Overnight Open Thread (6-21-2015)

Quote of the Day I

The problem with reductio ad absurdum arguments is that, all too often, your opponent simply embraces the absurdity and runs with it.

-- Robert Tracinski

Quote of the Day II

Oh, Miley. Thanks for giving us the best example of what "tolerance" looks like in Hollywood: it looks a lot like contempt.

-- Bristol Palin responding to Miley Cyrus claiming she's the least judgmental person in the world, then immediately condemning Christian fundamentalists and her own parents.

Quote of the Day III

"Marge, don't discourage the boy! Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals! Except the weasel."

-- Homer Simpson

Charleston Shooting Brings Out the Worst In Liberals

WaPo's Baynard Woods opines:

[I]t is up to white people to rescue white people from our own worst selves, from the distorted monsters we have allowed ourselves to become.

And to join in with John Hinderaker what do you mean 'we' white man? I don't feel any kinship with a billion other white people solely due to their skin color being the same as mine. My skin color is literally the least interesting thing about me so it seems completely weird to build a whole identity around it. It'd be like having a identity based around having type O blood and defending type O culture against the dirty, lesser types of A, B, and the <shudder> type AB. Blood type war anyone? Yeah right. So don't lecture me about the actions of some weirdo racist murderer in SC whose skin happens to resemble mine. I'm not in the mood for it. But I just hope and pray he's not a type O - because then I would feel shame. :roll:

Liberal Hypocrisy in Two Tweets

Bill Maher Finds the Cause of the Charleston Attack and it's...Matt Lewis of the Daily Caller

Defending Alexander Hamilton

Here Molly Newmark makes the case that Hamilton deserves to be on our currency more than most presidents do.

Hamilton was undeniably the most influential person in our history who never attained the presidency. That he started out as an illegitimate, effectively orphaned, and penniless immigrant from the Caribbean, who didn't know a soul when he arrived in North America at the start of the American Revolution, makes his story worth celebrating in a nation of immigrants. His contributions to forging our country were gigantic and pervasive, starting with his starring role in the Revolutionary War, when he served as aide-de-camp and chief of staff to George Washington, and as a battlefield hero at Yorktown.

After the war, he personally issued the appeal for a Constitutional Convention, attended it, and was the sole New York delegate to sign the resulting document. To help ratify the new constitution, he spearheaded the writing of The Federalist Papers, publishing fifty-one of those eighty-five luminous essays. They remain the classic gloss on our Constitution and the documents most frequently cited by the Supreme Court. At the New York State Ratifying Convention, Hamilton spoke twenty-six times during a grueling six-week marathon and got the constitution ratified by a narrow margin in a key state

...In 1789, George Washington tapped the thirty-four-year-old Hamilton as the first Treasury secretary. With its tax collectors and customs inspectors, Hamilton's Treasury Department eclipsed in size the rest of the federal government combined, making him something akin to a prime minister. Drawing on a blank slate, Hamilton arose as the visionary architect of the executive branch, forming from scratch the first fiscal, monetary, tax, and accounting systems. In quick succession, he assembled the Coast Guard, the customs service, and the Bank of the United States-the first central bank and the forerunner of the Federal Reserve System. Most significantly, he took a country bankrupted by revolutionary war debt and restored American credit. All the while, he articulated an expansive vision of the Constitution, converting it into an elastic document that could grow with a dynamic young country.

One reason Hamilton was vilified by his enemies is that they feared him as an agent of modernity at a time when his Jeffersonian opponents espoused an American future that stressed traditional agriculture and small towns. In a stupendous leap, Hamilton argued for a thriving nation populated by cities, banks, corporations, and stock exchanges as well as traditional agriculture. In his famous Report on Manufactures, he enumerated how government could foster manufacturing and provide employment for immigrants. He shaped, in a virtuoso performance, America's financial infrastructure in its entirety. On the Wall Street of the early 1790s, only five securities were traded: three issues of Treasury securities, the stock of the Bank of the United States, and the stock of the private Bank of New York-all created by Alexander Hamilton.

Especially pertinent in the controversy over the ten-dollar bill is that Hamilton was the figure in our history most identified with paper money. In 1791, he published his Report on the Mint, acting to establish the rudiments of our currency. He endorsed the dollar as our basic currency unit with smaller coins used on a decimal basis and first proposed putting presidential faces on coins. The banknotes of Hamilton's Bank of the United States counted as the first paper money issued by the new government. Arguably no one ever put a greater stamp on the currency we all use today, and which has become the world's premier currency as well.

Note that Andrew Jackson was put on the $20 bill only in 1928 and that a woman has already appeared on US currency - Martha Washington on silver certificates in the 1890s.

Also Mollie Hemingway: We Don't Deserve Alexander Hamilton on our Currency

Church Spree Killer Planned to Attack College of Charleston

And while drunk told his black friend of his plans.

"A black friend of the white man accused of murdering nine people at a Charleston church says the suspect told him a week prior to the killings that he planned to shoot up a local college campus," foxnews.com reports. "Christon Scriven, [above] a drinking buddy of Dylann Roof, told The Associated Press that he thought Roof's statements were just drunken bluster. However, Scriven said that he was concerned enough that he and another friend, Joey Meek, went out to take his .45-caliber gun, hiding it in an air-conditioning vent of a mobile home until they all sobered up." And then gave it back, later.

 

California Trying to Destroy Uber

More on the Hillbillies Heckling Marathon Runners

Apparently they're a group of local guys who thought it'd be funny to put on a little street theater for the marathon runners.

"You'll see those guys out here doing these silly things all the time," Cantrell said. "You never know where that batch of boys will show up, dancing and playing music and being themselves."

As for the pig squeal? Well, Cantrell said Roscoe, one of the men's teacup pigs, didn't feel like getting in the car that morning, so his owner got a recording instead.

"No animals were harmed," she said. "Just make sure Roscoe gets credit."

Meet the Rugby War Goddess

And after a little cleanup she then played the second half. Georgia Page was recruited from Australia to play rugby for Lindenwood University in Missouri. Here she explains what happened and you can see her in action here. And this is what she looks like when not on the pitch. And yes she's already received multiple marriage proposals after her game exploits went viral.

The Kardashian Daughters Committed a Hate Crime This Weekend

See if you can spot it.

Anakin Skywalker Arrested in SC After High Speed Police Chase

Weekly Commenter Standings

Top 10 commenters:
1 [552 comments] 'Mike Hammer, etc., etc.' [77.51 posts/day]
2 [476 comments] 'Ricardo Kill'
3 [426 comments] 'rickb223'
4 [423 comments] 'Jane D'oh'
5 [379 comments] 'Anna Puma'
6 [365 comments] 'Grump928(c)'
7 [359 comments] 'Gregory of Yardale'
8 [350 comments] 'mynewhandle'
9 [336 comments] 'artisanal 'ette'
10 [279 comments] 'Pappy O'Daniel'

Top 10 sockpuppeteers:
1 [94 names] 'a MAron' [13.20 unique names/day]
2 [78 names] 'Turd Ferguson'
3 [76 names] 'HAL 9000'
4 [73 names] 'The Political Hat'
5 [67 names] 'Mickey Shwarma'
6 [57 names] 'Grump928(c)'
7 [55 names] 'Mike Hammer, etc., etc.'
8 [49 names] 'Cicero (@cicero)'
9 [48 names] 'Prince Ludwig the Indestructible'
10 [38 names] 'Uncle Busyhands'

The group. Banned on 12 universities.

Where it's at - the Twitter

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posted by Maetenloch at 11:03 PM

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