Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

The choice is between normal and crazy.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. don’t touch it.”

Not all heroes wear capes.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

It’s a doggy dog world.

We still have time to mess this up!

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

I really should read my own blog.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

You are here: Home / z-Retired Categories / Previous Site Maintenance / What A Difference

What A Difference

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What a difference a 24 hours and modern antibiotics make- I feel like a new man. Don’t get me wrong, I still fell like crap, but compared to yesterday, I am not the same person. As I was telling Tim, it makes you think- if this were 1906 or if I was basically a citizen of a non-industrialized country (and let’s face it, not white), I would have been dead today. Instead, I am posting on the internet how I feel better. Pretty neat stuff, if you think about it.

Consider this your open thread for the day.

BTW- Jones Diet Green Apple Soda = tasty ymmy goodness.

Reader Interactions

120Comments

  5. 5.

    demimondian

    Really on-topic, now: the eldest of the demi-offspring is named after his great-uncle [name witheld] who died as a toddler of complications of strep throat, which was, itself, a complication of a viral infection. The second of the demi-offspring would have died as an infant — of perinatal pneumonia — if it weren’t for modern antibiotics.

    So, yes, John, we are lucky to live when we do.

  6. 6.

    demimondian

    Bode Miller, dnf his first run in the slalom. What a jackarse.

    You are only just now figuring that out?

  9. 9.

    Jeff Miller

    Good Lord, John. What did you have? Was it really that dire?

    Glad you’re back on your … er … keyboard.

  11. 11.

    Andrew J. Lazarus

    OTOH, yours truly is named after an aunt who died of penicillin shock, back before they were properly prepared. (Now the first time you get penicillin, someone’s standing by with the antidote for allergy.) My number 2 son is penicillin-allergic, but not to the same fatal extent.

  13. 13.

    Bruce in Alta California

    Ahhh yes, family names.

    My father wanted to name me after the ship he served in WWII, the Ambrose Bearse. My mother prevailed. I lost either way.

    When my first son was born, I wanted to name him after my then favorite pasttime, Humboldt Red, but once again the mother prevailed.

    Really, the naming of offsprings are left better in the hands of the matriarch and papa-smurf can continue to name the family pets.

  14. 14.

    scs

    Since this is an open thread, I want to comment on Sasha Cohen’s silver medal figure skating performance. Thrilled by her performance, I looked up the comments in several papers the next day about her skate to see if they were as thrilled as I was and I was surprised. Most of the sports writers wrote about her medal as if it were a failure and almost ridiculed her because she fell. Pretty much everybody fell at least once so I don’t think of that as a failure really. Instead, I believe they should have commented on the most notable aspects of her performance which was the incredible grace and line, the amazing choreography, the fantastic spins. That was the best choreographed and best performed skating I’ve maybe ever seen. And that is in comparison to most of the others who skated who seemed to neglect the performance aspect. Obviously she did something right to earn a silver medal after her falls, and instead of the commentators acting all snarky, they should recognize what was truly amazing about her performance. Anyway, probably most of you won’t care about skating, but maybe Stormy will catch this.

  15. 15.

    KC

    Glad to hear your feeling better John. I just had sinus surgery a month-and-a-half back and while recovering, thought about the same thing you did: If not for the modern day surgery, would I have been on the slow road to death 100 years ago?

  17. 17.

    ppGaz

    most of you won’t care about skating

    We care deeply about skating. We just don’t care what you said about it.

    No offense.

  18. 18.

    scs

    And another thoughts on the Winter Olympics. Are these Olympics really reflective of anything other than the national wealth and proximity to snow of the winners? As a lot of the events are speed and endurance events, does anyone really think if the world had equal wealth, we would be seeing many wins by countries such as Holland and Norway? I don’t believe so. If things were really equal, I believe we would be seeing a lot of sprint speed skating and short track skating being won by Jamaicans, like they do in sprinting, and the long distance skating and biathlons by Kenyans, like they always do in marathons. The Chinese are now coming on strong in the figure skating and skiing freestyle events, just like they have in diving. Really the whole thing now is like affirmative action for Nordics.

