Wait for it...

Minter Is Coming: "A guy is taking his girlfriend to prom. He waits in the ticket line for a really long time but gets them. He goes to rent a limo. The rental line is really long but he eventually does it. He goes to buy her flowers. The line at the florist is really long but eventually he gets the flowers. At prom, she asks him to go get punch. He goes to the refreshment table and there’s no punchline. "

Still funny.

 NYPD Cop Says He Was Racially Profiled, Assaulted And Wrongfully Arrested By Other Cops | The Free Thought Project: "According to former NYPD officer Harold Thomas, he is no longer with the police force after an incident involving a fight with 3 other officers outside of a nightclub that Thomas was leaving. Thomas believes that he was racially profiled and that the situation escalated because he was black and he was not in uniform. According to Thomas, he was approached by three white officers who stopped him because he allegedly fit the description of a “shots fired” call. He said that next he politely answered the officers questions, showed them his ID and let them know that he was also a cop. “I showed them both my ID and said I am Detective Harold Thomas,” he told reporters. “[The third cop] spins me around, slams my head on the roof of my car, made a dent in the car, grabbed me by the seat of my pants, throws me head first,” Thomas said. Thomas told reporters that more officers showed up at that point, including a lieutenant, who allegedly participated in the assault...  “I said lieutenant can you take these cuffs of me, but he mushed me in the face and almost knocked me down,” he said. Thomas was then arrested and charged with assaulting and officer, resisting arrest and DUI. The charges against Thomas were instantly dropped, but he was so turned off by the experience that he had with other police that he was forced to retire."

 Oops.  'Don't Jerk And Drive' Campaign Pulled: "Jerking isn't a joke and they know it. Unfortunately for the South Dakota office of Highway Safety, some people think their new safe-driving campaign around the slogan "don't jerk and drive" was a bad idea. The ad campaign, intended to keep people from over correcting and jerking their steering wheels in icy conditions, struck some as offensive because of its allusion to masturbation."

Richard Kadrey's Damn Tumblr: "Richard Ankrom’s Kinky Juxtapositions Of S&M Wear And Cute Ceramic Figurines Childrens’ Pop Culture icons and S&M…who wouldn’t want to see that twisted combination come to life?"

Training - "How to be successful..."

12/15 - press, chins/dips, db curls, btn press

The Shredded Couple: Tavi Castro & Sandra Prikker Talk With Simplyshredded.com | SimplyShredded.com:

  

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Bodybuilding.com - We 'Mirin Vol 95: 15 Bodies That Rock:

"I don't know the lyrics."

What an incredible douchebag.  To Catch a Predator for Sex Workers Coming to A&E - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "A new reality series slated for A&E will feature a cop-turned-pastor intent on saving sex workers' souls by luring them to hotel rooms and then lecturing them on national television. Once he has sex workers cornered, pastor Kevin Brown has eight minutes to convince them of the error of their whorin' ways. It's like To Catch a Predator meets Pretty Woman! Which is to say: an abomination that should never, ever have gotten the greenlight...

Thats right: Brown already spends his spare time hunting down and harassing sex workers. The description of his group's work is truly creepy and fanatical:  To prepare for the missions, Reese trolls backpage.com or craigslist for potential victims, particularly those who look like they might be minors with an "emptiness" in their faces. ... The group practices by using a Bluetooth as a walkie-talkie, driving around in a caravan and deploying as a surveillance team across motel properties, with each person assigned a specific role. Seeing someone's photo online and then proceeding to track them down IRL and secretly monitor their movements would, under other contexts, be considered stalking. But apparently anything goes when your aim is to "save" women from exerting their own agency."

In the increased media attention to deaths involving police, amongst the hue and cry of 'they were resisting' or 'what do you expect of criminals?' people don't remember/know/care/give a fuck about Graham v. Connor, which is exactly the kind of weirdly absurd, and sometimes deadly, escalation you can find yourself in when engaged by law enforcement.  Graham v. Connor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 (1989) United States Supreme Court, in which the Court determined that an objective reasonableness standard should apply to a free citizen's claim that law enforcement officials used excessive force in the course of making an arrest, investigatory stop, or other "seizure" of his person...  All claims that law enforcement officials have used excessive force—deadly or not—in the course of an arrest, investigatory stop, or other "seizure" of a free citizen are properly analyzed under the Fourth Amendment's "objective reasonableness" standard, rather than under a substantive due process standard."

Any sexual assault is one too many, but the '1 in 5 statistic' is incorrect and the definition of fear mongering.  And the things being done to counter the 'rising epidemic' of sexual assault on college campuses are Kafkaesquely absurd, and not based on the facts.  TL/DR-  "...the real number of assault victims is several orders of magnitude lower than one-in-five. The full study, which was published by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, a division within DOJ, found that rather than one in five female college students becoming victims of sexual assault, the actual rate is 6.1 per 1,000 students, or 0.61 percent (instead of 1-in-5, the real number is 0.03-in-5). For non-students, the rate of sexual assault is 7.6 per 1,000 people."

