Finalizing grades this morning, then Balloon Juice will be back in action.
Reader Interactions
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
I really should read my own blog.
I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.
Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.
Black Jesus loves a paper trail.
Nothing worth doing is easy.
Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.
Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.
Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.
White supremacy is terrorism.
Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.
Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.
New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.
A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.
Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.
Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.
The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.
Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.
Bark louder, little dog.
Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.
The worst democrat is better than the best republican.
We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.
Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard
They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.
Gold Star for Robot Boy
We’ll believe it/you when we see it/you.
Vlad
What did we get? Don’t keep us in suspense!
Jim Allen
I already know what my grade is.
Pooh
A for effort, a T for Nice Try?
ppGaz
The Hickory Farms Cheese Basket I sent you is not a bribe in any way, shape or form. It’s just what I do.
Otto Man
In the meantime, we get to bask in those hilarious Volpac ads to the left here.
Save me, Senator Frist, from those mean Democrats who are ruining health care! You and your noble HMO cronies will surely do right by the American people! Save me!!!
Mac Buckets
Tribe Called Quest ref, Pooh? Eeeeeeeeexcellent.
Krista
Otto – ridiculous, isn’t it? Critiques about health care from a man who models his diagnostic procedures after Miss Cleo.
SeesThroughIt
ZING!
It’s nice to jump on the intertrons and see a Phife quote right away.
Otto Man
Even leaving aside Frist’s own medical track record — adopting cats from the pound to dissect, not disagreeing that AIDS can be transferred by sweat, and of course the long-distance dedication diagnosis of Terri Schiavo — there’s still the simple fact that he and his family made their millions off the HMO industry.
Want to fix the American health care system, Sen. Frist? Look in the mirror.
ppGaz
Besides, he looks like Joe E. Brown.
ppGaz
What is that guy with the leg brace, in the Frist ad, doing exactly?
He appears to be taking a dump.
Punchy
Baloney. All the students with “C”s or lower will flood your lab/office by Wednesday. You’ll be dealing with angry male students, crying female students (stereotype? sure, but accurate in my experience), and perhaps some parents. God help you if you’ve failed anyone who should be graduating. Talk about the perfect storm.
I’ll wait a week until this passes, and THEN we’ll see Dr. Cole in action. Good luck, Sir.
Pooh
Mac,
Can I Kick It?
Brian
This just in!
Benevolent Balloon Juice commenter displays his compassionate conservatism by donating the first and last six pack of beer he’ll ever win.
Checkitowt now, and become the fortunate on who can take advantage of this generous offer from a one-of-a-kind stud.
Faux News
I burst out laughing when I saw the ad. For a minute there I thought John had put the ad there as a very ironic joke. Or was just trolling us.
Frist? Good God, you MUST be joking!
“Trial Lawyers like John Edwards”? I thought the election of 2004 was over. Guess it’s time to “Swift Boat” Edwards.
Blue Neponset
Re: VOLPAC ad
The more Repubs, like Frist, try to blame the Dems for just about anything the worse it makes them look. Seriously if Dr. Cat Killer can’t get things done because the big, bad Democrats are stopping him then why the hell would anyone want him to be President? If health care was so important to Senator Vivisection why didn’t he do something about it during the last five years of the Dubya Revolution?
ppGaz
The ad is just exploitation of the base. Those people will believe anything. The right stopped trying to persuade a long time ago, they are in complete “whip the base” mode all the time now. It’s all they have. That precious 30% has to carry a big load for a while.
The Other Steve
Frankly, I think diagnosing patients via video is what is destroying healthcare.
Blue Neponset
Good point. I often forget that I am not the target audience.
Krista
He’s praying for his missing cat.
The Other Steve
Ok. Open Sores media just popped up a thing asking me to take a survey.
After question 20 I had to abandon it. I mean, come on get real. If you need to know what kind of PDA my company buys to target your advertising on a political blog… you know maybe you’re in the wrong business as an advertising person.
Pb
Brian,
You don’t get off that easily–I’m sure Tim can send you a six-pack of Coca-Cola or O’Doul’s or raw sewage or something… :)
Pb
What is with all the Frist ads… does he need dough for his upcoming legal defense fund or something? Or is he going to save health care by building walls around our hospitals? What’s the deal?
Brian
Man, I hear that’s some good shit.
Justin Slotman
Is there another Pajamas Media blog where the commentariat openly mocks PM as much as this one does? I’d like a link if there is.