  19. 19.

    scs

    We care deeply about skating. We just don’t care what you said about it.

    No offense.

    I care deeply about what most of you think about my comments on skating. I just don’t care what you think about my comments on skating.

    No offense.

  23. 23.

    Ancient Purple

    Have you formed a gang on the blog?

    I am a ppGaz toadie, flunky, lackey, shill, and sycophant.

    Well, at least as long as the checks keep coming in.

  24. 24.

    The Other Steve

    Most of the sports writers wrote about her medal as if it were a failure and almost ridiculed her because she fell.

    Could it be because she’s a Russian Jew? Is anti-semitism becoming rampant amongst Sports writers?

    You never heard them talk much about the Israeli Winter Olympics team. I think you might be onto something here.

  25. 25.

    Marcus Wellby

    You never heard them talk much about the Israeli Winter Olympics team.

    That’s because the Israeli Winter Olympics team is too busy influencing our foreign policy, and according to some bloggers, forging Danish cartoons and plotting the “next 911”.

  26. 26.

    kl

    Jones soda—can I get it in Arizona?

    Probably, but unfortunately for you, it’s not available in IV bags.

  27. 27.

    Krista

    ouch! That was rude, kl!

    Jones Soda…a very good time.

    Glad you’re feeling better, John. Make sure you finish your course of antibiotics, though. Antibiotic resistance is not a good thing. A friend of mine kept not finishing his antibiotic courses, and was prescribed them way too often in the first place, so it got to the point where they’re so ineffective for him that he had to get an antibiotic shunt put into his heart, because of an infected ingrown toenail.

  29. 29.

    Slide

    Glad you are feeling better John.

    I want to comment on this huge blunder of a war that the little emperor has gotten us into. The situation we face in Iraq was entirely predictable. Everyone that really looked at the situation without rose colored neocon naive glasses on saw what was going to happen. And I am not talking about partisan Dems but

    George Bush Sr:

    “Incalculable human and political costs” would have been the result, the senior Bush has said, if his administration had pushed all the way to Baghdad and sought to overthrow Saddam Hussein after the U.S.-led coalition ousted the Iraqi army from Kuwait during the Persian Gulf war in 1991.

    “We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect rule Iraq,” Bush wrote. “The coalition would have instantly collapsed. … Going in and thus unilaterally exceeding the United Nations mandate would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression we hoped to establish.

    “Had we gone the invasion route, the United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land. It would have been a dramatically different — and perhaps barren — outcome.”

    James Baker

    :In a September 1996 opinion piece, he said, “Iraqi soldiers and civilians could be expected to resist an enemy seizure of their own country with a ferocity not previously demonstrated on the battlefield in Kuwait.

    “Even if Hussein were captured and his regime toppled, U.S. forces would still have been confronted with the specter of a military occupation of indefinite duration to pacify the country and sustain a new government in power.

    “Removing him from power might well have plunged Iraq into civil war, sucking U.S. forces in to preserve order. Had we elected to march on Baghdad, our forces might still be there.”

    Brent Scowcroft:

    “The Iraqi elections, rather than turning out to be a promising turning point, have the great potential for deepening the conflict,” Scowcroft said. He said he expects increased divisions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims after the Jan. 30 elections, when experts believe the government will be dominated by the majority Shiites.

    Scowcroft predicted “an incipient civil war” would grip Iraq and said the best hope for pulling the country from chaos would be to turn the U.S. operation over to NATO or the United Nations — which, he said, would not be so hostilely viewed by Iraqis.

    But why listen to people that actually had experience with an Iraq war.. with Saddam Hussein.. with creating a coalition? Nah… not going to listent to his own father because he talks with a HIGHER father.. yes… the boy emperor gets his advice from the great General in the heavens directly. How sad it is that we have such a complete failure for a president. God (the real God and not Bush’s delusions) help us all..

  30. 30.

    Slide

    and then we have Howard Dean, who the right loves to ridicule. What did he say before the invasion? Lets take a lookie see ok?

