Displaying comments 1 to 50 of 250
MeFi post:
Gives a whole new meaning to "Terror Watch List"
John le Carré has a fascinating article in the current New Yorker -- unfortunately not available online -- entitled The Madness of Spies. It posits that both individual spies and intelligence agencies in general are prone to a specialized form of collective insanity: The superbug of espionage madness is not confined to individual cases. It flourishes in its collective form. It is a homegrown product of the industry as a whole. Is a cure at hand? I doubt it. The most... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ook
at 1:17 PM on September 28, 2008
MeFi post:
Oh sh*t.
In other news, Governor Palin finally saw New York with her own eyes, making her an instant expert at Wall Street finance, pizza making, and playing mariachi on the subway.
posted to MetaFilter by halfling
at 11:44 PM on September 25, 2008
I think it's sexist of Katie to ask Palin those hard questions like that.
posted to MetaFilter by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese
at 11:49 PM on September 25, 2008
I love this part:
Asked why she only obtained a passport last year, Palin said, "I'm not one of those who maybe came from a background of, you know, kids who perhaps graduate college and their parents give them a passport and give them a backpack and say go off and travel the world. No, I've worked all my life. In fact, I usually had two jobs all my life until I had kids. I was not a part of, I guess, that culture.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Avenger
at 11:51 PM on September 25, 2008
This woman is dumb as a sack full of hammers; people all over the world absolutely have to see the US as a pack of idiots, completely and totally illogical, bordering upon insane, and, given the amount of positive excitement generated in certain circles by this bag of pus, I believe that people all over the world are correct.
posted to MetaFilter by dancestoblue
at 11:53 PM on September 25, 2008
Be careful what you say, AzzaMcKazza. You're only about 8000 miles away from Alaska. She knows where you live.
Holy shit, though. Watching that, I felt the same empathetic embarrassment that I feel when someone in a sitcom is doing something obviously stupid. Except the fate of the world is at stake and not, say, a borrowed sweater.
posted to MetaFilter by brundlefly
at 11:54 PM on September 25, 2008
Clearly, William Burroughs is writing her dialogue. (Note: this is an actual Palin quote.)
" . . . where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the healthcare reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Um, helping, oh -- it's got to be all about job creation too. Shoring up our economy, and putting it back on the right track. So healthcare reform and reducing taxes and reining in... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by digaman
at 12:02 AM on September 26, 2008
I'm constantly attacking Alaska from Kamchatka. So, she's right to be worried, if she ever plays against me.
posted to MetaFilter by tellurian
at 12:14 AM on September 26, 2008
my god - it's like tourette's syndrome with buzzwords
posted to MetaFilter by pyramid termite
at 12:38 AM on September 26, 2008
In a little country called New Zealand, we're having an election in November too. Currently the right-leaning National Party is ahead in the polls, and I was really concerned about the fact that they might win and make some changes (reduce taxes, downsize government and social security).
Now I'm thinking we don't really have a lot to worry about.
Thanks USA. Perspective is a fantastic thing.
posted to MetaFilter by pivotal
at 1:20 AM on September 26, 2008
It's like a very bad disney movie (trailer)
posted to MetaFilter by DreamerFi
at 1:38 AM on September 26, 2008
Palin said, "I'm not one of those who maybe came from a background of, you know, kids who perhaps graduate college and their parents give them a passport and give them a backpack and say go off and travel the world. No, I've worked all my life.
you know -- and I say this as someone who's really not a fan of Bill Clinton's -- young Bill Clinton, not a President's son, not a US Senator's grandson, didn't have two nickels to rub together either,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by matteo
at 4:19 AM on September 26, 2008
I hear they're gonna cancel the VP debate, and just let her go on Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader.
posted to MetaFilter by fungible
at 6:24 AM on September 26, 2008
If you bear in mind that half the population has an IQ below 100
and half the population stays home on Election Day.
one fears it's not the same half.
posted to MetaFilter by matteo
at 6:28 AM on September 26, 2008
Yeah, but how big is the O.G. Palin thread now, 6000? 7000?
Wow, she can see Russia *and* she's a gangsta?
posted to MetaFilter by lukemeister
at 6:47 AM on September 26, 2008
Alaska is located next to Russian Alaska. Not Russia. Russian Alaska.
Where people live in Alaska is not that far from where people live in British Columbia though. Remeber, though they may pretend they aren't, those Canadians are foreigners too. I mean, anybody that considers a broom to be sporting equipment is pretty freaky and foreign in my book.
posted to MetaFilter by Pollomacho
at 7:47 AM on September 26, 2008
MeFi post:
And then there were...?
The FDIC only has $45bln in reserve at the moment. A few weeks ago, they were ratcheting up the premiums they charge banks to cover the insurance. They may not have started early enough.