Mac Buckets
Yes, you can!
I had to throw some ATCQ on after your post, and it has improved my day immeasurably. Well done.
SeesThroughIt
Not The Love Movement I hope. Or Beats, Rhymes, and Life for that matter, which was a three-tracker at best. I certainly celebrate the rest of the Tribe catalog, though, quite loudly.
But lest this issue prove to be some sort of common ground, let’s get everybody pissed at each other again. Which album is better: Low End Theory or Midnight Marauders?
Perry Como
Is that what was getting caught by Firefox? POS PJM. How very spammy to popup windows without asking. A pox on their skid marked boxers.
Sstarr
The ad is clearly incomplete. It should read:
“Help Senitor Frist fight back AND GET A CHECK FOR $100!!!!”
Bone-In RibEye
Which one had Award Tour?
John S.
Seriously, I cannot fathom that Mac listens to Tribe. Personally, I think Q-Tip himself would come and snatch their CDs away from him after seeing some of the garbage he posts around here.
Each album has its appeal to different types of listeners, but Midnight Marauders is my hands down favorite. Steve Biko, for the win!
james richardson
Does anyone know what subject matter(s) JC teaches?
John S.
That would be the indomitable Midnight Marauders.
Blue Neponset
I think he teaches Icelandic art history or Communications or both. Not sure.
Otto Man
Zing! Krista is on fire today. Still riding the “Twatergate” high, it seems.
Perry Como
Both have the same marketability with the degree, so it’s easy to confuse them.
/me ducks
Otto Man
Otto Man
Don’t know why that all blockquoted. Hmmm….
Sherard
Whoop Whoop. Irony Alert!!!! Golly gee, I didn’t think the Democrats had any other plan than blaming Republicans. Perhaps you could share it with us. And a “plan” does not include wasting the first 6 months of a hypothetical Democratic House with impeachment hearings.
ppGaz
Well, look around. The government is a hundred percent Republican, and everything is a hundred percent fucked up.
What conclusion would you draw?
Faux News
Colbert reminded us that the bottom 30% who will carry this load are just “backwash”. :-)
Blue Neponset
Blaming Republicans seems to be working pretty well so far.
If you want the Dems to issue a platform/plan right now so the Repubs can chop away at it for the next five months then I would suggest you reconsider your choice to become a paid political consultant.
Otto Man
Yeah, why didn’t John Kerry and the Democrats devote a third of the 2004 platform to health care? Why didn’t John Edwards spend any time at all on health care matters? Why didn’t Al Gore issue a 71-page plan for revamping health care in this country in 2000? And why, oh why, didn’t the Clinton administration try to do something about the problem too?
Why isn’t all this information readily available to anyone out there with a pulse and a willingness to look beyond Fox News? Why, God? Why????
Mac Buckets
Please…it’s the same thing from you lot every time music comes up. Imagine! It’s almost as if your stereotypes and prejudiced notions of conservatives might be total crap — some of them don’t listen exclusively to country music while plucking a banjo in their overalls with a piece of straw betwixt their five remaining teeth!
You “progressives” never tire of telling me what I should and shouldn’t be allowed to appreciate. Not very “progressive,” if you ask me!
And what are these “Cee-Dees” of which you speak? Are they primitive music devices?
Hmmmm. That would be Biko, Award Show, 8000000, and Oh My God vs. Rap Promoter, Buggin’ Out, Butter, Show Business, and Scenario? Wow… I’ll take Low-End Theory by a three at the buzzer. It always gets rated higher on the big lists of greatest rap records, although there’s only a couple mediocre tracks on either of them.
Phew! I disagree with John S., so at least I know I’m right!
demimondian
Tomorrow is the twelfth anniversary of the day I started personally hating William Frist. It should have been one of the three happiest days of my life, but, due to the company that Sen. Frist owns, it became one of the darkest, and nearly one of the most tragic.
It’s my second child’s birthday.
So, no, Bill, I don’t want what you want to do to healthcare. The only thing I ever want that relates you and health care is to see you personally held accountable for the horrors your organization perpetrates on the vulnerable in this society.
ppGaz
Not me. I listen to every kind of music I can, from country to classical to techno. Even gospel.
I urge everyone to do the same.
demimondian
What, Mac, you still have a sixth?
