', an allegorical representation of Faith, Hope, Beauty, and Innocence personified by the four daughters of Czar Nicholas II, who along with him were cruelly murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1917. The sculpture is subtitled 'Martyrs of Modernism.' Hart was a devout Roman Catholic who believed that the old-fashioned virtues (such as Faith, Hope, Beauty, and Innocence) were good things and that art ought to show them.

Google 'Frederick Hart' and look at his sculptures. He did some amazing work, particularly with acrylic.

The other essay in this collection which I found quite interesting is 'Two Young Men Who Went West', an examination of the theological(!) roots of Silicon Valley corporate culture. Specifically, how the engineer who was given seed money to get Fairchild Semiconductor up and running was raised in an area of Iowa dominated by Congregationalist churches, and so, even though he wasn't a believer, even though he never internalized the faith of his parents, nevertheless adopted that denomination's fiercely non-hierarchical ecclesiastical structure into his new company, and how it was radically different than the corporate culture of the parent company back East, and how it affected other Silicon Valley start-up companies. He went on to another start-up, Intel.

Both essays make for very fascinating reading, and in my opinion, are worth the price of the book.

Continue reading


Posted by Open Blogger at 09:10 AM Comments

Early Morning Thread 3/08/15: In Search of a New Drug edition. [krakatoa]

—Open Blogger

At least I'm only running from my nose & lungs, so I got that going for me.

Any idea whether a pressurized cabin will make my head explode? I want to ask the airline, but I'm afraid that's the kind of question that gets one pulled out of line by the TSA.

Posted by Open Blogger at 06:00 AM Comments

Overnight Open Thread (7 Mar 2015)

—CDR M

Don't forget to move your clocks up an hour tonight for daylight saving time again.

Continue reading


Posted by CDR M at 10:05 PM Comments

Your Hill To Die On - [Niedermeyer's Dead Horse]

—Open Blogger

We kick off the official season for bullshit polling reports with the first official Dead Horse Poll: Hill to Die On Edition.

A couple of weeks ago, Y-Not put up a fun post which asked you to build your own FrankenPOTUS. It was an interesting read with everyone from the founding fathers to John Wayne making an appearance as those possessing the must-have qualities for leader of the free world.

In lieu of an actual FrankenPOTUS, let's consider the those issues on which you absolutely will not compromise. What is your hill to die on? Let's establish, first, those issue on which you will not budge. Later we'll look at it from a different angle and ask about those issues on which you are willing to compromise.

Note that a number of the issues are broken down into pro and con positions to allow for the diversity of readers here at the HQ.

Happy voting!

Continue reading


Posted by Open Blogger at 07:55 PM Comments

Programming Note: Saturday Night Cigar Lounge

—Andy

I'll be on the Saturday Night Cigar Lounge talking guns with Taylor Millard tonight at 10pm Eastern.


I mean, if I can't show up for our own podcast, I can at least show up for someone else's, right?

Speaking of the award-winning AoSHQ Podcast, here's the first single to be cut from it. It debuted at #10 with a bullet ...

Continue reading


Posted by Andy at 04:35 PM Comments

Saturday Gardening Thread: Let's Eat! [Y-not and KT]

—Open Blogger

Good afternoon, Gardeners! Welcome to the Saturday Gardening Thread. Today's thread is brought to you by "Mushrooms and earthworms and fancy stuff to eat":

There's not much happening in my garden yet. Our mint and strawberry plants are coming back, as are a few onions and shallots. My neighbors' crocuses and daffodils are also starting to make their presence known as I discovered while walking my dog yesterday:

Bulb.JPG

However, I do have a little indoors growing project underway, courtesy of a kit that Santa brought me:

HomeMushroomKit.jpg

I started it a couple of weeks ago. I'm not sure I'll know when it's time to harvest the mushrooms. I may go ahead and cut some off now and see if more will emerge as I free up some room on the growing surface.

This particular kit is easy as pie. You just scrape the surface to promote growth, soak the growing surface for half a day or so, then keep it moist by spritzing it with water. I have it on a counter in my utility area, away from direct light.

