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[Ziiro]

i can't wait for the day this nonsense is common place. "look at this stuff my opponent posted on facebook and twitter years ago!"

[Büge]

A talented head cook at a school in central Sweden has been told to stop baking fresh bread and to cut back on her wide-ranging veggie buffets because it was unfair that students at other schools didn't have access to the unusually tasty offerings.

You'd think they'd want the other schools to step up their game, not bust down the one doing well. I mean, it's Sweden, not America.

[Shinra]

I was going to post this in War on, but this really made me say "what the fuck" more than anything else.

Basically: Congress is so fucking thoroughly in bed with the military industrial complex that they're demanding the pentagon allow them to send more money to the Army to build tanks the Army doesn't want, to the point where the Army is mothballing every new tank being made and letting it gather dust in a lot.

McKeon said he's thinking about the long range view. "... If someone could guarantee us that we'll never need tanks in the future, that would be good. I don't see that guarantee."

We have enough tanks gathering dust in a parking lot in Reno right now that we could comfortably invade China, and he's claiming this is about future preparedness. Fuck Congress, jesus. This needs to be a bigger story than it is.

[Bal]

Every time Romney mentioned not lowering the defense budget in the debate I thought about shit like that. I was genuinely like "oh, thank goodness, our incredibly bloated military is safe at last".

[Büge]

A man was arrested for trying to rob a bank for $1.

[TA]

Hulk Hogan sex tape!

[Mongrel]

I think that description is funnier than any video possibly could be.

[Brentai]

Uhhhhhhhh

Okay, so, you know that "glued her daughter's hands to the wall" chick that, if you're like me, you've paid fuck-all attention to?

http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=17455387

99 fucking years.

That's just a little bit crazytown.  I've no doubt that whatever the hell she did was wrong, but um... not life sentence wrong.

Certainly not more than three times what Jerry Sandusky got wrong.

I'm not sure if the judge is completely insane, or is taking the opportunity to demonstrate just how arbitrary the system is.  Jesus.

[Mongrel]

Guess she ran afoul o' one o' them HANGIN' JUDGES.

[Thad]

Well, the thing that's arbitrary about it is the length of a human life.  30 years for Jerry Sandusky means life; so does 99 years for Escalona.

She beat a two-year-old into a coma.  I can't really say I'd want to be the guy who figures out the conversion rate between "beat one two-year-old into a coma" and "sexually abused ten preteens".

I DO think she should be eligible for parole eventually, and subject to considerations of good behavior and suchlike.  But I also think that, should she ever get out, her record should preclude her from ever working with children.

Uhhhhhhhh

Okay, so, you know that "glued her daughter's hands to the wall" chick that, if you're like me, you've paid fuck-all attention to?

I'm not sure if the judge is completely insane, or is taking the opportunity to demonstrate just how arbitrary the system is.  Jesus.

It's Texas so we can probably safely assume the former.

Even the PROSECUTION was only pushing for 45 years.

[Brentai]

Obviously, take the kid way the hell away from her, give her some time in a cell, require plenty of counseling and of course having a felony conviction fo the rest of her life will already drastically limit the things she'll be able to do.  But... I mean, five years is enough to accomplish all of that.  She's not a public danger, unless she starts hunting for little kids to thrash or something.  Everything beyond that is purely punitive.  I can accept a little bit of punitive, but handing out 40 years of punishment for the crime of handing out excessive punishment implies a sociopathic level of not being self-aware.

[Ted Belmont]

Obviously, take the kid way the hell away from her, give her some time in a cell, require plenty of counseling and of course having a felony conviction fo the rest of her life will already drastically limit the things she'll be able to do.  But... I mean, five years is enough to accomplish all of that.  She's not a public danger, unless she starts hunting for little kids to thrash or something.  Everything beyond that is purely punitive.  I can accept a little bit of punitive, but handing out 40 years of punishment for the crime of handing out excessive punishment implies a sociopathic level of not being self-aware.

Texas

[Royal☭]

I wonder if the judge who dished out the punishment has any financial ties to the prison system in which she'll enter. Good info to know.

[Brentai]

As justifiable as criticizing Texas' institutional lack of proportion is, I think it's a little lazy to handwave the decision off like that.  There's a difference between "going overboard" and "blindly throw out maximum sentence pose for newspapers".

If you're going to do that then we might as well replace all the judges down there with computer systems and pocket the income difference.  What?  No, shut up.  Public servants don't have the right to complain.

[Royal☭]

Same judge doles out 40-year sentence for aggravated assault. Back in 2010, against a guy who had "cut his niece with a butcher kniife"

So either Larry Mitchell really hates child-abusers, or he's got financial interest in the punishment.

When considering the "Good ol' Boy, Texas punishment" angle, keep in mind, the guy is a Democrat.

[Brentai]

I mean let me put this into perspective.

5 years is the minimum, obviously, and much too kind.

10 years is about right for therapy, cooldown time, and just a little bit of "btw you fucked up and are in jail now".  That's what I would recommend.

15, 20, even 25 years are all justifiable, on the basis of letting the poor kid grow up (and live a little) without the danger of interacting with her psycho mom again during her development.  An extended period with a 25-year minimum parole even, fine!  We expect the mother not to do anything that would get her parole denied, and if she does, well, there it goes.

That's the max, though, the absolute max you can justify.  We don't have to protect this kid until she's thirty-fucking-goddam-two, or if we do, then it's not going to help to wait until she has vulnerable children of her own.  Gfj on that one.

99.  It's a thoughtless number, the kind of number you see in banks when someone is TOTALLY NOT DOING ANYTHING SHADY NO SIR.  Fuck that.

What I'm pissed off about isn't primarily the all-encompassing spitefulness of the outcome - that certainly isn't going to make me any more forgiving though - it's that you've managed to take a psychopath who committed a felony worth 10-25 years against a toddler and made her the victim.  Not just a victim, but an outright martyr, if the defense has anything to say about it.

G.  F.  Fucking.  J.  You worthless pieces of shit.

[Brentai]

Also yes secretly hoping there's an obvious financial connection so I can laugh a villainous laugh when it explodes predictably.

[Mongrel]

What I'm pissed off about isn't primarily the all-encompassing spitefulness of the outcome - that certainly isn't going to make me any more forgiving though - it's that you've managed to take a psychopath who committed a felony worth 10-25 years against a toddler and made her the victim.  Not just a victim, but an outright martyr, if the defense has anything to say about it.

That's what struck me. I don't know what the rules are for appeals in Texas, but it's possible the Judge gave her grounds for one.

[Tefari]

This seems good and what the fuck worthy, pardon if it was brought up elsewhere. 14 year old girl shot for promoting women's education in Pakistan. The kid is a fucking champion and I hope she survives...trying to assassinate a 14 year old, keep it ~classy~ guys.

[Thad]

I would very much like to think that this will serve as a moment for any Pakistanis who are on the fence vis-a-vis "Should we let girls go to school or support people who shoot them in the face" to take a good long look at their priorities.

But NPR had a story the other day saying it's not so simple to the Pakistani public, and that a lot of people are responding "Yeah, well, America's killing civilians every damn day with drone strikes."

Strikes me as a bit of "Look over there!", and I'd rather not try to work out a conversion rate between "one girl shot intentionally who has so far survived" and "hundreds of civilians killed accidentally but as a predictable result of strategic military strikes".  But as a barometer for ways of winning hearts-'n'-minds, I think perhaps we might consider the possibility that the Pakistanis would like us better if we didn't kill so many of them.