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You are here: Home / z-Retired Categories / Previous Site Maintenance / Sunday Morning Open Thread

Sunday Morning Open Thread

by John Cole|  November 18, 20079:06 am| 64 Comments

This post is in: Previous Site Maintenance

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A little sluggish this morning- couldn’t fall asleep after the big Mountaineer win at Cincy, and I didn’t want to drag myself out of bed.

Regardless, off to the exercise bike and CBS Sunday morning.

*** Update ***

cash advance

We is stoopid.

*** Update ***

John Edwards, while discussing Iran with Bob Schieffer, stated “That presents a huge opportunity for America if we’re smart.”

It is depressing that I immediately snorted and said to myself- “We are screwed.”

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64Comments

  1. 1.

    paradox

    November 18, 2007 at 9:36 am

    Morning John. I publish in a few minutes, cruised by for a link, eh? Beauty.

  2. 2.

    RSA

    November 18, 2007 at 10:00 am

    Does the level of discourse at this blog need to be raised?

  3. 3.

    Dreggas

    November 18, 2007 at 10:10 am

    we’re still better than our dumb ass president.

  4. 4.

    swampcracker

    November 18, 2007 at 10:14 am

    Junior High? That is very troubling indeed. My blog got a “redneck” score. Even more troubling!

  5. 5.

    Nicole

    November 18, 2007 at 10:16 am

    What I can’t figure out is how Townhall got listed at a high school reading level.

    Whatever. We’re still better looking.

  6. 6.

    Bob In Pacifica

    November 18, 2007 at 10:28 am

    John, hope that the Mountaineers never reach Number Two. It’s a death trap this year.

  7. 7.

    The Other Steve

    November 18, 2007 at 10:46 am

    The predisposition of the participants of this established entity to discuss and genuflect to the issues with sole attribution given to the usage of singular syllable vocabulary is most certainly the raison d’etre for the junior high ranking given by the elitist ranking algorithm.

  8. 8.

    The Other Steve

    November 18, 2007 at 10:47 am

    The sentences need not make sense, they just have to be long and use big words. That’s how we boost the ranking. :-)

  9. 9.

    The Other Steve

    November 18, 2007 at 10:49 am

    Watched Fox News with Wallace this morning interviewing Huckabee. That guys a formidable candidate.

    I actually laughed at his joke about how Congress spends money faster than John Edwards at a beauty parlour. It was delivered with grace. I also liked how he responded to the Club for Growth accusations.

    I hope the GOP doesn’t nominate him.

  10. 10.

    paradox

    November 18, 2007 at 10:54 am

    Whatever. We’re still better looking.

    Sexy, too, oh yes.

  11. 11.

    RSA

    November 18, 2007 at 10:55 am

    The sentences need not make sense, they just have to be long and use big words.

    I think a regular post produced by the Postmodern Essay Generator would do the trick. That or heavy quoting from Protein Wisdom. They make about the same amount of sense.

  12. 12.

    laneman

    November 18, 2007 at 11:03 am

    Me got high-school…

    so fewer words == higher score? Or more youtube links?

    The only relevant stuff on my site is in discussion board.

  13. 13.

    cleek

    November 18, 2007 at 11:06 am

    my blog, of course, is a Genius level blog.

    bitches

  14. 14.

    Dixie

    November 18, 2007 at 11:14 am

    The reading level evaluators I’ve examined “like” long sentences, high character per word ratios, and proper nouns; but few of them upgrade for things like correct semicolon usage in compound sentences.

    Take, for example, that very sentence. The readability stat for it with a comma separating the clauses is higher (12th grade) than the stat with a semicolon (9th grade), even though the series at the end of the first clause means that the semicolon provides clarity.

    And here you are with the silliness of character per word:

    (1) The teak helm of the yawl caused japes from the old salts. (2) The expensive wooden steering wheel of the yacht brought on insults from the experienced seamen.

    The first sentence scores 0.8 on the Flesch-Kincaid grade level scale. The second scores 8.3. I’m happier if my 8th graders can read or write the first, yanno?

    And to tie in your beloved Mountaineers with the junior high school reading level update as only I can: I taught Pat White in 8th grade.

