If you had to make odds on the NSA actually pulling the ethernet cable out of its hoover-up-everything computer this morning, how would you break it down? I would say something like 20-80. The Broward County Sherriff’s office has more institutional credibility than those guys.
Also! The most interesting thing in the last two seasons of Game of Thrones happened last night, and it was a short conversation over glasses of wine. Keep your Arya and Sandor, my slate for True Detective season 3 is [spoiler] and [spoiler] (for those who haven’t watched it yet).
Discuss.
Pogonip
Oh, good, an open thread. Yesterday’s were so full by the time i got to them I didn’t bother. How did last week go, shaper-uppers? I was good, and am wondering why I bothered, because my A1C went UP half a point.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone :)
khead
About the same as Houston or Atlanta’s chances of winning the NBA finals.
BTW, re: NBA finals – Warriors in 5. Maybe 6.
Mark B.
My guess is that they are going to put the machinery into passive mode, where they are continuing to collect the data but not actively looking at it, except for people in the upper echelon, who never cared about the rules anyway.
lol
Jon Snow and the Night’s King?
Cersei and Qyburn?
negative 1
If you were the conspiracy minded type you could point out that this move has WIN written on it for everyone. The NSA goes back in the shadows, as there really was no advantage for them to have it known that they were wiretapping everyone, and Rand gets to burnish his libertarian credentials. Everyone comes out happy.
Fourten
[[SPOILERS]]
The Queen D will finally not be the shortest one on her dias?
Tim F.
@lol: True, there were some great conversations last night. Maybe not Ceresi and Qyburn, and I don’t think John Snow really wants to hang out with that jackass Thenn, but conversations definitely carried the weight of last week’s show.
“So would mine, but fuck ’em they’re dead”. Line of the show. Also “I fucking hate Thenns”.
Come to think of it B&W really out-Martin’d Martin when they introduced a fascinating multilayered character and then savagely killed and zombified her in all of ten minutes. Pro-Tip: if you think you’re in a movie, never, ever say “you kids take this boat, I’ll be right behind you in the next one”. Nobody EVER survives that.
guachi
I’d put it close to 100% that they will “pull the plug” as you say. Although I’m not sure if there is some kind of emergency regulation the AG or DIRNSA could issue that could be used to do what Mark B. mentioned and just store but not look at things for a day.
Sly
Odd. I thought the most interesting thing about last night’s episode was OMG ZOMBIE GIANTSTOMPING WORLD WAR Z EXPLODING WHITE WALKER NIGHT’S KING RISE FROM YOUR GRAVES WHATTHEFUCK.
Punchy
That BCSD story is FUGLY. Straight up. Pics show headphones in the dead guy’s ears; yet the cops recorded in their report that they found them in his pocket. Cant wait for the defense attorney to explain the minutia of rigor mortis and how it allows a dead guy to remove his own earbuds and place them in a pocket, while dead.
Of all the SDBB (Shot Dead Because Black) stories recently, this one is especially bullshit. Cops pretty messy with the coverup. Of course, it’s FL, so I’m sure the cops will claim a special form of po-po SYG.
inkadu
0%. The program largely existed before the Patriot Act, it will exist afterward. There is no way to root out the evil cancer that is our security state.
GoT: I was just thinking, “Oh, good, people are talking again, and not in the pursuit of completely contrived plot points. Maybe the show is hitting it’s stride ag– uh oh.”
I enjoyed the zombies, but thought it was narrative premature ejaculation. The best action set pieces in GoT have been things building for several episodes, with *clear* consequences for the plot and the world. As awesome and enjoyable as the battle sequence was, its location and context is putting me right back into the grumpy place of thinking the show is losing its way.
And why do they keep cutting to john snow to so we can see his reaction? His reaction is always the same.
redshirt
I…stand… with Rand?
rikyrah
No, muthaphucka. YOU are a molester
……………………
Dennis Hastert To Friends: I Am A Victim, Too
CHICAGO (CBS) — Victim.
