The Off Topic Topic

[Ed Anger]

She should have been home, safely in the kitchen. What a cunt.

[jimmy olsen]

Whats the big deal with rape?
Woah woah woah. Slow down a minute. Get off your white horse. I don't mean it that way.
I mean...of course it's bad. Its a nasty crime. But you see so many people posting about it on the internet, campaigns about it, etc...
You don't see the same kind of fuss about mugging or murder. I don't see how moaning about rape will make it go away any more than shouting at other terrible crimes will help (well, unless you do it literally to one actually in motion.

The notion is that while some rapes are committed by predators beyond the reach of such campaigns, a certain amount of rape is enabled by a social climate in which certain behaviours that may lead to rape are widely accepted as more or less okay. Change the social acceptance of those behavious (so the theory goes), and you get less rapes.

The parallel here would be to drunken driving, something which has gone from basically accepted to a degree, to a serious crime.

Rape has always been considered a serious crime - under some conditions.

Indeed.  We don't live in a Murder Culture, however unfortunate that is for us.

It took 700 years of hangings in England to make it so.

[jimmy olsen]

You know what grinds my gears? The incredibly crappy lyrics of house "music" and similar. Completely void of meaning and written for an audience who has English as their second or third language.

What is "house music"?

[Ideologue]

Unemployment numbers for Technology Professionals:

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, released 10/22/13
   Computer Network Architects: 1.7%
   Software Developers, Applications and Systems Software: 2.4%
   Database Administrators (DBA): 3.6%
   Network and Computer Systems Administrators: 1.8%
   Computer and Information Systems Managers: 4.0%
   Computer Systems Analysts: 2.3%
   Information Security Analysts: 2.1%
   Computer Hardware Engineers: 1.0%
   Computer Programmers: 2.9%

No kidding.

[CountDeMoney]

Unemployment numbers for Technology Professionals:

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, released 10/22/13
   Computer Network Architects: 1.7%
   Software Developers, Applications and Systems Software: 2.4%
   Database Administrators (DBA): 3.6%
   Network and Computer Systems Administrators: 1.8%
   Computer and Information Systems Managers: 4.0%
   Computer Systems Analysts: 2.3%
   Information Security Analysts: 2.1%
   Computer Hardware Engineers: 1.0%
   Computer Programmers: 2.9%

Not so incidentally, all those percentages equal the number of unemployed IT professionals Caliga refused to hire because they stiffed Columbia House after receiving 12 CDs for one cent in 1987.

[Sheilbh]

Christ
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/oct/28/overseas-academics-refused-uk-visas

[CountDeMoney]

Christ
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/oct/28/overseas-academics-refused-uk-visas

Sid-Ahmed Kerzabi, Algerian expert on desert fortresses.

How could you NOT let a cool guy like that in?

Fuck it, sounds like road trip to me.  Hold the conference in Algeria.

[Ed Anger]

I'm bored

[Neil]

The Carolina Belle won't be out-Cruzed.

Lindsey Graham to block picks over Benghazi
By: Lucy McCalmont
October 28, 2013 10:34 AM EDT

Sen. Lindsey Graham said Monday he will hold up "every appointment" in the Senate until more questions are answered on Benghazi.

"I'm going to block every appointment in the United States Senate until the survivors [of the attack in Benghazi] are being made available to the Congress," Graham said on Fox News's "Fox and Friends." "I'm tired of hearing from people on TV and reading about stuff in books."

Graham (R-S.C.), who also tweeted about wanting to talk to those survivors, said Congress needs to "up its game". He called for a joint select committee and addressed House Republicans on their efforts to continue pressing the administration on Benghazi.

"If we don't have a joint select committee to get out of this stove piping problem, we're never going to get the truth," Graham said.

"To my House colleagues, [Rep.] Darrell Issa has done great job. To Speaker [John] Boehner, please for God's sakes, form a joint committee to get away from this blame game and find out exactly what happened," Graham said.

Graham also said that he thinks information has been classified for "political reasons more than anything else" and that Congress will continue to push this issue.

"We're just beginning on Benghazi," the senator said. "And to the families, we're not going to let this go."

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney responded to questions on Graham's comments during Monday's press briefing and said Republicans were "playing politics" on the issue.

"When it comes to I think the evident politicizing of Benghazi, it is as unfortunate today as it was last year and since then," Carney said.

Carney also added that the Senate needs to move on nominations and that the administration has been cooperative.

"We obviously believe very strongly that the Senate needs to move expeditiously to consider and confirm the many qualified presidential nominees whose nominations are pending," Carney said.

"I think it's unfortunate to hold up any nominee or any nomination process. And when it comes to doing so for this reason, I think I've noted the considerable cooperation that the administration has provided on these issues," Carney said.

Are you surprised?  Shutting down the government didn't work, so now it's back to beating the 'Obama = terrorist' drum.

[Liep]

Some douchebag decided to cross the tracks just after a tunnel. I hadn't seen him until he suddenly appeared right in front of me, and he hadn't seen me before I sounded the horn.

I don't think I've seen anyone jump onto a platform faster though. Gave me a right scare that fucker.

[mongers]

Some douchebag decided to cross the tracks just after a tunnel. I hadn't seen him until he suddenly appeared right in front of me, and he hadn't seen me before I sounded the horn.

I don't think I've seen anyone jump onto a platform faster though. Gave me a right scare that fucker.

Yeah, the world's full of fools unconsciously trying to kill themselves, and if he'd succeeded you'd probably never be able to forget it.   

[CountDeMoney]

Some douchebag decided to cross the tracks just after a tunnel. I hadn't seen him until he suddenly appeared right in front of me, and he hadn't seen me before I sounded the horn.

I don't think I've seen anyone jump onto a platform faster though. Gave me a right scare that fucker.

Yeah, the world's full of fools unconsciously trying to kill themselves, and if he'd succeeded you'd probably never be able to forget it.   

He'd have a hell of a time with the wiper blades, that's for sure.

[Ideologue]

Being a train dude has got to be so cool.  It's like having a six hundred foot metal dong.

[CountDeMoney]

Being a train dude has got to be so cool.  It's like having a six hundred foot metal dong.

Meh, it's not so different as you'd think.

[Ideologue]

OK, it's a respectable job that pays well and involves a sharp uniform (I assume about the uniform).