Three reasons why teenagers can't find jobs. And yet, when they're old enough to vote, they'll vote for the folks that screw them on prospects for ever getting a job and make them beholden to the government for sustenance. more...

Posted by: CDR M at 05:49 PM | Comments (792)
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As you know, a classmate described the Arapahoe shooter as "a very opinionated Socialist."

Well that won't do. That won't do at all.

So the Denver Post edits this to say the boy was "very opinionated."

Now they explain the reason for cutting "Socialist" out of his description. You see, the student who described him that way probably didn't even understand (the wonders of) Socialism.

And yet they left in a statement that he was a Keynesian, deep into the article.

Here's how the Denver Post begins its article:

The teenage gunman who entered Arapahoe High School on Friday afternoon and shot two fellow students with a shotgun was outspoken about politics, was a gifted debater and might have been bullied for his beliefs, according to students who knew him.

Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson identified the gunman as Karl Pierson, an 18-year-old student.

"He had very strong beliefs about gun laws and stuff," said junior Abbey Skoda, who was in a class with Pierson during her freshman year. "I also heard he was bullied a lot."

You might imagine -- as the Denver Post would clearly like you to imagine -- that the boy's "very strong beliefs about gun laws and stuff" located him on the right. The average Low Information Voter, after all, would assume a school shooter's views on "gun laws and stuff" were pro-gun.

This is deliberately misleading. He was in fact a bitter opponent of gun rights (ironically, or maybe not so ironically, enough):

Pierson also appears to mock Republicans on another Facebook post, writing "you republicans are so cute" and posting an image that reads: "The Republican Party: Health Care: Let 'em Die, Climate Change: Let 'em Die, Gun Violence: Let 'em Die, Women's Rights: Let 'em Die, More War: Let 'em Die. Is this really the side you want to be on?"

The Denver Post reported that deeper in the article. If it was clear that he was anti-gun rights -- as it is clear -- why leave it vague in the important opening paragraphs of the article?

That makes their deletion of the Socialist descriptor all the more suspicious.

They will imply he's on the right while deliberately editing out facts placing him on the hard left.

Posted by: Ace at 01:32 PM | Comments (278)
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Thank God we seized these people's century-old homes.

Why, they were standing in the way with progress, which begins with P which rhymes with G which stands for Green Parking Lot, whatever the hell that is.

A "tiny house neighborhood" and a symbolic cleansing of the Kelo ruling "stain" are among the development options discussed for Fort Trumbull by New London Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio in his recent meeting with The Day editorial board. What remains murky is the mayor's vision for how any development takes place on the long barren peninsula and who will be in charge of guiding and promoting it.

The 2005 Supreme Court decision in New London v. Kelo, in which the court by a 5-4 majority constitutionally validated the New London Development Corp.'s use of eminent domain to purchase and raze the homes of Fort Trumbull residents who refused to sell, remains a "black stain" on the city, said its mayor.

... Mayor Finizio said he would like New London to symbolically overturn Kelo by undertaking a true "public use" of the seized private properties. He offered as an example a parking garage, under discussion recently as a means of meeting the parking demands generated by Electric Boat's offices in the former Pfizer buildings, the one major project resulting from NLDC's corporate development vision.

This would not be any municipal parking garage, but one with solar panels to power it, landscaping and design to fit it into the setting, and first-floor shops to generate revenues.

They're also going to build small homes there, which will supposedly be "sustainable" or whatever.

You know who had small, environmentally sustainable homes there? The people whose small homes were condemned and taken from them by the Supreme Court and given to a land developer.

And those homes were more "green," have no doubt. There's a saying among greenies -- the greenest brick is the brick that's already in place. That is, the "greenest" house is the house that's already built, not the one that requires new lumber to be cut from the forest, transported by gas-powered truck, and assembled using all manner of gas- and electric-powered machinery.

Thank to Just the Tip. He means "news tips." I think.

Posted by: Ace at 01:58 PM | Comments (293)
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As Andy noted this morning, the Denver Post was busy scrubbing the Colorado school shooter's socialist beliefs from its own reporting. On Twitter, I reviewed the media's history of convenient speculation and outright lies when it comes to the perpetrators of violence. more...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 11:47 AM | Comments (156)
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From @RyanLGustafson. more...

Posted by: Ace at 10:42 AM | Comments (90)
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Only one game today, Army Navy, 3pm EST. The rivalry goes back to 1890, Navy has owned em for a while though.

@MikeTalley73 reminded me to remind you that there are two Yahoo college bowl pickem groups. Group ID#: 1176 Group ID#: 1181

Password for both is: scandi

First game is December 21st, the Meatball Bowl.

Have a great weekend you morons and don't forget to check out this week's podcast with special guest LauraW who does not have Resting Bitch Face but she can sure work one up if you put her in the mood.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 11:15 AM | Comments (74)
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Apropos of current weather...

On a scale of nautical coolness, monster ice breakers gotta be a solid 8/10 just because of the brute power they exert and pounding they take.

The 173m ship is being built by the Baltiysky Zavod shipyard in St Petersburg, and is planned to be completed by 2017. Once finished the ship will be 14 meters longer and 4 meters wider than the current record holder, “50 year Victory” that is 159 meters long and 30 meters wide...

...Powered by two “RITM-200” pressurized water reactors the “Arctic” is being built to generate 175MWe. Its efficiency and power allows the new model to crack ice fields 3 meters thick.

The Arctic will be granted the highest ice class – 9, meaning the ship will be able to break ice in the Arctic area all year round.

Also interesting...the AGU presentation on how Ra has gone quiet. Vid below the fold. WUWT has a post on Ra's lack of activity.