That is the word former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert is using to describe himself, one day after he was indicted on charges that he illegally attempted to conceal bank withdrawals. That cash used to pay hush money to a former student–a male who was sexually abused by Hastert when he was a high school teacher and coach, according to federal sources.
CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports, Hastert was neither seen or heard from publicly on Friday, but he has told close friends that he was sorry people had to go though this ordeal.
“I am a victim, too,” Hastert told them.
Hastert’s first words to associates were in response to charges of illegally withdrawing money to pay $3.5 million in hush money to a man to compensate and conceal prior misconduct. Hastert had actually paid the man $1.7 million, according to the indictment.
Published reports say that misconduct involves an abusive sexual encounter, which happened sometime before Hastert entered politics in the early 1980s.
According to the federal indictment, Hastert and the individual agreed to the payments in 2010.
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2015/05/29/dennis-hastert-to-friends-i-am-a-victim-too/
NCSteve
Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn they gave it up as a useless resource-suck a year ago and are only fighting because the principle of not letting politicians ignore their dire warnings of doom and impose limits on them is too important to them to let them admit it.
Tom
The painters are coming tomorrow which means I have to finish clearing out the apartment. In the meantime, I have papers to grade and the course I just wrote has come out of QA and should be available online in ‘demo’. (This means that I have to go through the content and figure out what’s messed up and fix. I spent most of last week prepping for this.)
It’s week 9 of my eleven week term so we’re talking about cloud services and system integration design. I’m also looking forward to writing a new course on business analytics and I should be getting a contract for that this week.
All that and our tom decided to keep me awake most of last night by climbing all over me and sitting on my head.
Belafon
The NSA stores the date of your number and has to go to the FISA court to access it. A police station lies about shooting a black man. Obviously they have more credibility.
Tim F.
@Sly: That was exciting, but not very interesting. The show needs to bring the Horde around once in a while so the stakes will be clear for casual viewers who might not remember Fist of the First Men or have the ice zombie thing figured out. Even so it only added a couple things to the plot: wildlings will never forget Jon rallying his Night’s Watch on a suicide mission to protect their evacuation, and it was moderately interesting to find out that Valyrian steel works like Viggen Mortensen’s sword in Return of the King.
AliceBlue
Anyone watching Wayward Pines and/or Aquarius?
rikyrah
and this is what they want to do with federal lands all across this country.
……………
Arizona’s GOP Senators Play Dirty, Sell Apache Holy Site To Foreign Mining Company (VIDEO)
May 29, 2015Deborah Montesano Politics
An ancient and beautiful Apache holy site is about to be handed off to a foreign mining company, thanks to Republican Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake. What will be left behind, when the company is through, is a caved-in pit, 1,000 feet deep and two-miles wide.
For years, Resolution Copper Mining LLC has salivated over Oak Flat because of the deposits of copper and other ores that lie underground. However, President Dwight Eisenhower declared Oak Flat a protected area in 1955, which has kept the mining threat at bay. Multiple proposals to sell Oak Flat have died in Congress over the last 10 years.
Resolution Copper Mining is a joint endeavor by two foreign mining companies — the U.K.’s Rio Tinto, and Australia’s BHP-Billiton. The two are the largest mining companies in the world — and John McCain just happens to be Congress’ largest recipient of campaign contributions from Rio Tinto. Jeff Flake’s piece of the puzzle? He was once a paid lobbyist for Rio Tinto. Is anyone surprised by these revelations?