    I believe it is my patriotic duty to urge a different path to protecting America’s security: To focus on al Qaeda, which is an imminent threat, and to use our resources to improve and strengthen the security and safety of our home front and our people while working with the other nations of the world to contain Saddam Hussein. . . .

    Had I been a member of the Senate, I would have voted against the resolution that authorized the President to use unilateral force against Iraq – unlike others in that body now seeking the presidency.

    That the President was given open-ended authority to go to war in Iraq resulted from a failure of too many in my party in Washington who were worried about political positioning for the presidential election.

    The stakes are so high, this is not a time for holding back or sheepishly going along with the herd.

    To this day, the President has not made a case that war against Iraq, now, is necessary to defend American territory, our citizens, our allies, or our essential interests.

    The Administration has not explained how a lasting peace, and lasting security, will be achieved in Iraq once Saddam Hussein is toppled.

    I, for one, am not ready to abandon the search for better answers.

    As a doctor, I was trained to treat illness, and to examine a variety of options before deciding which to prescribe. I worried about side effects and took the time to see what else might work before proceeding to high-risk measures. . . .

    We have been told over and over again what the risks will be if we do not go to war.

    We have been told little about what the risks will be if we do go to war.
    If we go to war, I certainly hope the Administration’s assumptions are realized, and the conflict is swift, successful and clean. I certainly hope our armed forces will be welcomed like heroes and liberators in the streets of Baghdad.

    I certainly hope Iraq emerges from the war stable, united and democratic.

    I certainly hope terrorists around the world conclude it is a mistake to defy America and cease, thereafter, to be terrorists.

    It is possible, however, that events could go differently, . . . .

    Iraq is a divided country, with Sunni, Shia and Kurdish factions that share both bitter rivalries and access to large quantities of arms.
    Anti-American feelings will surely be inflamed among the misguided who choose to see an assault on Iraq as an attack on Islam, or as a means of controlling Iraqi oil.

    And last week’s tape by Osama bin Laden tells us that our enemies will seek relentlessly to transform a war into a tool for inspiring and recruiting more terrorists.

    There are other risks. Iraq is a divided country, with Sunni, Shia and Kurdish factions that share both bitter rivalries and access to large quantities of arms.

    Yeah, that hysterical, anti-american screamer.. what does he know. He doesn’t talk to GOD like the boy emperor now does he?

  32. 32.

    Perry Como

    At least you weren’t sipping the Turkey and Gravy Soda from Jones.

    In other news, QotD:

    Look, I’m really sorry reality is intruding on your little fantasy but a lot of people are probably going to die in the coming days and weeks because of the idea that if you just repeat something enough times, it will come true.

    Enough already. Shut your mouths; you people in Washington have caused enough damage already.

  35. 35.

    Davebo

    Come on Perry.

    Why isn’t he, like Fox, commenting on the good things coming from this early stage civil war?

  37. 37.

    Pb

    Glad to hear it, John!

    Incidentally, I got a special Jones Soda Valentine’s Day thingy for my (now) fiancée, it was pretty neat. The two bottles in question–Love Potion #6, which tasted to me vaguely like Wonka’s Nerds in liquid form, go figure.

  39. 39.

    CaseyL

    Glad to hear you’re feeling better; feeling like crap still, but not feeling as though death might be a holiday.

    Keep on taking care of yourself, y’hear? We need you! We need balloon-juice!

    Seriously. This is my favorite blog for conversation, John, and it’s precisely because you let things get freewheeling. I like that anyone with an opinion can share it, that there’s no censorship or permanent banning. I like that threads can start out about (say) Dick(head) Cohen’s take on algebra and wind up being an impassioned argument about the relationship between math and music. I like the Friday Beer Blogging (even though I’m not much of a beer drinker). I even like the flame wars, when the warriors are on their A game and the vituperation gets creatively nasty.

    This is one of nearest things in blogdom to a bunch of people sitting around a woodstove talking about whatever comes up.

    Just want to say thanks, John and Tim. Long may you both wave.

  40. 40.