Seriously, folks, Mac may be a total no-nothing when it comes to politics, but he’s got extraordinary musical tastes. And why not? I listen to the St. John Passion with love, yet it contains some of the most vile and anti-semitic text available. Does that mean I agree with text?
SeesThroughIt
There’s something we can agree on. Both are great albums, but Low End just had the extra little bit of goodness to push it over the top. Though Midnight Marauders did feature Large Professor, who is a production god (Main Source forever!).
Also, the “Scenario” remix tops the original. Just had to put that out there.
Mac Buckets
You misspelled both “know” and “everything,” demi.
tBone
Mac’s right. Many Republicans enjoy both types of music – country AND western.
Actually this is an interesting topic. Surely some enterprising nozzle-headed university researcher has done a study correlating political beliefs with musical taste?
Pb
Brian,
I mentioned it just in case you didn’t like Coke, but wanted something better than O’Doul’s… :)
Mac Buckets
It’s hard to count them since I got my Paul Wall diamond/sapphire grill that spells out “Ronald Reagan!”
John S.
Well, you do such a fantastic job of playing a stereotype, who’d have thunk it didn’t carry over into everything?
Of course you’re right. You’re always right.
Too bad you confuse your political persuasion for correctness.
Anyway, in musical tastes there is no right and wrong. That must infuriate the hell out of you, but it’s reality.
Ryan S.
Here’s something about ID
demimondian
Ooooo…do they make a Suburban Assault Vehicle grille that reads “I’m saving gas by driving less” for, say, the Ford Expedition?
fwiffo
So, I’m pretty sure I know what country music is, but what’s the deal with Western? Is it music for Westerns? If that’s what it is (and I’m thinking along the lines of Fistful of Dollars, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, etc. here), I could really get into that. On the other hand, if it somehow involves line dancing… well… I just can’t be held responsible.
Punchy
Sometimes I simply miss reading one post, and the thread takes on a tangent that completely loses me. Now is one of those times. Perhaps I AM an idiot.
fwiffo
I was once at a house where a woman had a double live Bee Gees album on repeat in her CD changer. I don’t know if there’s a “right” in musical taste, but I can tell you with absolute metaphysical certainty that there is a “wrong.”
Otto Man
Country used to be regional to the south, and western (wait for it) regional to the west. Classic country singers were the ones on the Grand Ole Opry (Carter Family, Roy Acuff, etc.) while classic western musicians were along the lines of Gene Autry, Sons of the Pioneers, etc.
And yes, even as a liberal, I like them both.
Jim Allen
For those keeping score, by my count, Mac B. is not only ahead on direct hits, but he’s also way ahead on style points for this thread. I don’t see how anyone can catch up with him now.
demimondian
That’s OK. You’re free to like them, as long as you refer to them as “folk and folk-influenced American music”. Call them anything else, and the Progressive Image Police will be out to impound your iPod.
tBone
Otto Man has a good summary, although I’d add that “country & western” became a catch-all term for any music containing twang. Which is not to be confused with “bling.”
Also, you need to rent “The Blues Brothers” ASAP.
demimondian
Somehow, that word’s gotten mixed up in my mind with Krista’s name for the new Sex-And-SecDef scandal currently simmering in Washington.
Otto Man
Pfft. They can have my Johnny Cash and Buck Owens mp3s when they pry them from my cold, dead hard drive.
tBone
Towhat are you referring?
fwiffo
I’m fully aware of the reference. By coincidience, I actually saw that about a week ago.
The Other Steve
I have you beat.
My roommate in college once came in late, put George Michael’s Faith in the CD player on repeat.
SeesThroughIt
My friend/old roommate and his lab partner liked to mess with their fellow PhD students with music. They went through thrash, punk, horrorcore rap, all kinds of stuff…but they found that absolutely nothing freaked people out like 1970s easy listening. Really.
Krista
Otto – thanks for the compliment. The truth is, I’ve been so busy and frazzled at work, and for some odd reason, when I’m tired, a certain irreverence for…oh…everything appears. Glad that the phrase I coined caught on. I want credit for that when it makes it into Wikipedia, dammit.
As far as music goes, my tastes are not obscure enough to be cool. I just like what I like.
Pb
Normally I think REM is ok, but after the guys in the neighboring dorm room played “What’s The Frequency Kenneth?” on repeat for like 36 hours (when Monster first came out), well, I was about ready to go into a murderous rage myself…