Sens. McCain and Flake did what Republican senators do best: they made a dirty end-run around the opposition. In December, they slipped a provision putting Oak Flat up for sale into the hundreds of pages of legislation that made up the Defense Authorization Act, a law funding the military whose passage was considered crucial. As a last-minute rider, the deal escaped public scrutiny — a common maneuver amongst corrupt politicians.
http://reverbpress.com/politics/arizonas-gop-senators-play-dirty-sell-apache-holy-site-foreign-mining-company-video/
RobertB
@inkadu: I’d argue that the zombies in the episode gets us back on track. We’ve seen them in dribs and drabs – Jon killed one, Sam killed one, we saw a few – but we now know that this is a real problem. Jon wasn’t lying, and now the Wildings that got away from that town know as well.
shell
See: Titanic.
shawn
@Tim F.: I can’t remember a time when I was so obviously hat tipped to comebody who is about to die as I was last night.
Not wild about the World War Z turn that just happened – or that Jami Foxx as Electro is now on the show, but overall this was one of the better episodes of the season.
EriktheRed
The most interesting thing in the last two seasons of Game of Thrones happened last night, and it was a short conversation over glasses of wine.
EriktheRed
And, btw, WTF is up with the commenting system now??
Dr. Dave
No reason for the feds not to comply. The phone companies will still have all the data, so assuming this all blows over in a few (days? weeks?), the feds can just download it and carry on as if nothing ever happened.
My overall annoyance is that neither side has provided a convincing argument: I don’t see the demonstrable harm to my “freedom” from the feds having records that the phone company already has, but I also don’t see the evidence of any great benefit to our collective security from the feds having and going through those records. In line with AL’s post from earlier this morning, it feels like both sides are trying to make me very afraid of what are, realistically, very minor threats.
Amir Khalid
In case anyone cares: EL James, writer of the Twilight fanfic Fifty Shades of Grey, has now written a Fifty Shades fanfic which comes out on the 18th of this month — Christian Grey’s birthday. Grey is a rewrite of the first book of the trilogy, from Christian’s point of view.
Promise me you guys will shun this book.
inkadu
@RobertB: I meant the show is losing its way in how to tell a story.
The battle did do the things you mentioned; but I just felt like the show was worried it was boring us, and it came at just the moment it was winning me back with characters and dialogue. I’m worried they did too much too soon with the White Walkers and wont be able to top it; or I’m worried that they spent too much of their budget on an admittedly awesome scene that moved the plot forward very little… so I’ll see how they spend the rest of their budget and how exciting the next Walker battle is.
To its credit: The battle was beautifully gritty and uncompromising in the best GoT fashion. There were no swordsman blowing kisses to the audience or daring rescues. Just some dude getting hit in the chest so damn hard he can’t stand up. That’s the GoT I fell in love with. I’d like the White Walkers to have taken Stannis’ ships and sailed them down to Dorn to distribute a little reality on those dancey dancey warriors.
satby
@Amir Khalid: It will be a continuation of my shunning of the previous book and anything at all to do with the entire Twilight franchise. Sadly, I’m not their demographic, and they don’t miss me, but I tried.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Zero.
And yes, last night’s GoT made up for a lot of sins last night. Awesome episode.
Valdivia
yikes, some of us haven’t watched yesterday’s episode, maybe a spoiler warning on top? thank you!
Iowa Old Lady
@Amir Khalid: Jebus. You have my pledge.
There’s a good YA writer named Ruta Sepetys whose novel is about the deportation of Lithuanians to Siberia during WWII. She wrote it before James’s book and it’s named BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY. Sepetys says when she does readings, she often gets people who expect a different kind of book.
Frankensteinbeck
There is nothing but your own prejudices to base your belief that they will or won’t pull the plug – and that’s a universal ‘you’ that includes me. We have damn near zero evidence to support any view, positive or negative.
Karen in GA
@Tim F.: A total waste of Birgitte Hjort Sorenson. She was good in Borgen.