Let me divert a moment to explain what caused this. A few years ago, 2004, my brother, a successful computer geek and his wife, a top-tier business loan officer at a local branch, decided to buy a house. Through luck and connections, they bought an ordinary house in an ordinary... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Slap*Happy
at 7:37 PM on September 25, 2008
That must have been a hell of a flight. You get on the plane, you're CEO of a major bank. You get off the plane...
The worst part was probably being stuck in a middle seat between two other CEOs of failed banks.
posted to MetaFilter by rokusan
at 7:42 PM on September 25, 2008
Today I began moving about 10% of my assets into a risk-free mattress-based fund.
You really think that's a good idea, given that Sealy is down 56% over the last year?
I recommend coffee cans.
posted to MetaFilter by dw
at 7:53 PM on September 25, 2008
MeFi post:
No milk today
[...] my mind is boggled by the fact that they'd rather let their own citizens feed their children poisoned milk than admit to having fucked up. That's what this is, isn't it?
What it is, is how completely fucked up cultural forces can be when taken to extremes. The Chinese are obsessed, manically so, with the concept of "face." I grew up in the culture, so I've been exposed to a lot of it, and to this day I think it is one of the most... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by illiad
at 5:07 PM on September 21, 2008
MeFi post:
Paulson: Foreign Banks Can Use US Rescue Plan.
Actually let me expand on that.
My understanding is that the Democrats have realized that this is not a time to be partisan. When the ship is sinking, it's stupid to spend time arguing about who gets to wear the captain's hat.
You have a situation where the guy with the captain's hat steers the boat into some rocks, then comes up with a plan to fill all the lifeboats with treasure and a few of his top lieutenants. This is... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 11:07 AM on September 21, 2008
MeFi post:
CDSs and you.
The fundamental problem, of which industry was long aware of before this event is that CDS' are over the counter (OTC) instruments, traded counterparty to counterparty.
In other words, there is NOT - unlike, for example, the equity markets - a centralised exchange. This presents a startlingly wide array of problems. Just to touch upon three from a very, very high level (I could probably write 10,000 words on... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Mutant
at 11:45 AM on September 19, 2008
I'm awful sick of people yelling at me about this "crisis" and why I should care.
Simple solution: avoid clicking the "more inside" button.
posted to MetaFilter by ornate insect
at 12:04 PM on September 19, 2008
Even if they had reinsurance, it wouldn't have ultimately mattered. It would have delayed the inevitable, but it wouldn't have stopped it. There's far too much debt in the world. It can't be paid back. Had AIG been insured, it would have just meant a whole network of insurers would have failed at once, instead of just them.
Derivatives do not work on a large scale. They depend on hedging risk against a larger economy, and there is no larger economy to hedge... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Malor
at 12:35 PM on September 19, 2008
MeTa post:
CanadaElectionFilter
Has any mod showed up here yet? The answer is no. A thread per week is not clutter and the sidebar is not for that sort of thing anyhow.
posted to MetaTalk by jessamyn
at 5:46 PM on September 18, 2008
MeFi post:
Vote in my space.
Ag Minister Gerry Ritz cracks wise about listeriosis deaths during official conference call, saying "This is like a death by a thousand cuts. Or should I say cold cuts."
I attended an industry banquet where Ritz was a speaker. He began his speech by announcing a snap election (this was back in February - the government-types I was sitting with simply stared in disbelief) as a "joke" and offered to fire anyone in his ministry who... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by KokuRyu
at 7:23 AM on September 18, 2008
Clevershark is right. The conservatives are creepy as fuck. People don't need to be voting for them. They've done a pretty mediocre job since taking office. I'd hate to think what they'd have done had they a majority.
If you are a conservative, vote for the Liberals. If you are a liberal, vote for the NDP. I guess if you're fiscally conservative and liberal, you can vote for the Greens. And if you live in Quebec, vote for the Bloc.
There,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by chunking express
at 10:16 AM on September 18, 2008
MeFi post:
I'm going to kill myself in 90 days
"Well, I flagged that blog. Let the Blogger people deal with this as they see fit."
I hope they start a blog which chronicles them shutting down the blog in 90 days.
posted to MetaFilter by travis vocino
at 6:04 PM on February 10, 2008
I have no idea why that gives you the motivation to shit on people for feeling something about a topic or person you don't give a shit about.
I give a shit about homeless people and depression and everything else, bu t hthe fact that you feel compelled to tell us all how broken up you are over something that you admit is probably bullshit tells me something: that you are really invested in being the most righteous person in the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jonmc
at 3:34 PM on February 11, 2008
MeFi post:
Would he swear on the Bible?