    Sine.Qua.Non

    John,
    I’m so glad you are on the road to recovery. I had a double dose of the flu and it knocked me on my ass. Hope you are back healthy as the proverbial horse soon.

    PPGaz?
    I’m a hom(mi)ebody….does that count?

    Slide:

    I want to comment on this huge blunder of a war that the little emperor has gotten us into. The situation we face in Iraq was entirely predictable. Everyone that really looked at the situation without rose colored neocon naive glasses on saw what was going to happen.

    That was a great accumulation of information, along with the Howard Dean info. Thanks for the reminder.

  42. 42.

    Stormy70

    I was happy for the Japanese chick who won the gold. It was a true Olympic momment. {sniff} It seems like all sports commentators look down on silver across the entire sports spectrum. I don’t really pay attention to it.

    I was really busy this week with work, so I took what I thought was a nap yesterday, and slept for 6 hours. I have no energy. Can you catch crap from the internet, anyway?

    What’s with the ricin at UT?! Like all of these stories, I will wait for at least a week before opining on it.

    Oh, and I read the episode updates on the first four episodes of 24, then watched the rest of the episodes I had on DVR. I am now caught up, whew!

    Amazing Race starts this week!!!!!

  43. 43.

    demimondian

    ppG — I hear that your crew and my crew are supposed to rumble later today — hot air at five paces, right?

  44. 44.

    ppGaz

    Word up.

    { signs }

    Righties best not be all up in my grill ‘les they wan’ us to flex ’em like a skeeza, know I’m sayin’?

  45. 45.

    Stormy70

    Righties best not be all up in my grill ‘les they wan’ us to flex ‘em like a skeeza, know I’m sayin’?

    Must. Not. Comment.

    [keels over]

  49. 49.

    Joey

    Righties best not be all up in my grill ‘les they wan’ us to flex ‘em like a skeeza, know I’m sayin’?

    That is the single most beautiful line of the written English word (At least I think it was English…) that I have ever read. For that reason alone, I’m witcha homie.

  50. 50.

    Dave Ryan

    Felt like death all week. Wondering if there was something going around Morgantown, aside from the usual STDs and primal urge for couch burnings?

  52. 52.

    kl

    Word up.

    { signs }

    Righties best not be all up in my grill ‘les they wan’ us to flex ‘em like a skeeza, know I’m sayin’?

    Spoken like a 60-year-old white guy in Phoenix.

  53. 53.

    Bruce Moomaw

    Maybe you ARE a new man, John. Maybe the germs ate your body and replaced it, like in that Ray Bradbury story…

  55. 55.

    demimondian

    Yeah, but, really, ppG, after that display of pure hot air mastery…at least, that’s what I think it is…my crew jumped into its shell and paddled off.

    (That, and FDDD arranged to ask me out to dinner…)

  56. 56.

    4jkb4ia

    I thought this would be the appropriate place to post this, and I am glad to see that people agree with me! I was glad to see Arakawa win, too. The short program was very impressive. And I wish that the NYT commenters would stop whining about the missed opportunities, even if Cohen and Jacobellis knew that they could have had gold. 25 medals is a very good haul. I think it is envy. Fabris, Klassen, and Arakawa had real glorious Olympic moments, but the Americans had nothing of this caliber except for Belbin and Agosto and Ohno’s 500-m race.
    The medal count does depend on proximity to snow. Nordics have traditions of these sports and Jamaicans and Kenyans do not. It is more working with the grain for Jamaicans and Kenyans to go into track and field or some such summer sport.

  58. 58.

    4jkb4ia

    nhl.com displayed class in reporting fully on the Olympic tournament. It is very positive for them, because hockey fans may follow players that they got to know during this time.

  59. 59.

    ppGaz

    Demi, after my gangstaspeak outburst, some kind of brain electrical storm happened and wiped out my memory of the whole conversation. I think it was the use of the word “skeeza” that did it.

    Anyway, I’m on the mend today, drinking cocoa and doing the NYT crossword in bed.

    Also we are reevaluating our fleet here at the compound and may trade the Mustang for a new Civic Si. It’s complicated. I serve many masters.