Once I saw her put the kids in the boat, my first thought was, “Wouldn’t it be something if she lives?” But nope, of course.
shawn
@EriktheRed: Battle scenes are kind of boring to me and this one being a better one was still pretty boring. Except at the moment where we learn the coolest sword in the show is even cooler now (or maybe there is something about Jon Snow so whatever sword he holds will be that cool – ooh wouldnt that be something – unless there is some detail from a previous season I am forgetting that makes that idea nil) – he encountered walkers last seaon right – did he fight any of them, memory does not serve me right now…?
ruemara
You do a serious disservice to liken allowed surveillance to a bunch of murderers. Most government workers comply just fine with regs and that includes the NSA, who actually have more rigorous rules than your email or blog commenting systems. I don’t doubt they will be happy to have one less goddamned annoying thing to track and struggle to deal with and be grateful to do the analysis that’s required for the important things. And yes, neither side has made an absolute case except that humans are morons.
Iowa Old Lady
@shawn: Battle scenes bore me lots of times too. Someone described a story they were reading this way: “The story goes on. Then it stops, and two guys hit one another for a while. Then the story starts again.”
Frankensteinbeck
As for GoT, I stopped watching in the middle of last season. I realized that aside from a very few long term plans, the show is just… wandering. I have no interest in watching a show where anything as dramatic – and plot-arc-ending – as the Red Wedding is just a random event. It never went anywhere. Sure, it changed the story, but not in ways that served some purpose. For me, that’s wasted emotional investment, and it’s everywhere in GoT. Martin has admitted he doesn’t plan and things happen because he feels like it at the time, but I can’t combine that with these kinds of dramatic changes or intense build up or suffering for major characters.
Karen in GA
@inkadu: Hmm. The fact that Jon led his men into a suicide mission to save Wildlings might, in fact, move the plot forward. I’d imagine there’d be repercussions back at the Wall when the rest of his men see this.
Amir Khalid
@Iowa Old Lady:
Ouch. And I don’t doubt that Ms Sepetys’ is by far the better book.
rikyrah
see, running up against those that deal in facts and hard numbers…
trips up the GOP EVERY SINGLE TIME.
actuaries don’t deal in ‘dynamic scoring’. that’s not how they get paid.
………………………………………….
Actuaries: GOP plans won’t prevent an ObamaCare meltdown
05/28/15 12:15 PM EDT
Republicans have spent months pitching ideas on how to limit the potential fallout from next month’s Supreme Court decision that could wipe out ObamaCare insurance subsidies in at least 34 states.
But so far, none of their proposals are likely to stave off the massive disruption of the healthcare marketplace that would result from a ruling against the Obama administration, according to a newreport by the American Academy of Actuaries.
The most popular idea backed by Republicans — eliminating the requirement for individuals to have health insurance — could cause the most damage, according to the group. The report warns that option would “threaten the viability” of the entire market.
If people are no longer required to buy insurance, and no are longer given tax credits to do so, they will likely leave the market in large numbers, the group says. As a result, premiums would skyrocket for those remaining in the market, who are likely to have existing health conditions.
The changes to the risk pool would be particularly costly for insurance companies because they cannot make mid-year adjustments to their rates if the court rules against the subsidies.
“That’s the big worry. That’s really the biggest worry for most us working in the field, the fact there’s no ability to reset things,” said the report’s author, Cathy Murphy-Barron, who has spent 25 years as a health policy actuary.
Another popular Republican plan — a temporary extension of premium subsidies — also drew criticism from the American Academy of Actuaries,
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/243316-actuary-group-gops-obamacare-plans-would-not-prevent-meltdown
mai naem mobile
@Pogonip: I didn’t know there was a shape up thing going on at BJ so I don’t know how long you’ve been trying to shape up but remember the A1C is measuring your glucose over the last 3 months. So, if you were out of control before and getting eorse and just started working on it, it’s possible your A1C would be higher compared to 3 mos ago.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
the internet is having a lot of fun with this. Sometimes low-hanging fruit like this almost make me want to sign up.
MomSense
@Pogonip:
Haven’t made it to the gym, but I have been doing lots of yard work. My problem is that I have zero motivation after working all day.
Gary
Of course the NSA will continue doing what it wants, undeterred by the grandstanding and theatrics in Congress.
