Phil confirmed the avatar of Brittania

One of my best friends irl for the past 20 years or so is now a medium-bigwig for a big libertarian think tank. He's not an anarchocapitalist, but he's at least an AC-sympathizer. We'll call him Ayn.

Another one of my very nonpolitical friends who is trying to learn more about such things asked him on Facebook "Is the abolition (abolishment?) of regulation in its entirety the foundation of anarchocapitalism?" This question was in good faith, and was received as such.

Therein followed the longest Facebook comment I have ever seen, with invocations of all the AC Bingo words from 2+2. Ayn invoked such classics as "Who will build the roads?", "Taxes are illegal", "Ignoring your question to answer a different hypothetical question", "Collusion doesn't happen", "Well that's not *really* a free market, then", "Well you must not understand it, then", "COMPETITION!!!!", "Research the nonaggression principle", "Condescending hypothetical examples". It really was a tour de force.

I mention this because it made me think of all you politards, about whom I haven't thought in quite some time. Merry holidays, ya filthy animals.

#FreeNeilsio

Should have posted the comment for fun and enjoyment

You should think of us more. We're highly thinkable people imo.

Credit to Rand Paul where credit is due. He's putting his money where his mouth is.

http://www.courier-journal.com/story...tate/19842057/

Should a politician really get credit for doing something universally popular? Like who do you think he is moving against from outside the party mechanism?

Following the official process of declaring a war isn't very popular. Now actually bombing and droning the sh*t out of them is. It's more of a political class unpopularity though. Regular Joes really don't distinguish between all the different versions of military action we do.

Some more lol Britain porn laws

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/n...lating-fisting

The new Orion rocket is scheduled to lift off at 7:05 est

****, I always forget there's a new thread each month.

I need legal advice. Tap BBW2, SUMMON RIVERMAN

I want to enter the Daily Show charity donation thingy where you get a flight to NYC and get interviewed by STEWARD if you win, but there's this:

What the **** does that mean?

I mean my chances are probably zero of anyone understanding that since it relates to local laws I guess? I have nfi what those laws are tho. A bit more explanation would have been nice.

This is What Happens When Americans are Asked to Label Europe and Brits are Asked to Label the US





There are many more.

I doubt Americans would do any better at labeling America than the Brits. They might even do worse on average.

Well, at least they know the names of the relevant parts of the US.

Honestly I wouldn't expect the average brit to be all that much better than the average murican at labelling Europe. Like we have a few gimmes like knowing what Portugal, Belgium and Netherlands (but possibly mixing those two up) which I wouldn't expect many Americans to pick up but for being in Europe knowledge beyond the famous countries is low. I wouldn't know many of the former soviet states for eg.

I would definitely bet Americans are better at naming American States than Brits are at naming European countries.

Well, eastern europe has changed a lot just in the last 30 years.

Yeah, I doubt the average resident of the state of Chicago could do better.

Also, trying to define "the midwest" is an impossible task.

"They tried and failed, all of them?" "Oh, no." She shook her head. "They tried and died."

I'd be impressed by anybody who could accurately label the Balkans.

I can. Ive been to three of them though. Three times, in the case of Slovenia. The Julian Alps is one of my fave places on the planet.

Travelling helps. I think I could accurately label all US states and European and South East Asian countries. All places I have travelled. Everywhere else I have a decent idea but there are gaps.

They're not really the same though? People care a lot more about their home countries than their neighbours. A closer equivalent would be British counties vs US states, or Europe versus the Americas.

I can locate all the US states as a foreigner (loserbrag), but it's pretty much entirely due to following US elections. If EU elections were more meaningful, maybe I'd have a less foggy idea of Eastern Europe.

I know a poker player whose prop bet is to label countries. I've seen him do 180+ he spots people 100 countries and still wins.

The Balkans are actually pretty easy if you know a little about them. Like the former Yugoslavia is Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Republic of Macedonia and Kosovo if you count that as a country (I guess remembering them is the hard part).

- Croatia's star attraction is the Dalmatian Coast
- Slovenia was first to win independence from Yugoslavia (in the Ten Days War) because it is shielded from imperial Serbia, the power of the region, by Croatia and Bosnia, who had to fight major wars for their independence.
- Macedonia is also a region of Greece
- The conflict over Kosovo was fought between Serbs and ethnic Albanians.

If you can remember these facts, it's easy to label them all.

Geography knowledge is so overrated. That's what ****ing maps are for.