New DOJ Data On Sexual Assaults: Students Are Less Likely To Be Raped: "...the real number of assault victims is several orders of magnitude lower than one-in-five. The full study, which was published by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, a division within DOJ, found that rather than one in five female college students becoming victims of sexual assault, the actual rate is 6.1 per 1,000 students, or 0.61 percent (instead of 1-in-5, the real number is 0.03-in-5). For non-students, the rate of sexual assault is 7.6 per 1,000 people...

The higher rate of victimization among non-students is important due in large part to recent accusations that U.S. colleges and universities are hotbeds of so-called “rape culture,” where sexual assault is endemic, and administrators and other students are happy to look the other way. The bogus “1 in 5″ statistic, which was the product of a highly suspect survey of only two universities and which paid respondents for their answers, has been repeatedly used as evidence of this pervasive rape culture on college campuses across the country. Even more striking is that according to the BJS data, the likelihood of sexual assault has actually been trending downward across the board since 1997... 

Sexual assault is an awful crime, and even one instance is too many, regardless of the trend. That’s why it’s so important for victims to report the crimes when they happen, so law enforcement authorities can find the perpetrators and hold them accountable. Perpetrators of sexual assault who are never reported are obviously far more likely to victimize even more people. Unfortunately, according to data from the BJS study, a huge percentage of sexual assaults — upwards of 80 percent for female college students — go unreported, and students who are victimized are far less likely to report the crime than are non-student victims"

BJS: Rate of Sexual Assault Shows Sharp Decline, Lower Among College-Age Women - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "One of the reasons that Rolling Stone's discredited story about a vicious gang rape at the University of Virginia (UVA) was initially believable is that many of us take it for granted that colleges are a hotbed of sexual assault. As Sen. Kristen Gillibrand of New York has said, "Women are at a greater risk of sexual assault as soon as they step onto a college campus." This is simply not true, according to the latest figures on sexual assaults released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). Surveying women between the ages of 18 and 24, BJS found that "The rate of rape and sexual assault was 1.2 times higher for nonstudents (7.6 per 1,000) than for students (6.1 per 1,000).""

 Japan, you magnificently crazy sons-of-bitches.  11 Secret Weapons Developed By Japan During World War 2: "The Japanese developed dozens, if not hundreds, of highly conceptual weapons during the war, including some that actually made it to the battlefield. Here are 11 you need to know about. "

Keaton Wins. Michael Keaton's response to Christian Bale's Batman jealousy is perfect - Batman News: "Finally, Christian Bale recently said he felt jealous to see Ben Affleck wearing the cape and cowl — do you ever get that? “No. Do you know why? Because I’m Batman. I’m very secure in that.”"

 Awesome.  allthatscosplay: Check out this AMAZING Starfire... - APE IN A CAPE:

 The Venture Bros. Space Special to Premiere on January 19thVenture Bros. Blog |:

 There's A 'Face Sitting' Porn Protest Going On Right Now In The UK, And It's EXACTLY What You'd Expect: "In response to UK regulations outlawing various sexual acts in pornography, there’s currently a massive protest taking place outside of the UK Parliament. This protest ‘face sitting’ protest is EXACTLY what you’d expect a protest about porn & face sitting to be. It’s just so incredible I’m at a loss for words. Feminists in the UK sought to rally the masses after regulations kicked in this month banning various sexual acts in porn, one of which is face sitting, another is female ejaculation. Protesters are arguing that these new regulations are unfairly targeting women, and ‘female pleasure’ in general. So, in response to the new regulations a whole bunch of freaky-deaky folks took to the streets in front of parliament clad in their finest gimp suits to hold a ‘face sitting’ protest. Here are the pics and videos you deserve to see…" 

'Sit on Santa's Face,' and Other Scenes from the U.K. #PornProtest - Hit & Run : Reason.com 

Undercover agent pulls gun on protesters and photographer during Oakland protest of police killings - Boing Boing: "Freelance reporter Courtney Harrop has Storified a series of eyewitness posts from protesters and journalists who witnessed the undercover agent's activity, which reportedly included encouraging protesters to loot and commit other crimes, before the agents were outed."

More evidence the gender wage gap is due to choice, not discrimination | WashingtonExaminer.com: "Despite continued claims from the White House and media that women earning less than men is solely or entirely due to discrimination, a new Bureau of Labor Statistics report puts that explanation to rest. The report, released this week, found that women on average made 82.1 cents to the dollar that men earned. At first glance, this 17.9-cent gap still seems high, even though it’s lower than the oft-cited 23-cent figure. But dig deeper, and one will find that the gap is nearly entirely due to the choices women make in their personal lives...