The NSA knows what we all know– as long as funding is in place, the programs will continue.
If Congress were serious, it would defund the program. I don’t see even the slightest chance of that happening
rikyrah
@AliceBlue:
I gave it two episodes, and it gave me a headache. Had to give it up.
boatboy_srq
@rikyrah: Of course he’s a victim. He got cornered by somebody he effed up in school and is being made to pay for it (literally), which is totally inappropriate for a
entitled white maleformer Speaker of the House.Paul in KY
To me, 20 -80 is like 2 -5 or 1 – 4 in horse racing, which means it would be a big likelihood that they would do it. If you think the likelihood is that they would not do it (pull plug on Ethernet cable), then it should be 4 -1 or 10 – 1 odds.
End pedantic odds point.
different-church-lady
Is this another one of those threads where a whole bunch of people who don’t know what they’re talking about make authoritative statements?
Paul in KY
@khead: 14 teams have won 65 or more games in regular season & made the Finals (Golden State included). All previous 13 won the title. Odds not good here for Cavs. I do say though: Go Cleveland!!
different-church-lady
@Frankensteinbeck: Come sit in this empty chair next to me…
Paul in KY
@different-church-lady: Definitely!
dlw32
I’ve been complaining for a long time that both the books and novels have wandered… The first scene in both is the white walkers killing some Crows. And it’s the first season/book where we learned about Dragons. So I’ve been saying since 1996 that the real story’s going to climax when the dragons fight the walkers; all of this messing around with the Iron Throne is just prelude.
I’ve been getting increasingly frustrated with the show (I’ve given up all hope that the books will ever be finished much less in a satisfying way). I’ve suggested that maybe the planned conclusion is that Cersei and Margaery will be sitting in Kingslanding still arguing about who’s prettier and a white walker will come into the throne room and kills them both.
So last night was a balm to me. Much more of that please.
scav
@different-church-lady: I hope so. Isn’t this the inter webs or has something disasterous happened during the night?
khead
@Paul in KY:
If LeBron wins with Irving and my college intramural team I am going to be mighty impressed.
max
@Tim F.: That was exciting, but not very interesting. The show needs to bring the Horde around once in a while so the stakes will be clear for casual viewers who might not remember Fist of the First Men or have the ice zombie thing figured out.
I expect that the White Walkers will be more dominant in the story line next season. They have to bloody show up some time.
Even so it only added a couple things to the plot: wildlings will never forget Jon rallying his Night’s Watch on a suicide mission to protect their evacuation
Of course – that’s because there are no wildlings left much beyond the ones he rescued.
and it was moderately interesting to find out that Valyrian steel works like Viggen Mortensen’s sword in Return of the King.
That’s actually vitally important. Dragonglass is quite one thing, but it’s no use against zombies. Valyrian steel, on the other hand, can be used against White Walkers and zombies and normal people. Very handy. It would be damn helpful if they could relearn how to make Valyrian steel… and oh, whaddyanow, there’s a member of the Tarly family who wanted to become a maester. I bet he’d make an excellent researcher. (Thing is, without Valyrian steel, they’re going to have a nearly impossible time surviving full scale war with the Night’s King.)
max
[‘But yeah, that convo with D&T was a great scene.’]
different-church-lady
@scav: Not mutually exclusive…
Paul in KY
@khead: That will be the biggest ‘carrying a team on back to the championship’ that I’ve ever seen (if it happens).
scav
@different-church-lady: True, but most disasterous overnight things would not cause me to profoundly question all that I know and have come to assume of the world as the public digit-space suddenly becoming the realm of sober, informed and logically organized and discussed content.
shawn
@Paul in KY: I am kind of a sprts guy and I can’t understand any continued interest in the NBA – it wanders so much more than Game of Thrones. I will admit a part of this is because the Spurs got knocked out.