Oh great, if this goes forward, we are going to have to deal with four years of hearing about Magdalen-gate.
posted to MetaFilter by quin
at 10:38 AM on February 11, 2008
Is it this one, clevershark?
posted to MetaFilter by whir
at 11:15 AM on February 11, 2008
MeTa post:
Don't favorite this comment.
well, the thread is about what seems to be a fake suicide for reasons unknown, you were especting erudition and insight or something? It's deserving of mockery and jocularity and that's what it gets.
posted to MetaTalk by jonmc
at 7:17 PM on February 10, 2008
If you view this image you will discover that you've automatically favorited this post.
posted to MetaTalk by RichardP
at 7:35 PM on February 10, 2008
MeFi post:
It's National National Awareness Month Awareness Month!
I'm going to kill myself in 90 days.
posted to MetaFilter by spock
at 6:01 PM on February 10, 2008
Is it any accident that National National Awareness Month Awareness Month and Black History Month -- that most maligned of National Awareness Months -- are both in the same month? I think not.
I teach high school English to a largely African-American population. When my students ask me if I'm doing anything special for Black history month, I remind them how we've been reading African-American texts throughout the year sofar and it would be kind of ridiculous to confine... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by HeroZero
at 6:05 PM on February 10, 2008
Awareness Months are for causes too wimpy to insist on EDUCATION or KNOWLEDGE Months. Thus contributing to a fiction-based society.
For me, this is WordPress PlugIn and CSS Hack Education Month, and I am getting schooled.
posted to MetaFilter by wendell
at 6:56 PM on February 10, 2008
MeFi post:
"Of course I don’t like Hitler but…"
I'll admit to a certain amount of guilt. Now, in order for me to make the personal point, you're going to have to accept the fact that I'm equating Neoconservatism with Nazism.
If you don't agree with that assessment, and many don't, then just consider it from the viewpoint as a guy who went along with a very conservative social movement even though it's since been found to be detrimental to self, friends, family, neighbors, strangers, and country.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by BrianBoyko
at 3:03 AM on January 24, 2008
MeFi post:
Mr. Good Enough
Seconding onepapertiger on detecting a whiff of crazy about her. From Amazon reviews on a book to which she contributed:
Lori Gottlieb (recovered anorexic) writes unapoligetically about her hateful thoughts and behavior toward the fat man she met through email. She had a sexual relationship with him, but wouldn't be seen with him in public or introduce him to her friends.
So maybe she shouldn't assume every other woman is as unstable in... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by fermezporte
at 1:44 PM on February 10, 2008
If she and her fellow sperm-bank-mom friend are so desperate for a trench-buddy that they'd consider marrying closeted gay men, why don't they just shack up together themselves? They apparently don't care about sex, or even if the thought of touching their partner revolts them. They clearly don't care about social stigma--at this point a single sperm bank mom probably gets as many evil eyes from squares as the average lesbian mom couple. They're on the same page as far as having kids is... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by lampoil
at 2:22 PM on February 10, 2008
MeFi post:
InfraGard
Time to move to Europe. Fuck this.
posted to MetaFilter by Jay Reimenschneider
at 2:42 PM on February 9, 2008
Great - at least Elvis didn't think he was Rambo when he got his honorary badge.
“There is evidence that InfraGard may be closer to a corporate TIPS program, turning private-sector corporations—some of which may be in a position to observe the activities of millions of individual customers—into surrogate eyes and ears for the FBI”
I'd like to know which corporations are participating in this particular brownshirt program, so... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by FormlessOne
at 2:45 PM on February 9, 2008
MeFi post:
Conservative in Liberal's Clothing?
Wouldn't it be cool if there were a real Left in American politics?
Wouldn't it be cool if our politics couldn't be reduced to two choices, Left & Right?
Wouldn't it be cool if we had politics?
posted to MetaFilter by treepour
at 8:06 PM on January 28, 2008
MeTa post:
metametameta
You're about to be sorry you asked.
posted to MetaTalk by whir
at 1:05 PM on January 28, 2008
MeFi post:
It's a medical decision, stupid.
If a doctor thinks that both drugs are basically equal, they're exceptionally likely to prescribe the one that gives an incentive.
Bingo. In most cases, the incentive is to prescribe the brand name drug. Direct advertising to patients works, and pharmaceutical representatives do actually influence the way doctors prescibe. I don't see anything going on here that is any less ethical than any of the other crap that goes on in American... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Slarty Bartfast
at 4:24 PM on January 28, 2008
MeFi post:
Clean as a whistle!
I enjoy the human butthole as much as anyone possibly could ...
Oh, I don't think that's true. This is a contest you cannot win.
posted to MetaFilter by me & my monkey
at 5:18 PM on January 24, 2008