  15. 15.

    Michael D.

    November 18, 2007 at 11:14 am

    Is our commenters learning?

  16. 16.

    bago

    November 18, 2007 at 11:18 am

    The Tbogg thread. Epic. I haven’t seen that kind of meltdown in years. My god, obsessing over an ex from multiple decades in the past, and then staying up all night to defend it, while boldly reversing positions on easily verifiable facts. Damn.

  17. 17.

    Ted

    November 18, 2007 at 11:21 am

    Oh my.

  18. 18.

    RSA

    November 18, 2007 at 11:23 am

    my blog, of course, is a Genius level blog.

    I would mock your pretensions, if I were smart enough.

  19. 19.

    Jinchi

    November 18, 2007 at 11:40 am

    Don’t feel bad John. That’s the level that most newspapers are written at. The NY Times came in at Junior High level and the Washington Post came in at High School level.

    Then again Fox News came in at Junior High level too so don’t start patting yourself on the back, yet.

  20. 20.

    RSA

    November 18, 2007 at 12:06 pm

    Home page of the National Academies of Science: Genius level. Home page of my colleague in the next office: Genius level. My home page: College undergrad. I may lose all credibility as a scientist if I don’t do a better job obfuscating my work.

  21. 21.

    sujal

    November 18, 2007 at 12:10 pm

    that readability site is some sort of spam operation masking as cool widget… the default embed code contains a link to a cash advance site in small font, which I’m guessing is tehre to boost their google ranks as well as get some people to click on it.

    John seems to have stripped it out above, but the alt text for the image is still cash advance (hold your mouse over the image). Scum, won’t be using their site.

  22. 22.

    grumpy realist

    November 18, 2007 at 12:30 pm

    Hmm.. I’m sure we could Google up transcripts of politicians’ speeches from the 1890s and do some cutting and pasting, if that would help. Or where’s that spoof article from Sokol? That should hoist our level up a few notches…

  23. 23.

    Mr Furious

    November 18, 2007 at 12:32 pm

    You is more smarter than me!

    (I assume serious intelligence points are deducted for language…)

  24. 24.

    ATS

    November 18, 2007 at 12:44 pm

    “I would mock your pretensions, if I were smart enough.”

    But were I were playing man of the people, I would eschew the subjunctive.

  25. 25.

    jake

    November 18, 2007 at 12:48 pm

    The first sentence scores 0.8 on the Flesch-Kincaid grade level scale. The second scores 8.3. I’m happier if my 8th graders can read or write the first, yanno?

    Strange. I suspect the first sentence would send most people to the dictionary. Yawl? Japes? Old Salts?? The second would send them to sleep.

    I don’t know, I’m a writer for a B2B pub and I realized pretty early on that my readers really don’t give a fuck if I know a three syllable word for “big,” they just want to know how to do their jobs. Too many three syllable words and they decide reading my crap is just more work and they cancel their sub.

  26. 26.

    John Cole

    November 18, 2007 at 12:51 pm

    The Tbogg thread. Epic. I haven’t seen that kind of meltdown in years. My god, obsessing over an ex from multiple decades in the past, and then staying up all night to defend it, while boldly reversing positions on easily verifiable facts. Damn.

    Collins took fuckwaddery to a whole new level. In fact, a new word needs to be created to truly describe what a dick move that was on his part.

  27. 27.

    demimondian

    November 18, 2007 at 12:55 pm

    Yeah, well, my blog gets college reading level.

    By the way, Dixie — you do know that a higher reading level score is a bad thing, not a good thing, right? The higher the reading level, the more demands you’re putting on your readers, and, typically, the less effort you’ve put into composition. As Pascal wrote, “I apologize for the length of this letter; I did not have time to write a shorter one.”

  28. 28.

    Ted

    November 18, 2007 at 12:57 pm

    Collins took fuckwaddery to a whole new level. In fact, a new word needs to be created to truly describe what a dick move that was on his part.

    It was glorious.

  29. 29.