I might be odd in that the game that provides easily the coolest highlights (dunks or crazy impressive 3’s are way cooler than touchdowns or home runs) on SportCenter is on the whole the most boring to me.
different-church-lady
@scav: That’s a lot of words to say, “Water wet, Dippy.”
scav
@different-church-lady: Run with the talents you have. My Dungeon Master gave me a “Detect Obvious” spell.
Tenar Darell
@Amir Khalid: I pledge to never read it.
I may have read Twilight series for work, but I never managed to read 50 Shades. I gave up on the first one of those books after the first couple of chapters and the ridiculous interview scene, so no worries here.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@max: Jamie and Brienne also have Valerian steel swords, don’t they? And what did Sam kill his white walker with? First Man Iron or something? At one point I thought the one Walker was Tywin Lannister, but I guess that was wishful thinking since I’m gonna miss Charles Dance playing the Dick Cheney of Westeros.
ETA: I was just reading something that Cheney loves the Darth Vader comparison. I guess I would, too, since it doesn’t in any away suggest his should-be legendary incompetence. I think my comparison overrates Cheney as well, but Dance does/did convey the same warped arrogance, and Tywin has an evil and even less competent , equally arrogant blonde daughter.
shawn
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Sam killed his White Walker with dragonglass.
Cluttered Mind
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Jaime doesn’t have a Valyrian Steel sword, because Brienne’s is his. Ned Stark’s Valyrian greatsword was melted down and reforged into two smaller one handed blades, one went to Jaime and one went to Joffrey. After Joffrey’s death, presumably his sword was inherited by Tommen, but Jaime gave his to Brienne.
Current Valyrian weapons in the show that we know about and have seen: Jon’s sword, Brienne’s sword, Tommen’s sword, and Littlefinger’s dagger (the one that the assassin who tried to kill Bran in season 1 was using and was returned to Littlefinger by Catelyn)
Pogonip
@MomSense: Me too. Maybe that’s why my A1C went up!
Pogonip
@mai naem mobile: No, it was IN control 3 months ago.
craigie
I think you are being generous.
Paul in KY
@shawn: The 2 best basketball teams in the world, going for a Ring. Great competition, IMO!
rikyrah
elections have consequences.
so do vanity third-party candidates.
………………………………….
LePage: I’ll veto every Democratic bill until Legislature agrees to kill income tax
By Mario Moretto, BDN Staff
Posted May 29, 2015, at 2:27 p.m.
AUGUSTA, Maine — During a fiery news conference that lasted nearly an hour, Gov. Paul LePage pledged Friday to veto every bill sponsored by a Democrat until his opposition relents and accepts his constitutional amendment to eliminate Maine’s income tax.
LePage this year has proposed a constitutional amendment that would eliminate the state’s income tax by the year 2020. Republicans, who have shied away from the governor’s more comprehensive tax reform efforts, have rallied around the amendment.
Democrats have opposed it, sparking LePage’s trademark fury during a news conference at the Blaine House.
Efforts to amend the state’s Constitution require not only the support of two-thirds of the Legislature but the approval of Maine voters. LePage has said voters should be given the option of eliminating the income tax, which accounts for about half of all state revenue.
“If the Democrats are going to disenfranchise the Maine people, then the governor of Maine is going to make sure that every bill that comes down from the House and the Senate with a Democrat sponsor will be required to have a two-thirds vote, because I’m going to veto every one, and I did a bunch this morning,” LePage said.
Two-thirds support in both the House and Senate is needed to override a governor’s veto. So far, 205 bills have been sent by the Legislature for LePage, according to official legislative figures. Of those, LePage has vetoed 26.
The governor’s bill, LD 1637, was rejected by majority Democrats on the Taxation Committee on May 13. It has yet to come up for additional votes in the full Legislature. It could likely pass in the GOP-controlled Senate, but given Democrats’ questions about how to pay for such a monumental reduction in state revenue, it’s unlikely to garner enough support to pass in the House, which they control.