Single women with no children earned 96.1 percent of what men with similar characteristics earned — and that doesn’t even begin to factor in career and education choices... 

Another significant factor contributing to the wage gap is the number of hours worked. Married women working full-time and having children under the age of 18 earned only 78.9 percent of what married men with children earned. But there is no evidence this is due to discrimination — the difference was that men were more likely than women to work 40-plus and 60-plus hour work weeks, contributing to higher earnings...

“Women in professional and related occupations were more likely to work in education and healthcare jobs, in which the pay is generally lower than that for computer and engineering jobs,” the BLS report said. This means that even though men and women working in the same occupational group may see a wage gap, it’s not the same as saying men and women working the same exact job see a wage gap. Further, BLS made multiple notes regarding apples to apples comparisons at the end of its report....  “One must be cautious even when attempting to control for one of the important factors that may explain earnings differences. Comparisons of women’s and men’s earnings by detailed occupation, for example, are not simultaneously controlled for differences in key factors such as job skills and responsibilities, work experience, and specialization.”" 

I knew I liked Nick Offerman. RAWIllumination.net: Actor Nick Offerman a RAW fan: "Last year, he listed his 12 favorite books for Barnes and Noble, and guess who pops up in the list?   4) The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles, by Robert Anton Wilson A favorite free-minded genius, Wilson’s works are wickedly inventive and ribald. Plus therein lies an ass-load of conspiracy theory and secret society social secrets."

Your Favorite DC Superheroes, Drawn Into Famous Movie Posters:

Fascinating look back at film making.  Livin’ Thing: "Livin’ Thing: An Oral History of ‘Boogie Nights’"

William H. Macy This is what happened. Ricky Jay stops me and I said, “Listen, do you mind, I’m a little distracted. There’s a guy with his dick in my wife’s ass.” And that was take one. And then a second take, I said, “My fucking wife has an ass in her cock.” And Paul said, “You said, ‘ass in her cock.’” And I said, “Oh, I did? Sorry. Ha, ha, ha.” So take three, I think I did it right. Take four, he said, “You said it again.” I said, “No, I didn’t. I didn’t. I’m sure I didn’t.” He said, “You did.” I said, “I didn’t. I’m pretty sure.” We did another take. And then when I saw the film, he’d decided to use the “ass in her cock.” And that’s the genius of Paul Thomas Anderson....

"Paul and I were having lunch, shooting the breeze, this young girl who weighed about 90 pounds soaking wet sat beside us, and she was from the porn industry. And she says to Paul, “Can I ask you a professional question?” He says, sure. She says, “You’ve seen me in these scenes; you’ve seen what I can do. In your professional opinion, should I go legit or should I go anal?”"

"I just remember somebody on the crew saying, “Yeah, well, Burt’s got a thing in his contract that if he punches the director in the face, he can’t get fired because he’s got a temper. It’s just known that it’s gonna happen.”"

"William H. Macy Little Bill I walked into the trailer the first day and she had her legs up on the counter shaving. And she said, “Hi, Bill, I’m Nina. I’m going to play your wife.” As memory serves, she had on nothing, buck-naked in the trailer. She’s a stitch. Nina Hartley Little Bill’s Wife Macy didn’t treat me like a leper. He treated me with respect and professionalism. And I really appreciated that, because except for the people in the makeup trailer, no one else really spoke to me. Wahlberg, on my first day of shooting, came up and said hello; he talked to me for five minutes and then walked away and that was it. And Julianne Moore came in the makeup trailer one time, looked in my direction; I couldn’t read the expression on her face and she left quickly thereafter. But none of the female performers came up to me and said, “Hi, hope you’re having a good time.”"

"Torture was just another bureaucracy."

TV, movie, Jack Bauer and James Bond fictions to the contrary, intelligence agencies are staffed by the same kinds of bureaucrats that make up the rest of the governmental bodies that inhabit Washington D.C.  Government Ineptitude, CIA-Style - Reason.com: "Faced with the conflicting claims about the CIA's use of "enhanced interrogation" methods on suspected terrorists, most of us have neither the time nor the expertise to sift through all the evidence to make a definitive judgment. But here's a useful exercise: Imagine that in the aftermath of 9/11, the person in charge of the CIA was Kathleen Sebelius. Why would we expect the spy agency to do a more honest or effective job in getting information from detainees than HHS did in handling health insurance customers? The assumption among the Bush administration's defenders is that our intelligence community is made up of star performers with peerless skills and impeccable judgment. But it's not clear the CIA workforce is appreciably different from the rest of the Washington bureaucracy. The Senate Intelligence Committee report indicates it isn't. It says the agency couldn't keep track of how many detainees it had in custody and then lied to cover its failure. Some 26 captives were wrongfully held...