    Let Stormy know she can come back out now. Everything is alright.

  60. 60.

    Steve

    I have to completely agree that Sasha Cohen deserved not a shred of negativity. The only sense in which a silver medal is a loss is if you came in as an overwhelming favorite to blow everyone away.

    I think the media is constantly looking for someone to crown as America’s new golden guy or girl, and thus they build up the contenders in breathless anticipation of them becoming the next Bonnie Blair or whoever. It’s not guaranteed to happen. Just enjoy whatever happens for what it’s worth.

    The US finished up with a nice medal count, but I wonder how many of those medals came from sports that barely exist outside the US, like all these events that make you think you’re watching the X Games. Kudos to the winners, but it’s a bit like Scotland taking the gold in caber tossing.

  62. 62.

    demimondian

    I think the media is constantly looking for someone to crown as America’s new golden guy or girl

    As I see it, the media is looking for its next meal ticket — someone cute, smart, telegeneic…and as white as his or her teeth. If Cohen had finished up with the gold, we could have counted on seeing her face selling ads for the next few months.

    I’ll leave it to people wiser than me to say whether the eventual outcome was better or worse for her…or for us.

  63. 63.

    scs

    Well I was wrong, some of you DO care about skating! Good to know. And Bode Miller is the new James Dean of skiing.

  64. 64.

    scs

    Oh and while we’re on diet food tips, John, I recommend Jello sugar free pudding cups. They are only 60 calories a piece and they fill you up- more than lite yoghurt I think. Even the regular (full sugar) ones are I think 110 calories, so not so bad either. They are good when you have that sweet tooth that won’t go away. So you homies out there, remember -sugar free Jello is the bomb!

  65. 65.

    Ancient Purple

    Since this is an open thread…

    On FOX News Sunday, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol said that we haven’t had a serious war effort in Iraq for the past three years.

    KRISTOL: We’ve been trying, and our soldiers are doing terrifically, but we have not had a serious three-year effort to fight a war in Iraq as opposed to laying the preconditions for getting out.

    Tell that to the families of the 2200+ soliders that are dead, Bill.

  66. 66.

    scs

    Okay just saw this in the London Times

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-2058597_3,00.html

    Like Zarqawi, many Arabs fleeing American retaliation in Afghanistan after 9/11 found refuge with Ansar al-Islam. But then came an unexpected development. According to Dr Muhammad al-Masari, a Saudi specialist on Al-Qaeda’s ideology, Saddam established contact with the “Afghan Arabs” as early as 2001, believing he would be targeted by the US once the Taliban was routed.

    In this version, disputed by other commentators, Saddam funded Al-Qaeda operatives to move into Iraq with the proviso that they would not undermine his regime. Sources close to the Ba’ath regime have told me that Saddam also used to send messengers to buy small plots of land from farmers in Sunni areas. In the middle of the night soldiers would bury arms and money caches for later use by the resistance.

    According to Masari, Saddam saw that Islam would be key to a cohesive resistance in the event of invasion. Iraqi army commanders were ordered to become practising Muslims and to adopt the language and spirit of the jihadis.

    Sounds interesting.

  67. 67.

    scs

    That paper is on fire today. Okay, this is hot too!

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2059052,00.html

    THE chauffeur of the car in which Diana, Princess of Wales died was working for the French secret service, the British team reinvestigating her death has been told.
    The inquiry — headed by Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan police commissioner — into the Paris car crash that killed Diana is now trying to obtain the chauffeur’s files from French intelligence but is being delayed by the reluctance of the authorities to hand them over.

  69. 69.

    ppGaz

    KRISTOL: We’ve been trying, and our soldiers are doing terrifically, but we have not had a serious three-year effort to fight a war in Iraq as opposed to laying the preconditions for getting out.

    That is just …. stupefying.

    This neocon crazy lying sumbitch says this after all this time? He clearly now is more worried about saving his image, if he has one, than about telling the truth about this whole misadventure.