“The Republicans are on board, and the Democrats want to disenfranchise the Maine people. They don’t want them to have that vote,” LePage said. “Shame on them, and I see a [Democratic] leader here. Shame on you, for not letting the Maine people, the 1.3 million people in the state of Maine to have a say in the income tax.”
House Majority Leader Jeff McCabe, D-Skowhegan, was the “leader in the room” who earned LePage’s ire.
After the news conference, McCabe said the governor had come “unglued.”
https://bangordailynews.com/2015/05/29/politics/lepage-ill-veto-every-democratic-bill-until-legislature-agrees-to-kill-income-tax/
shawn
@Paul in KY: after a billion month regular seson and a million month post season – i mean bottom line you either like watching a basketball game or you dont and i just don’t so the seaosn probably seems way longer to me than it does to a basketball fan
Cckids
@Cluttered Mind: Wasn’t Ned Stark’s sword Ice also Valyrian steel?
Benw
@Paul in KY: I’d argue that at least 5 teams out of the West are better teams than Cleveland! Although that wasn’t true when Love and Irving were healthy. LeBron is still the best player in the world and LeBron might come up superhuman for a game or two, but the Warriors actually have multiple big, smart, fast wing defenders who give LeBron a ton of trouble if he tries to ISO. I think it will be a short series: Warriors in 5.
Cluttered Mind
@Cckids: It was, yes. It doesn’t exist anymore though. Now it’s Brienne and Tommen’s swords. It was melted down to produce the metal used to make them (this was in the first episode of season 4)
Cluttered Mind
@rikyrah: If I lived in Maine, I’d probably hate Eliot Cutler with the fury of a million suns for what he inflicted on the state twice.
Cckids
@Cluttered Mind: yes, I had a “Doh!” moment.
rikyrah
twitter about Lindsey Graham entering the 2016 GOP Race…
go twitter
………..
Allan Brauer @allanbrauer 7m7 minutes ago
Lindsey Graham 2016: A Chicken in Every Pot and a Strapping Buck to Bust Up Every Chiffarobe
Kay
Wow. Not fooling around. No fines, no sternly worded letters- murder: ‘
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/01/rana-plaza-collapse-dozens-charged-with-murder-bangladesh
RobertB
@Cluttered Mind: I read a list of alll the known Valyrian Steel weapons, in the books, on another forum this morning. There’s nine, which isn’t a lot.
RobertB
@Frankensteinbeck: The books have the same problem. Books 1 and 2 are good, 3 is awesome, then 4 and 5 wander off the rails a bit. They aren’t quite as bad as Jordan’s Wheel of Time books, but 6 needs to turn this around.
Cluttered Mind
@RobertB: Considering the books haven’t even gotten around to verifying that Valyrian Steel works on the White Walkers yet, as the show did this week, I intentionally omitted the weapons that have only been mentioned in the books and not the show. There are probably a lot more than just nine in the books, since it has been stated that every Great House except Lannister had at least one (Lannister’s sword was lost in an ill-fated expedition to Valyria), and most of the Lesser Houses had one too, hence Tywin’s Valyrian-envy issue which led him to melt down Ned Stark’s sword.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@rikyrah:
and I gather Jeb! is now calling for the retirement age to be raised to 70. I hope he’ll also haul the “pro-life” amendment out of that trunk in the attic with “Reagan” written on it.
Cluttered Mind
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That’s not a trunk, it’s a coffin.
Mayur
@Cluttered Mind: verified, no, but pretty well supported in the literature that Sam cites. There’s jon’s bitter thought that “great, now all I need is for the lords of the Secen Kingdoms to lend me their valyrian swords and we’ll be all set.”
Cluttered Mind
@Mayur: Particularly amusing considering Sam’s father is one such lord confirmed to have one. Wouldn’t it be great if Sam the Slayer were to slay again, this time properly equipped for the job?