    Dennis-SGMM

    November 18, 2007 at 1:10 pm

    The tbogg thread is now up to 1062 posts. As the evening drew on Collins’ wingnut supporters showed up and those wingnuts attracted other wingnuts until there was a virtual Black Hole of wingnuttery sprinkled with ripostes from the lefties.

    A good time was had by all.

  30. 30.

    Face

    November 18, 2007 at 1:19 pm

    Regardless, off to the exercise bike and CBS Sunday morning NFL Countdown

    Fixed.

    Signed,
    S. McBeam

  31. 31.

    Libby Spencer

    November 18, 2007 at 1:27 pm

    Collins took fuckwaddery to a whole new level. In fact, a new word needs to be created to truly describe what a dick move that was on his part.

    How about subpar slugfuckery? Oh wait, that’s two words. I guess one of the genius level bloggers will have to come up with something.

  32. 32.

    grumpy realist

    November 18, 2007 at 1:29 pm

    Yeah, that thread over at Tbogg–a total black hole of total douche-ness.

    If wingnuts want to know why they don’t get laid, go read it. Who in her right mind is going to even date a wingnut knowing that 20+ years down the road there’s the possibility of getting one’s personal/private info spashed all over the internets along with comments about how good one was in bed? If I were the female in question, I’d seriously talk to a lawyer about the possibility of bringing invasion of privacy or stalking charges.

    Oh, and Patty? If you’re still hanging around here, this sort of behavior is why we post under pseudonyms. There are some very, very sick people out there.

  33. 33.

    Punchy

    November 18, 2007 at 1:30 pm

    Collins took fuckwaddery to a whole new level. In fact, a new word needs to be created to truly describe what a dick move that was on his part.

    Someone else used it here, but I like it, so I’ll nominate “shitfuckery”

  34. 34.

    John Cole

    November 18, 2007 at 1:36 pm

    I honestly don’t know what is worse- that he honestly doesn’t realize why what he did was wrong, or that he refuses to admit it. Either way, his defenses were hilarious.

  35. 35.

    jake

    November 18, 2007 at 1:39 pm

    along with comments about how good one was in bed?

    Please, like wingnuts have any way to make such a judgment. I mean, when your only other point of reference is Rosy Palm and her five daughters…

  36. 36.

    Dixie

    November 18, 2007 at 1:39 pm

    I obviously communicated poorly, and I’m embarrassed. If Pat White messes up in his interviews, blame me. I’ll try again, though. I think the readability scale, taken alone, is a ridiculous method to evaluate writing. It’s a crutch for the lame.

    Both sentences about the boat were stinkers. But with readability scales, I’ll have poor writers replace “big” or “awesome” or “pretty” with more precise adjectives, and that’s a good thing. With students who wouldn’t use those empty words in the first place, I so enjoy showing them that dependence on the readability scale weakens their writing. When originality, passion, and expressiveness come through clearly, we joke that no computer could have done the writing.

    I have fun running quotations through the readability function sometimes, snorting at the stupidity of some of them getting kindergarten ratings. I should have factored my weirdness into making my point.

    Live and learn. (Grade level 0.0)

  37. 37.

    RSA

    November 18, 2007 at 1:51 pm

    Wow, that Dan Collins business is amazing. I makes me realize that there’s a lot more separating me and some other people in the blogosphere than our political views. (I’d call it a sense of decency, but I guess they’d have some other name for it.

  38. 38.

    jake

    November 18, 2007 at 2:09 pm

    Denny’s Last Stand:

    “I continue to worry about the breakdown of civility in our political discourse”

    I continue to worry that I’m going to haul off and hit the next Republican pol who whines about the breakdown of civility.

  39. 39.

    Ted

    November 18, 2007 at 2:18 pm

    “I continue to worry about the breakdown of civility in our political discourse”

    Good Ole’ Yeti Denny sure never had a problem with Tom DeLay.

  40. 40.

    Paul L.

    November 18, 2007 at 2:22 pm

    Looks like the reich wing has shamelessly outed another covert CIA agent.

  41. 41.

    Cinderella Ferret

    November 18, 2007 at 2:31 pm

    At least, now I have an excuse when I have to read a post twice to get it. All that 8th reading comprehension stuff is like totally bogus. And as someone who is often accused of being a liberal I can’t blame it on the public schools. Of course, it could be all the brown acid and tequila.