Continue reading


Posted by Open Blogger at 12:45 PM Comments

Emergency Backup Open Thread [Y-not]

—Open Blogger

Here's a thread for Vic's news links while we watch some morning cartoons.

photo-2.JPG

Politics thread will be up in an hour or so.

**BUMPED TO GIVE YOU NON-GARDENING FOLKS AN OPEN THREAD FOR CHIT-CHAT.**

Posted by Open Blogger at 12:44 PM Comments

Fundamental Concepts - Weakness Invites Aggression [Weirddave]

—Open Blogger

It's human nature to live in your own bubble. We have only experienced the world that we live in, so naturally many people assume that the world as it is is its default state. In order to move beyond this paradigm, one must first be introspective enough to recognize it, then take the time and effort to study history and culture to examine whether your norm is anything at all like the human norm through history. Often times this forces one to confront truths that may be, like life, nasty and brutish. For example, students are taught today that the shameful reality of slavery in America is somehow unique and uniquely horrible. It is only through further study that one discovers that slavery has been practiced in almost all human cultures for as long as human beings have been around. In fact, it was the hated Judeo-Christian civilization that recognized it for the evil that it is and fought to eliminate it. Slavery is still practiced today across much of the Arab world and in vast swaths of Africa. What little slavery remains in the West (sex slavery) is universally condemned and vigorously prosecuted. Recognizing that slavery is not a uniquely American phenomenon, and that there is still lots of it around can be a distressing challenge to a world view that has been unexamined. Acknowledging that the West is the only culture in the history of mankind that has for all practical purposes eradicated it can destroy that world view.

Continue reading


Posted by Open Blogger at 10:53 AM Comments

Saturday Morning Politics Thread: Medicaid Expansion [Y-not]

—Open Blogger

Good morning, horde! Today we'll examine the field of prospective 2016 GOP candidates for their positions on Medicaid expansion, in particular as it relates to Obamacare.

First, a little background:

Title XIX of the Social Security Act is a federal and state entitlement program that pays for medical assistance for certain individuals and families with low incomes and resources. This program, known as Medicaid, became law in 1965 as a cooperative venture jointly funded by the federal and state governments (including the District of Columbia and the territories) to assist states in furnishing medical assistance to eligible needy persons. Medicaid is the largest source of funding for medical and health-related services for America's poorest people.

Within broad national guidelines established by federal statutes, regulations, and policies, each state establishes its own eligibility standards; determines the type, amount, duration, and scope of services; sets the rate of payment for services; and administers its own program. Medicaid policies for eligibility, services, and payment are complex and vary considerably, even among states of similar size or geographic proximity. Thus, a person who is eligible for Medicaid in one state may not be eligible in another state, and the services provided by one state may differ considerably in amount, duration, or scope from services provided in a similar or neighboring state. In addition, state legislatures may change Medicaid eligibility, services, and/or reimbursement at any time.

Follow the link to read about the alphabet soup of subsequent programs, including CHIP, CHIPRA, PPACA, and HCERA under which Medicaid has expanded over the years. Then go down a fifth of ValuRite and wander back.

Under Obamacare, states have been induced to expand Medicaid coverage. From the ACA website:

Continue reading


Posted by Open Blogger at 09:00 AM Comments

Early Morning Thread 3/07/15: Nyquil Edition. [krakatoa]

—Open Blogger

I dreamed I posted actual content with this morning thread.

Then I woke up late, took some more medicine, hit "publish", and went back to bed.

Posted by Open Blogger at 08:00 AM Comments

Overnight Open Thread (6 Mar 2015)

—CDR M

Saudi Arabia might be drafting nuclear back-up plan. Of course they are. Egypt is too. And we're falling over backwards helping Iran get theirs.

Continue reading


Posted by CDR M at 10:17 PM Comments

Pre-ONT

—Ace

WTF?

Continue reading


Posted by Ace at 09:33 PM Comments

Obama White House Admits to Knowing About Secret Emails Since Last August; Hillary Asked Them to Keep It Secret

—Ace

Of course.