EriktheRed
A friend who’s read the books (I haven’t) tells me that Valeryan steel is made with some kind of fire magic and that’s why it can resist the White Walkers’ weapons and kill them.
Frankensteinbeck
@RobertB:
I am now struggling with my need to go off on a lengthy rant about how much I hate the Wheel of Time books.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
For non-GOT-readers like me, and who like me seem to be having a procrastination day, Vulture has some background on the Night’s King, White Walker, Wights etc. It’s a fun world Martin has invented, and I give him credit for letting the TV show producers/writers take so much latitude with his story.
Tree With Water
Digby at Salon.com writes today: “You read that right. [Republicans] have come to the point where the woman’s life isn’t even worthy of consideration”.
That was in the context of a woman’s right to an abortion, but I’ll go Digby one further. All human life essentially holds no worth to the scum that control the republican party- people are deemed a commodity, to be traded and sold. Inexplicably, that rude truth still discomforts some people to the point that even today they willfully ignore it. As though it can be ignored, as if the laws of cause and effect can be suspended at their whim. As if by speaking that truth aloud, their best interests will be somehow imperiled…
Paul in KY
@Benw: Could be. How about ‘2 of the best teams in the world’.
Manyakitty
@EriktheRed: Could there be a connection between Valyrian steel and greyscale?
Tree With Water
@Paul in KY: The two best teams in a sport comprised of the all round best athletes in the world of any sport… in my opinion anyway. I sometimes wish I were a bigger hoops fan, especially this week. The only team I’ve ever followed are the Warriors. I last jumped on their bandwagon during the playoffs when Barry led them to their first and only championship. That run that year is among the most thrilling of any of the sports events I’ve ever enjoyed. The next year I followed them religiously. They posted the best W-L record in the NBA, but got knocked off in the first round, whereupon I jumped ship again until a couple of weeks ago. Their true blue fans are easily the most loyal fan base I’ve ever observed close up, too. They have supported the Warriors through thin and thinner over decades, and it’s really nice they now get to savor a championship series..
Paul in KY
@Tree With Water: I don’t hate the Warriors & if they win, that won’t really bother me at all. I’m just a Cleveland fan in general, so I would like them to win it. Very uphill climb for them, though.
Tree With Water
@Paul in KY: I don’t have a clue who’s going to win, but if ever a city deserves to be thrown a sports bone, it’s Cleveland. I admire James, too. He is one of those rare great ones, blessed with talent and a maturity beyond his years.. That said, Go Warriors…
RobertB
@Frankensteinbeck: After book 6 of the Wheel of Time series, I’d had enough. By then, there might have been one character (maybe two) in the whole series that I didn’t hate. I’d heard that Brandon Sanderson did a really good job of wrapping it up for the late Robert Jordan, but I’m not ready to read another 3000 pages or so to find out.
Paul in KY
@Tree With Water: Best of luck!
Tree With Water
While this country still produces such men as Lindsey Graham, all is well. He thundered today in announcing his presidential bid:
“I can promise them their sacrifices won’t be wasted. They won’t fight with their hands tied behind their backs”.
But they will fight, that much he made clear. The party of rule or ruin is not a trite pejorative. The GOP is a party of war, controlled by war criminals. The first democratic candidate to utter that truth aloud will win the 2016 nomination, if for no other reason than it is irrefutable. However that truth is fashioned, even parsed, once spoken, to suggest otherwise will be to righteously offend people’s common sensibilities.
Steeplejack
@AliceBlue:
Regarding Aquarius.
sempronia
@Frankensteinbeck:
Likewise, except that the object of my hatred is the GoT books. Railing about them in this thread seems kind of pointless.
shawn
@Tree With Water: Basketball is a game, not a sport but passing over that – basketball players are in amazing shape and do some pretty amazing things. The problem with saying they are the best all around athletes is that athletes of a lot of other games are crazy athletic too. Besides that F1 (an actual sport) drivers have a higher level of mental and physical conditioning than any basketball player.