    I continue to worry that I’m going to haul off and hit the next Republican pol who whines about the breakdown of civility.

    A swift kick in the cojones would do it, but obviously that would require those whining sissies to grow a pair. Spineless Democrats, eunuch Republicans, and we still get fucked! Its like waking up and finding out you live in a real-life Twilight Zone episode populated by third-rate character actors, petty criminals, and degenerate intellectual midgets passing themselves off as leaders. Fear and loathing, man, fear and loathing in early 21st Century America. If this isn’t an argument in favor of legalizing drugs, nothing is.

  42. 42.

    grumpy realist

    November 18, 2007 at 2:38 pm

    Watch it with the nut-kicking comments, or we’ll have Patty back here again whining about “liberal incitement to violence.”

    BOO!

  43. 43.

    Gus

    November 18, 2007 at 2:47 pm

    PaulL, I don’t understand how that’s linked to the Duke lacrosse team rape case.

  44. 44.

    r€nato

    November 18, 2007 at 3:02 pm

    the only thing I’ve seen from the right-wing douchebagosphere that beats Dan Collins and his stalking of a flame from 23 years back, was the whole Andy Stephenson incident.

    How utterly bereft of humanity do you have to be, to stalk and harass a cancer victim? I wouldn’t do that to any of those assholes, even the ones who did it to Andy Stephenson. You lose your soul or humanity or whatever you want to call it, when you engage in this kind of low behavior.

  45. 45.

    Ted

    November 18, 2007 at 3:35 pm

    Wow, that Dan Collins business is amazing.

    I don’t know how TBogg does it sometimes. He manages to find some of the most hilarious things on right-wing blogs I would never waste time reading, considering the time it takes to read the blogs I actually like.

  46. 46.

    demimondian

    November 18, 2007 at 4:24 pm

    Paul L. — interesting article that, carefully confusing the intentional, yet casual, destruction of the career of a dedicated public servant with the legally mandated exposure of the illegal activities of someone out to game the system.

    I can see why Malkin wants those two things confused, though.

  47. 47.

    Johnny Pez

    November 18, 2007 at 4:52 pm

    A swift kick in the cojones would do it

    The accepted terminology is junk.

  48. 48.

    Johnny Pez

    November 18, 2007 at 4:58 pm

    Btw, my blog = college (postgrad). Possibly due to that evil pro-torture newspaper editorial I quote in full.

  49. 49.

    Dreggas

    November 18, 2007 at 5:56 pm

    A swift kick in the cojones would do it, but obviously that would require those whining sissies to grow a pair. Spineless Democrats, eunuch Republicans, and we still get fucked!

    now you understand why they invented viagra…

  50. 50.

    Carnacki

    November 18, 2007 at 6:26 pm

    For shits and giggles I plugged in Don Surber’s url. It came back “genius” level reading required to understand his blog. I guess all those one sentence posts of his require a high reading comprehension. Who knew?

    For something really disgusting, check this out http://wvablue.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1352.

  51. 51.

    Chuck Butcher

    November 18, 2007 at 6:44 pm

    I’m a tad confused, my blg rates “Post Grad”?? I had some idea that I kept it pretty plain speaking, evidently I’m too stupid to accomplish such an end. Or…should I be embarrassed to comment here?

  52. 52.

    jake

    November 18, 2007 at 6:49 pm

    For shits and giggles I plugged in Don Surber’s url. It came back “genius” level reading required to understand his blog.

    Uh…Either there is another blog by another Don Surber out there, or the program generates reading levels at random.

  53. 53.

    Paul L.

    November 18, 2007 at 7:53 pm

    Gus Says:

    PaulL, I don’t understand how that’s linked to the Duke lacrosse team rape case.

    Ask and you shall receive.
    Brawleys Want Tawana’s Case Re-Opened
    Maybe the Mangums will try the same.

  54. 54.

    The Other Steve

    November 18, 2007 at 8:06 pm

    Ask and you shall receive.
    Brawleys Want Tawana’s Case Re-Opened
    Maybe the Mangums will try the same.