    I mean, it’s a jaw dropper that he could say something like today and not be drunk or sobbing like a televangelist who just got caught getting a blow job in his car.

    I think that all media and all of blogville should have a day of silence in light of Kristol’s amazing remarks. Seriously, it means that every single word these assholes have said in the last three years has been bullshit.

  71. 71.

    Slide

    this US News and World Report article was written before the current port controversly:

    An Unlikely Criminal Crossroads

    From Egypt to Afghanistan, when terrorists and gangsters need a place to meet, to relax, maybe to invest, they head to Dubai, a bustling city-state on the Persian Gulf. The Middle East’s unquestioned financial capital, Dubai is the showcase of the United Arab Emirates, an oil-rich federation of sheikdoms. Forty years ago, Dubai was a backwater; today, it hosts dozens of banks and one of the world’s busiest ports; its free-trade zones are crammed with thousands of companies. Construction is everywhere–skyscrapers, malls, hotels, and, soon, the world’s tallest building.

    But Dubai also serves as the region’s criminal crossroads, a hub for smuggling, money laundering, and underground banking. There are Russian and Indian mobsters, Iranian arms traffickers, and Arab jihadists. Funds for the 9/11 hijackers and African embassy bombers were transferred through the city. It was the heart of Pakistani scientist A. Q. Khan’s black market in nuclear technology and other proliferation cases. Half of all applications to buy U.S. military equipment from Dubai are from bogus front companies, officials say. “Iran,” adds one U.S. official, “is building a bomb through Dubai.” Last year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents thwarted the shipment of 3,000 U.S. military night-vision goggles by an Iranian pair based in Dubai. Moving goods undetected is not hard. Dhows–rickety wooden boats that have plowed the Arabian Sea for centuries–move along the city center, uninspected, down the aptly named Smuggler’s Creek.

    U.A.E. rulers have taken terrorism seriously since 9/11, but Washington has a half-dozen extradition requests that they refuse to honor. The list includes people accused of rape, murder, and arms trafficking, and the last fugitive of the BCCI banking scandal. The country has put money laundering controls on the books but has made few cases. Interior Minister Sheik Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan told U.S. News the U.A.E. has made great strides in cracking down, but he insists that the real problems lie elsewhere. “We are a neutral country, like Switzerland,” he says. “Give us the evidence, and we will do something about it. Don’t blame others.” Not everyone agrees. “All roads lead to Dubai,” says former treasury agent John Cassara, author of Hide and Seek, a forthcoming book on terrorism finance. Cassara tried explaining U.S. concerns about Dubai to a local businessman but got only a puzzled look: “Mr. John, money laundering? But that’s what we do.”

    Sounds like the right people to run our ports don’t they?

  72. 72.

    Ancient Purple

    This neocon crazy lying sumbitch says this after all this time? He clearly now is more worried about saving his image, if he has one, than about telling the truth about this whole misadventure.

    No kidding, ppG. Kristol was trumpting the actions of King George in this mess. Now, his cover is, “Gee, we just weren’t trying hard enough so that’s why things are falling apart.”

    How safe, fat and comfortable he must be from behind his desk at the Weekly Standard. If ever there was a bone fide chickenhawk, it is Kristol.

    Bill Kristol: Yellow-bellied coward.

  75. 75.

    Otto Man

    Kevin Drum and Digby have the best take on the Kristol Betrayal:

    In any case, it turns out that Digby’s reaction to Kristol was similar to mine: doesn’t this sound an awful lot like the old school Marxist lament that you can’t say communism failed since it was never really put into practice anywhere? Given neoconservatism’s Trotskyite origins I suppose this parallel isn’t a surprise or anything, and I look forward to coming across a disparaging reference to “actual existing neoconservatism” someday soon. It should be the start of an entertaining bloodletting.

  76. 76.

    ppGaz

    You’re just old.

    True, but I can’t change that.

    On the other hand …….

    { point to ppGaz }

    { aggregate score: ppGaz 35 kl 2 }

    Hey, you’re only 33 points behind. Take heart. Another good couple of years, you could pull even.

  77. 77.

