Overnight Open Thread (6-26-2016)

Quote of the Day

Remember, the police and the FBI cannot protect you. They can only avenge you. You have to protect yourself.

-- WeaponsMan commenting on the long list of missed signals that Omar Mateen was destined for some kind of Sudden Jihad Syndrome.

Nigel Farage's Life's Work Comes to Fruition as the UK Votes for Brexit

For over 25 years he's been relentlessly making the case that Britain should leave the EU, a position long considered so extremist and out there that it was simply unthinkable. But last week a majority of Britons agreed with him and voted for Brexit.

Few men have endured the sheer amount of official scorn, mockery, revilement, and unhinged criticism over the years that Farage has. But he persevered on anyway. His entire life has been one giant unsafe place and stands in rebuke to all the university snowflakes who get the vapors at even a hint of disagreement. Ironically without a seat in parliament to fall back to his very success in getting Britain to leave the EU could mean the end of his political career at least for a while.

 

The EU's Potemkin Democratic Structure

It's an oligarchy in all but name. Most of its intrusive rules come from unelected bureaucrats and are never put to a vote.

Jean-Claude Juncker has been the president of the European Commission for the last couple of years. He presides over a population of nearly 500 million -- well, 500 million minus 64 million as of today.

Do you know how he was elected? He wasn't.

His fellow commissioners, all baker's dozen of them, went into a room, closed the door, and appointed him. As with all European commissioners, the people didn't hire him, nor can the people fire him.

Like all commissioners, he lives tax-free at public expense and enjoys an essentially unlimited expense account.

The EU has never presented the world with a certified budget, because it is so rife with corruption that the accountants cannot get (or are told not to get) to the bottom of it.

EU Leaders Order Britain to leave 'As Soon as Possible' as Commission Chief Juncker Warns Split 'Won't be an Amicable Divorce'

Why the EU was hated Part I

Why The EU was Hated Part II: EU To Ban Electric Tea Kettles and Toasters After Brexit

For being too energy 'inefficient'. Note that they held off announcing this until after the referendum since it's exactly the kind of thing that would drive the tea-and-toast-loving Brits nuts.

The UK's Probable Future Prime Minister Was Hounded by America's IRS For So Long That, in Disgust, He Renounced His Dual American Citizenship Last Year

Because Boris Johnson was born in the US and lived there for several years as a child the IRS came after him nearly 50 years later demanding back taxes for his income and house sale in Britain.

Are The Feds Putting People on the Terrorist Watch List Just to Meet Quotas?

The air marshals, whose identities are being concealed, told 7NEWS that they're required to submit at least one report a month. If they don't, there's no raise, no bonus, no awards and no special assignments.

"Innocent passengers are being entered into an international intelligence database as suspicious persons, acting in a suspicious manner on an aircraft . and they did nothing wrong," said one federal air marshal.

China's "Underwater Great Wall"

China is building its own SOSUS line.

When Elvis met Nixon

There's a new movie based on the events leading to Elvis meeting Nixon in the famous photo. But this has already been done in the hilarious 1997 movie, Elvis Meets Nixon, which unfortunately is very hard to find on the net or buy a copy of. I ended up having to buy a VHS copy off of Ebay.

Here's a scene from it where Elvis ends up robbing a donut shop after flying to DC on a whim in order to become an FBI agent.

WWII weapons encountered During 1983's Operation Urgent Fury

A New American Atlas

Get a demographic breakdown of your neighborhood here.

30 Minutes Of Jerry Lewis' Notorious 'The Day The Clown Cried' Finally Released

How to Be Naturally Charming

Weekly Commenter Standings

Top 10 commenters:
1 [462 comments] 'Nevergiveup' [64.89 posts/day]
2 [428 comments] 'Bruce With a Wang!'
3 [389 comments] 'garrett'
4 [387 comments] 'Insomniac'
5 [371 comments] 'rickb223 TEXIT'
6 [366 comments] 'Vic  We Have No Party'
7 [354 comments] 'Skip'
8 [321 comments] 'iforgot'
9 [309 comments] 'Mr. Peebles'
10 [305 comments] 'sven10077'

Top 10 sockpuppeteers:
1 [201 names] 'Sterling Archer' [28.23 unique names/day]
2 [119 names] 'TeamRawDog'
3 [63 names] 'garrett'
4 [62 names] 'The Political Hat'
5 [42 names] 'Bertram Cabot Jr.'
6 [40 names] 'prophet'
7 [39 names] 'Scalia's Ghost'
8 [35 names] 'Cicero (@cicero)'
9 [33 names] 'Mike Hammer, etc., etc.'
10 [33 names] 'Sandra Flook'

The group. Banned on 12 universities.

Tonight's post brought to you by how the internet used to be:

Notice: Posted by permission of AceCorp LLC. Please e-mail overnight open thread tips to maetenloch at gmail. Reminder: No capes allowed on the ONT.

posted by Maetenloch at 11:23 PM

| Access Comments