It quoted one senior official who complained that "managers seem to be selecting either problem, underperforming officers, new, totally inexperienced officers, or whomever seems to be willing and able to deploy at any given time." The result, the official said, was "useless intelligence." No one should be slack-jawed to learn that the people in charge didn't bother to assess whether they were doing a good job in protecting the nation from terrorism. They took that on faith. They placed complete confidence in their own motives and skill. "The CIA never conducted a credible, comprehensive analysis of the effectiveness of its enhanced interrogation techniques," said the committee. "There are no CIA records to indicate that any of the reviews independently validated the 'effectiveness' claims presented by the CIA, to include the basic confirmation that the intelligence cited by the CIA was acquired from CIA detainees during or after the use of the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques." Conflicting evidence was ignored. It was easier for agency leaders to believe their own propaganda and squelch dissent in the ranks. "The CIA marginalized and ignored numerous internal critiques, criticisms and objections," concluded the senators...

All of this is in keeping with a long list of government failures. The people who presided over the torture program were the same people who invaded Iraq expecting to be showered with daffodils. They were also the same people who oversaw the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. On that matter, a Republican-dominated special House committee was scathing in its judgment.

...The 9/11 attack, by contrast, was not anticipated, and the CIA was not prepared to gather intelligence from thousands of captured foreigners believed to be fighting on behalf of al-Qaida or the Taliban. The United States had signed an international treaty renouncing the use of torture. So the agency found itself rapidly putting into practice methods with which it had no experience or expertise, on disputable legal grounds. In responding to the 9/11 attack, it botched its responsibility, abused its powers, concealed its failures and exaggerated its achievements. Wow. Who could have seen that coming?"

How Torture Became Just Another Government Bureaucracy - Reason.com: "Strip out the torture and terrorism and you've got any other troubled government program. Was the Department of Health and Human Services honest with those charged with oversight about the state of Obamacare health insurance exchanges prior to their launch, and has it succeeded in providing affordable health insurance? It's the same argument. Torture was just another bureaucracy. As such, hundreds of eye-watering pages of the report are not about shoving hummus up a guy's ass, but rather who knew what, when, and whether various Department of Justice officials or inspectors general were in the loop about certain details, and so much paperwork. Like every bureaucratic battle, it's about making sure nobody can be directly held accountable even when mistakes are admitted to in the most passive of language. Procedures were followed, and when procedures weren't followed they were corrected eventually (maybe)."

...A bureaucracy always protects its own existence above any and all things. The nature of the CIA's acknowledgements of deficiencies are about fixing the bureaucracy and actually expanding it. More oversight! More guidelines! This program needs to exist, but we just need to be better at it! It's the bureaucracy-lover's equivalent of saying "My problem is that I just care too much." We see similar arguments about the problems with the implementation of Obamacare and with the IRS targeting conservative nonprofits. Never mind that in many cases, according to the Senate report, interrogators in the field were telling CIA leadership that these tortured detainees didn't have the information they were looking for. CIA officials insisted that they did. But instead of pushing out an incomplete, broken web site to sell health insurance because of pressure from above, they strung men up naked in stress positions and refused to let them sleep. The CIA must argue that the program worked, or else they might have to consider that the program shouldn't have happened and they shouldn't have been granted these additional powers."

If only we had some system in place where we could try to find out if all the people we had in custody were actually guilty of something before we tortured them.  We could call it a "try-all" for short.  The 'Graywashing' of CIA Torture - The Atlantic: ""Of the 119 known detainees," the Senate intelligence committee report declares, "at least 26 were wrongfully held and did not meet the detention standard in the September 2001 Memorandum of Notification." They "remained in custody for months after the CIA determined that they did not meet the standard," and one of these improperly detained prisoners, Abu Hudhaifa, "endured 66 hours of standing sleep deprivation and ice water baths," ABC News notes, "before being released because the CIA discovered he was likely not the person he was believed to be." In other words, even if you're someone who is inclined to give the CIA a break for torturing al-Qaeda members, there is no reason to give them a moral or legal pass for that most serious of all negligent acts save homicide: carelessly torturing an innocent.

...According to the Senate report, "untrained CIA officers ... conducted frequent, unauthorized, and unsupervised interrogations of detainees using harsh physical interrogation techniques that were not—and never became—part of the CIA's formal 'enhanced' interrogation program." So even if you're inclined to give a pass to CIA agents who were "just following orders" and legal guidelines handed down by the Office of Legal Counsel, why would you absolve from legal accountability the people responsible for sending untrained CIA officers to torture prisoners in ways that weren't even approved by torture-friendly lawyers? The most defensible instances of U.S. torture aren't, I don't think, actually defensible—but they certainly don't justify the least defensible torture sessions. The bundling of all torture into "the interrogation program" is meant to obscure the fact that particular individuals perpetrated lots of discrete, illegal, indefensible acts."