    4jkb4ia

    USA medal count by discipline:
    Alpine skiing 2
    Bobsled 1
    Curling 1
    Figure skating 2
    Freestyle skiing 1
    Ice hockey (women’s bronze) 1
    Short-track speed skating 3 (Ohno had a share in each one)
    Snowboard 6
    Long-track speed skating 7
    The snowboard and women’s hockey can be said to be sports we own. During the women’s final, the announcers commented how many players from every country had played college hockey in the USA.

  86. 86.

    The Other Steve

    Kevin Drum and Digby have the best take on the Kristol Betrayal:

    I would have to agree, and if the Democrats had any balls they would be saying that. The goal right now should be to ensure that the ideology of neoconservatism is dead, dead, dead, dead.

    Then of course the only Democrats they have on TV any more is Biden and Lieberman, neither of which have any balls. So maybe I’m asking too much.

  88. 88.

    ppGaz

    Then of course the only Democrats they have on TV any more is Biden and Lieberman

    DINOs. Like McCain, those two would gladly kiss the ass of Satan himself if it brought them power.

  89. 89.

    Bob In Pacifica

    Prostate exams? If you haven’t had the full color camera tour of your large intestines, you haven’t experienced the ultimate trip. Every five years I have to go through it. My mom had intestinal cancer so I’ve got to get it every five years. I guess I’ve reached the age anyway. The worst part is the process of “vacating” oneself the night before. After all that, the friendly crew taking a video tour of the land beyond your asshole is nothing. It’s all squishy and pink up there, like a meeting of the Young Republicans.

    We were talking about prostate exams, right? You know that Irish whiskey goes right to my head.

  90. 90.

    Pb

    The Other Steve,

    I would have to agree, and if the Democrats had any balls they would be saying that. The goal right now should be to ensure that the ideology of neoconservatism is dead, dead, dead, dead.

    Amen.

    Then of course the only Democrats they have on TV any more is Biden and Lieberman, neither of which have any balls. So maybe I’m asking too much.

    How does that work exactly–darn liberal media!

    Incidentally, I saw Meet The Press today, it had zero Democrats on the show, zero Independents on, zero non-partisans, zero ‘experts’, zero journalists… just four Republicans spinning like tops! (counting Russert, of course)

  91. 91.

    The Other Steve

    Incidentally, I saw Meet The Press today, it had zero Democrats on the show, zero Independents on, zero non-partisans, zero ‘experts’, zero journalists… just four Republicans spinning like tops! (counting Russert, of course)

    Ever since Russert took over Meet the Press, it’s gone downhill.

    Sadly, same is true for Snuffalupagus on ‘This Week’. That man couldn’t even shine David Brinkley’s shoes.

  93. 93.

    Lines

    I think the Olympics, especially the figure skating news, is just the Bush Regime’s way of trying to deflect the press from their constant scandal.

  95. 95.

    Krista

    The snowboard and women’s hockey can be said to be sports we own.

    Ahem…

    You don’t own it. We just let you borrow it occasionally. That’s the kind of nice neighbours we are.

  96. 96.

    Steve

    I simply had to preserve this classic from one of the co-authors at GOP4Me’s blog:

    I’m glad there were no moonbats at Gettysburg. I can imagine them claiming that the fact the country was involved in a bloody civil war meant that Lincoln’s anti-slavery policy was wrong.

    I think the gist is that, if you don’t agree that civil war in Iraq is a good thing, you must be objectively pro-slavery.

    If you thought “more attacks by insurgents means they are increasingly desperate” was a bad argument, you may have trouble finding words to describe the argument that civil war is a positive development. But somehow, there are large numbers of people, right here in our own country, who believe this stuff.

  100. 100.

    Pb

    Lines,

    That would be hilarious if it weren’t so very sad. Incidentally I saw at least one spoof comment early on–I could tell due to the superior quality and keen self-awareness of its own nonsensicality through sarcasm. And, of course, two people replied who didn’t get the joke, one for and one against.