And I'll bet they knew before August 2014 too.

The White House, State Department and Hillary Clinton's personal office knew in August that House Republicans had received information showing that the former secretary of state conducted official government business through her private email account -- and Clinton's staff made the decision to keep quiet.


Sources familiar with the discussions say key people in the Obama administration and on Clinton's staff were aware that the revelation could be explosive for the all-but-announced candidate for president. But those involved deferred to Clinton’s aides, and they decided not to respond.

In the end, Clinton’s staff waited six months -- until after the New York Times published a story on Tuesday about the email account and the possibility that it hampered public access to official records -- to begin their response.

Clinton's slow-off-the-block defense has left many political strategists and observers confused because even a presidential campaign in its early stages should have been prepared to get out ahead of bad news.

And Open Thread. I know, Crap Week of Output.

Posted by Ace at 05:38 PM Comments

AoSHQ Podcast: Guest, Kristina Ribali

—Andy

Kristina Ribali, Senior Coalitions Director for the Foundation for Government Accountability, joins Ace, Gabe, Drew and John to discuss the FGA's work blocking Medicaid expansion and reforming state welfare programs. Focus then turns to Hillary Clinton's emails and Bradley Cooper's eyes.

Intro: Clintonemail.com
Outro: Message In A Bottle - The Police

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Open thread in the comments

Posted by Andy at 04:04 PM Comments

Democrats: If Republicans Attempt to Demote John Boehner, We'll Keep Him In the Speakership

—Ace

I don't want to be an asshole and re-open old wounds, but remember when the "Crazies" wanted to demote Boehner back in January, and said how crazy it was, and told the crazies to shut up, and were generally super-proud of themselves for not being so Crazy?

Seriously, you people who pride yourselves as being The Thinkers and the Reasonable Ones should try thinking occasionally, and giving reason a try.

So anyway, Boehner is essentially the Democratic Speaker of the House. He now has to play to them; they have leverage on him.

And he so wants to keep that nice office.

Posted by Ace at 03:40 PM Comments

Feds Preparing Criminal Corruption Charges Against Democratic Senator Bob Menendez

—Ace

You may remember that Menendez took flights on a wealthy doctor's plane, often down to the Dominican Republican, and did not reimburse that doctor (that is, he took the flights as illegal gifts).

Reportedly he will be facing charges for working political favors in exchange for gifts.

People briefed on the case say Attorney General Eric Holder has signed off on prosecutors' request to proceed with charges, CNN has learned exclusively. An announcement could come within weeks. Prosecutors are under pressure in part because of the statute of limitation on some of the allegations.

The case could pose a high-profile test of the Justice Department's ability to prosecute sitting lawmakers, having already spawned a legal battle over whether key evidence the government has gathered is protected by the Constitution's Speech and Debate clause.

The FBI and prosecutors from the Justice Department's public integrity section, have pursued a variety of allegations against Menendez, who has called the probe part of "smear campaign" against him.

The government's case centers on Menendez's relationship with Salomon Melgen, a Florida ophthalmologist who the senator has called a friend and political supporter. Melgen and his family have been generous donors to the senator and various committees the senator is associated with.

...

Menendez advocated on Melgen's behalf with federal Medicare administrators who accused Melgen of overbilling the government's healthcare program, according to court documents and people briefed on the probe. Melgen was among the top recipients of Medicare reimbursements in recent years, during a time when he was also a major Democratic donor. Melgen's attorneys have denied any wrongdoing.

Menendez also used US government pressure to lobby the Dominican Republic to give Melgen a huge contract for a port's cargo screening equipment. Why an opthamalogist is in the Port Screening Equipment Business I don't know.

One part of this story remains, I think, well debunked: The "underaged prostitutes" who accused Menendez may have been put up to it by other business interests (maybe other people in the apparently lucrative Port Screening Equipment industry).

Menendez has been the target of a federal grand jury since 2013.

I don't think the Conspiracy Angle makes sense, though I did wonder about it, but yes, if you're wondering, that's right, you do remember Menendez taking a high profile position against Barack Obama's Iran deal.