    The Duke Lacross players did it? What? I don’t even think they were born yet.

  55. 55.

    grumpy realist

    November 18, 2007 at 8:31 pm

    I’m scratching my head. WTF? How many years ago was that? The Brawleys may want the case “reopened” but I doubt there’s going to be the momentum for it. Considering what the grand jury came out with (plus the subsequent lawsuits), this looks like a pair of parents still in acute denial that their little darlin’ lied.

    I’m wondering–who’s behind this push at this time?

  56. 56.

    jcricket

    November 18, 2007 at 8:47 pm

    Thanks for the Tbogg link John. After reading about:

    * The woman in Seattle who plead guilty to letting two of her three young children starve to death (the other was old enough to forage for scraps amongst the garbage) while mom laid in a drunken stupor surrounded by 300+ beer cars and plenty of infant food.

    * And the parents of a girl who committed suiciding finding out that other parents and kids made up a ficticious “boyfriend” persona online to bully the poor girl, contributing to her death.

    I really needed something to restore my faith in humanity. Oh wait. That’s not the feeling I’m getting after I read about some right-wing douchebag dredging up a girlfriend from 23 years ago to sling her name through the mud for no reason other than he’s a fucking douchebag?

    Fuck.

    Fucking fuck.

  57. 57.

    Connecticut Man1

    November 19, 2007 at 4:07 am

    I scored at college level “Post Grad”? Considering I am a long way from graduating… lol I don’t really trust tests like this anymore than a stupid and biased IQ test that labels me a genius…

    As for that whole public humiliation of an ex… That is one sick and twisted person.

  58. 58.

    tBone

    November 19, 2007 at 11:09 am

    I honestly don’t know what is worse- that he honestly doesn’t realize why what he did was wrong, or that he refuses to admit it. Either way, his defenses were hilarious.

    Oh, quit clutching your pearls. Any reasonable person knows that a Democrat blogger hypothetically threatening to kick someone in the hypothetical junk is a far graver offense than what Collins did.

  59. 59.

    Tax Analyst

    November 19, 2007 at 12:25 pm

    Hey, John used the word “approbation” the other day and one commenter chastised him for using big, hard words…

    And I used “equivalency” just the other day. Doesn’t that count for something?

  60. 60.

    Psycheout

    November 19, 2007 at 7:31 pm

    At least Blogs 4 Brownback is high school level, but I’ll bet the recent influx of stupid commenters have been dragging it down.

    I found one that’s elementary school level. Ironically, it’s targeted at adults. Try reading more than the first paragraph. I dare you. I could not. Possibly the worst site on the Internet.

  61. 61.

    Psycheout

    November 19, 2007 at 7:34 pm

    but I’ll bet the recent influx of stupid commenters have been dragging it down.

    HAS! not HAVE! (Is that like Was, Not Was?)

    I hate that mistake. The subject there is “influx” which is singular and I used the plural form, reacting to the “commenters.”

    “influx has”
    “commenters have”

    ::slaps self::

    I officially hate myself now.

  62. 62.

    mds

    November 19, 2007 at 10:58 pm

    John Edwards, while discussing Iran with Bob Schieffer, stated “That presents a huge opportunity for America if we’re smart.”

    It is depressing that I immediately snorted and said to myself- “We are screwed.”

    Yup, ’cause while he’s thinking of how the US might reform its approach to foreign policy, thanks to The Other Steve we know that the most likable Republican candidate was “full of grace” when he yet again suggested that John Edwards is a mincing, faggoty girly-man.

  63. 63.

    4jkb4ia

    November 21, 2007 at 8:27 am

    Yes, I missed this till just now.

    The relatively simple language is endearing. The narrator in Marilynne Robinson’s “Gilead” immediately made me think of you.
    Other blogs:
    Daily Kos High School
    My Left Wing High School (!!)
    Hirhurim College
    Crooked Timber Genius

  64. 64.

    4jkb4ia

    November 21, 2007 at 8:29 am

    Hey! “Gilead” was a damn good book! I almost even got my husband interested in it!

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