    My personal (early) favorite:

    It’s one thing to criticize American foreign policy or wartime tactics at home. It’s quite another to tell lies about your own country – lies intended to undermine your own government – on the soil that provides safe haven to your enemy. Al Gore lied. He knows he lied. And he knows that his lies will cause the deaths of more Americans, military and civilian. And he did it in the country that nurtured, financed, and CONTINUES to support terrorism. In my opinion, what Al Gore did constitutes treason, plain and simple. And he should be tried for treason, or deported.

    You heard it there first: Gore lied, people died!

  101. 101.

    Krista

    Steve- you do realize I was talking about women’s hockey, right? Otherwise, those are some of the fugliest women I’ve ever seen…

  102. 102.

    Lines

    Pb (Lead): I read that one too, that was about the time I had to stop reading or my mouse was going to get crushed.

    I’m not really sure whether to laugh or cry at their pathetic attempts to appear patriotic through minimal intellectual discussion, their virtual muscle flexing is as pathetic as the scents of cheeto stained fingers.

  103. 103.

    Pb

    Lines,

    And worse, of course Gore was just relaying ‘facts’ that he heard ‘reported’ in the ‘news’–that is to say, transmissions of confirmed and verifiable information through media and other outlets–concepts that are apparently far beyond townhall.com’s regular readers and columnists.

    Either that, or this is yet another front in the Republican jihad on liberal facts.

  104. 104.

    Pb

    What the hell, if you can’t beat em, join ’em.

    Next up on the list of seditious traitors to America: Jerome R. Corsi! Famed for his role in smearing and belittling a decorated Vietnam veteran (who was also a sitting Senator and Presidential candidate), he continues his long line of seditious treason by penning a column entitled “Why Iran is Likely to Win” for an allegedly conservative publication, which both praises Iran for their strategic brilliance–thus aiding and abetting the enemy–and simultaneously belittles Our President(tm), even going so far as to say that his decisions have put us on “a self-destruct mission”!

    Ben Shapiro, I call on you, please excorciate Jerome R. Corsi now for his crimes against America and/or partisan Republicanism!

  105. 105.

    Steve

    Krista: My point is, if you continue making the origins of hockey a bone of contention, we will have to keep stealing more of your teams until you relent.

    My friends in Winnipeg probably would have picked up on the veiled threat more readily. :)

  106. 106.

    ppGaz

    as pathetic as the scents of cheeto stained fingers

    Wait just a minute. I consider my yellow-smudged keyboard caps a badge of honor!

    Cheese puffs at forty paces!

  107. 107.

    Krista

    Yeah, see I wasn’t talking about the origins. I must have misunderstood you. I thought you were talking about who currently dominates women’s hockey…which would be us.

    As far as stealing the NHL teams goes, well…we’re already used to our players heading south, so I suppose it was really only a matter of time.

  109. 109.

    demimondian

    we’re already used to our players heading south

    Like your governments, and your health plan, and your neighbors on the south…

  111. 111.

    canuckistani

    Re Sasha Cohen:
    As Elvis Stojko pointed out on the CBC last week, if you fall on your ass, you don’t deserve a gold medal.

  112. 112.

    ppGaz

    Dogs do calc

    1) Did you mean, Dougs do calc?

    2) I’ve seen a horse count to three, but I’ve never seen one count to three while playing the tuba.

  116. 116.

    demimondian

    I’ve never seen one count to three while playing the tuba.

    That’s OK — I’ve never seen a human tubaist count to three while palying the tuba, either.

  119. 119.

    Lines

    Godel, Escher, Bach.

    If you can read it, my hat is off to you sir, for your brain is bigger than mine.

    But it explores the “strange loops” that all three used in their works. Quite interesting and quite dull all at the same time. Bach’s circular Canons are quite interesting to the math world, though.

  120. 120.

    ppGaz

    Yes, and what is more fun than sitting around with a bunch of math-heads and talking …… math!

    I mean, it’s better than sex. Okay, well, better than sex with yourself as the partner. Okay, well, a lot of the time. Mostly.

    Okay, well not exactly better, but cleaner.

    Okay, maybe not cleaner, but ….

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