The Did-Obama-Do-This-For-Iran game is big this week. We talked about it on the podcast.


Posted by Ace at 02:22 PM Comments

Valerie Jarrett Offered Opportunity to Defend Hillary Clinton, But Declines

—Ace

Yeah, no.

She talks up how important "transparency" is to the lying grifter Obama. When asked if she would fire someone conducting all of his business on private email, she declines to answer that "hypothetical."

Continue reading


Posted by Ace at 01:08 PM Comments

Open Thread

—rdbrewer


Frederic Remington, "French Explorer's Council with the Indians"
(c. 1901)

Posted by rdbrewer at 10:11 AM Comments

Morning Thread (3-6-2015)

—Andy

Friday!

Posted by Andy at 06:20 AM Comments



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Top Headlines

Editorial: The public deserves answers, not stonewalling, from Hillary Clinton
"Dispatching friendly politicians and former aides to television news shows to dismiss the issue as just politics does not help her cause. If she is elected president, can Americans expect a similar response when she faces difficult questions...?" [rdbrewer]
Lena Dunham on how it feels to be called a fat cow every day. "It feels fat." I'm guessing. I didn't actually read it. But it's an educated guess. [krak/t]
#47Traitors is now trending, which essentially proves Ace's Obama/MacGuffin theory.
[JohnE.]
Barrons responds to the outrage over their equating of Clarance Thomas with the KKK in a study guide
You can find the original story here. They're saying it was an error and that they are halting shipping of the guide and destroying stock. [rdbrewer]

Univ. of Cambridge: Your brain might not be as ‘old’ as you think
"Our standard way of measuring brain activity could be giving us a misleading picture of how our brains age...." [rdbrewer]


Dana Milbank: Democrats are Dana Milbank is not so fired up about Hillary Clinton
If he were, he'd say the Democrats were fired up whether it was true or not. [rdbrewer]


Michael Bastasch: More Evidence Of Climate Data Tampering By NOAA?
"When Dr. Roy Spencer looked up summer temperature data for the U.S. Corn Belt, it showed no warming trend for over a century. But that was before temperatures were 'adjusted' by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration climate scientists. Now the same data shows a significant warming trend." [rdbrewer]


Apocalypse Newark
A politician, no matter how badly he’s botched the job, can still always scare voters into believing things could be worse. [rdbrewer]
Physical security of the Clinton e-mail server. Ace and others have been raising the issue here, but a former military contractor w/experience setting up and running secure e-mail servers weighs in as well. Bottom line: either the gov't set it up and knew all about it, or they didn't and there's a massive security hole. [Fritzworth]

11th Generation Lincoln
Awwwww! [dri]
Christina Hoff Sommers, AEI: The war on gamers continues
Video. "A major humanitarian group has just come out with a lesson plan for high school students on sexism in video games. It is full of propaganda, vilifies gaming and gamers, and is likely to discourage young women from playing." [rdbrewer]


USA Today: Report: Tim Tebow can finally throw a spiral
Fine, but we're concerned about touchdowns or style? If those ugly ducks were winning games, who cares? At any rate, my worry about tryouts is that he's the kind of guy who needs game pressure to perform. [rdbrewer]

CBS Sports: Tim Tebow 'throwing very accurate,' could try out at NFL veteran combine
Via Drudge. "But the left-handed college football analyst could show up at the next one after extensive training with Tom Brady's quarterback coach." Let's hope that works out. Nothing like exciting football. [rdbrewer]

Sean Davis: The Obama Administration’s M855 Ammo Ban Is Blatantly Lawless
"The ATF has no statutory authority to ban the manufacture of M855 rifle ammunition." [rdbrewer]

Dog says hello [rdbrewer]

Make a dog happy today [rdbrewer]


Clinton e-mails prompt another inquiry on Capitol Hill
"[Grassley] didn’t know, until last week, that Clinton was exclusively using a private e-mail account that could contain relevant information about Clinton’s use of the so-called 'special government employee' program." [rdbrewer]
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Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
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