Interesting bit in the video -- increasing CO2 has been predicted to COOL the upper atmosphere.

The mayor of Jerusalem has declared a snow tsunami.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 06:53 AM | Comments (296)
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Well it looks like the left finally got its wish with this Colorado school shooter, who appears to be a Tea Partier.

The teenage gunman who entered Arapahoe High School Friday afternoon and shot two fellow students with a shotgun was outspoken about politics, a gifted debater and may have been bullied for his beliefs, according to students who knew him.

...

"He had very strong beliefs about gun laws and stuff," said junior Abbey Skoda, who was in a class with the alleged shooter her freshman year.

Oh well. Law of averages ... it was bound to happen eventually.

Let's read some more.

Thomas Conrad, who had an economics class with [the shooter] Pierson, described him as a very opinionated Socialist*.

"He was exuberant I guess," Conrad said. "A lot of people picked on him, but it didn't seem to bother him."

In one Facebook post, Pierson attacks the philosophies of economist Adam Smith who through his invisible hand theory pushed the notion that the free market was self-regulating. In another post, he describes himself as "Keynesian."

"...I was wondering to all the neoclassicals and neoliberals, why isn't the market correcting itself?" he wrote. "If the invisible hand is so strong, shouldn't it be able to overpower regulations?"

Pierson also appears to mock Republicans on another Facebook post, writing "you republicans are so cute" and posting an image that reads: "The Republican Party: Health Care: Let 'em Die, Climate Change: Let 'em Die, Gun Violence: Let 'em Die, Women's Rights: Let 'em Die, More War: Let 'em Die. Is this really the side you want to be on?" (emphasis added)

Ahh, so not a Tea Partier at all. He sounds a lot like the lefty trolls that swing by here from time to time, a fact that I find totally unsurprising.

And now that these detail are out there, he'll never be heard of again in the media, which must protect the "dangerous right winger" narrative for the possibility that one day one of these guys actually is.

(h/t JW, who notes that the lead is pretty clearly written to make you think he was pro-gun)

* Wordy Girl notes that the Denver Post has now stealth-edited out the S-word.

Posted by: andy at 04:35 AM | Comments (330)
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Paul Rudd is a frequent guest on Conan O'Brien. He comes on every time he has a movie to promote. Every time he has a movie to promote, he says he's brought a clip from the new film.

But he didn't. He brought the same clip he always brings, a scene from a low-budget E.T. rip-off, 1988's Mac and Me, that he had nothing at all to do with.

He has literally done this on every appearance, except for one, when Judd Apatow physically accompanied him to the show to guarantee he would show a real clip from Knocked Up and not a clip from this bargain-bin children's movie.

But unless you physically escort him into the director's booth and check the video he's giving Conan, he's going show this clip, every time.
more...

Posted by: Ace at 02:13 PM | Comments (426)
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A very alarming story from Purple Avenger on the graveyard shift, also covered at Hot Air.

Even if one accepts that homicide-by-drunk-driving should not be charged like a murder or manslaughter, this particular case -- featuring a kid who stole beer, then got drunk at three times the legal limit, then sped around at 70 mph in a 40mph zone -- is one of what the law would call "willfulness," deliberately taking dangerous actions knowing the possible consequences but not caring. And that's manslaughter.

In some rare cases, a high level of willfulness has been found to be sufficient to charge someone with outright murder (which requires intent) -- the so called "depraved-heart murder" precedents. A rare thing, and I'm not sure I buy it, but such complete disregard for human life has been found to be the legal equivalent of intent to kill before.

Even if you don't think this kid should get life in prison, surely he owes the state a couple of years in prison, doesn't he?

A judge decided no, not at all. Not a year, not six months, not a month, not a week... no jail time at all.

Per CNN:

Simply put, Couch, 16, claims that his condition stemmed from having wealthy, privileged parents who never set limits for him.

But Eric Boyles, who lost his wife and daughter in the crash, said on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360," "There are absolutely no consequences for what occurred that day. The primary message has to absolutely be that money and privilege can't buy justice in this country."

Even if the judge bought this nonsense -- then the decision was because this monster had previously faced no consequences for his behavior, he should continue facing no consequences for his behavior?

What? Because the kid think there's no such thing as consequences, he'll be sentenced to no consequences?

All he had do do was move out from his parents' control -- and what spoiled-rotten monster brat wouldn't love his own apartment? Half of them sue to be emancipated. He'll have ten years probation.

People will say this is a liberal judge. Perhaps, perhaps not. I tend to think liberal judges would tend to be outraged by bad behavior by the very rich. Why, they will sometimes treat rich felons the way conservatives say we should treat all felons.

Perhaps it is that.

But I don't know.

I can't help noticing that this sentence looks almost exactly like the sort of sentence the parents, the lawyers, and the brat would have imposed themselves. I can't help thinking that no one except the parents, their lawyers, and this little monster himself would approve of such a sentence.

So that makes me wonder why this judge decided this was a fitting sentence.

I'd like to see this judge investigated. I find this sentence to be impossible to justify, explain, or defend. So I'd like to know exactly what led to it.

I ain't accusin'. But I'm suspicious.

Correction (?) A commenter says the judge wasn't imposing the sentence per se, but was rather imposing an agreed-to sentence worked out as part of a plea deal.

Very well. Then I am suspicious of the prosecutors who gave up a career-making prosecution (it would be politically popular, and all prosecutors are really politicians) in order to let this little monster take a ten year vacation in Rehab Resort.

Posted by: Ace at 01:28 PM | Comments (232)
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