• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

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

Tick tock motherfuckers!

An almost top 10,000 blog!

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Glad to see john eastman going through some things.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Usually wrong but never in doubt

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

The willow is too close to the house.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

A consequence of cucumbers

DeSantis transforms Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Mobile Menu

  • Winnable House Races
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Balloon Juice 2023 Pet Calendar (coming soon)
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • War in Ukraine
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • 2021-22 Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread

Open Thread

by Tim F|  December 7, 20076:00 pm| 86 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

FacebookTweetEmail

It seems like forever since we had one of these. Did anybody see the Golden Compass? Picket it?

One more question for discussion. Let’s say that you have a wee heavy fermenting for eight days (OG ~1.080) and the outgas smells a bit like hard cider. Is that a bad sign?

Chat about whatever.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « In Defense Of Romney
Next Post: State Inspector General Howard Krongard Resigns »

Reader Interactions

86Comments

  1. 1.

    demimondian

    December 7, 2007 at 6:18 pm

    It would depend upon what strain of yeast you were using. Given what you’re making, I’d assume a non-reducing ale yeast, in which case it’s absolutely normal. Many beer yeasts throw esters, and those absolutely give the fermenting wort a fruity smell.

  2. 2.

    ImJohnGalt

    December 7, 2007 at 6:22 pm

    Michael, I’m aware you probably have already let your challenge slip away down the screen, but:

    Here’s the Balloon-Juice frontpage author kill script.

    As I said in the previous post down on the Huckabee thread, I’d appreciate it if instead of paying me the $20.00, you’d go to Kung Fu Monkey and donate it to Fisher House. Rogers will match your donation, and the Republicans can still accuse me of hating the troops because, after all, it was you who donated, not me.

    I will, however, accept your apology as promised.

    It’s not terribly complex and would work for any one (but not multiple) front page poster(s). There’s an option in the script to completely remove front page posts or just the body text, so you can see if it might be something not so trolly and therefore worth reading.

    Also as I wrote in the below thread, I seriously hope that people don’t use this. It took a long time for John to come around and to develop his thick skin. Michael might one day too, but completely ignoring his posts ain’t gonna solve the problem.

  3. 3.

    Cols714

    December 7, 2007 at 6:26 pm

    Question, how do you get a block quote box around text? And how do you change the color of the box?

  4. 4.

    jake

    December 7, 2007 at 6:32 pm

    Let’s hear it for abstinence-only programs!

    Quick, how can we blame this on Clinton?

  5. 5.

    Perry Como

    December 7, 2007 at 6:49 pm

    Michael, I’m aware you probably have already let your challenge slip away down the screen, but:

    Here’s the Balloon-Juice frontpage author kill script.

    I missed that entire thread and the challenge. Bugger.

  6. 6.

    David

    December 7, 2007 at 6:51 pm

    I honestly can’t see the point of adapting His Dark Materials. It’s either going to be faithful to the overtly anti-religious originals, and get tons of bad publicity, or bastardized for a “family” audience and get tons of bad publicity anyway. The books weren’t even particularly good.

  7. 7.

    12across

    December 7, 2007 at 6:57 pm

    Bob Owens has a pretty insightful post up today. A lot of people like to joke that the Democrats hate America and want us to loose. I don’t think that’s true. I personally think they’ve just sold their souls to the far left and have been posturing as such for so long they can’t acknowledge success for fear of losing their base in ’08

  8. 8.

    dslak

    December 7, 2007 at 7:01 pm

    I saw the film. Dazzling CGI animation with gaping plot holes and characters so undeveloped that no one would care if they were brutally murdered, thus eliminating any possibility for drama.

    And I say this as someone who liked the books (the first one, anyway).

  9. 9.

    ImJohnGalt

    December 7, 2007 at 7:02 pm

    I missed that entire thread and the challenge. Bugger.

    Perry, it was at the end of the Huckabee/Fair Tax thread. I made a flippant remark saying I should modify the ILikePie! script to get rid of Michael’s front page posts.

    Michael said I was a bullshitter, and offered me $20.00 and an apology if I did it.

    So, although it was said in passing as an idle threat, I thought, “Hey, $40.00 for Fisher House!”, and decided that it might be worth it for anyone who prefers the old blog.

  10. 10.

    dslak

    December 7, 2007 at 7:05 pm

    If you see where the Democrats in Congress fall on issues on something like the Political Compass, relative to actual “far left” groups, the more intelligent among us are unlikely to reach the conclusion that the problem with the Democrats is that they pander too much to that particular constituency.

  11. 11.

    RSA

    December 7, 2007 at 7:21 pm

    Bob Owens has a pretty insightful post up today.

    This is insightful?

    Does a Congress that has failed in 63 attempts to cut funding for the Iraq War really want to use the progress of their peers in the Iraqi parliament as a bellwether for success?

    I thought the whole point of the surge was for the sake of political progress, which is nowhere to be seen. Military progress, sure–how long should we stay in Iraq waiting for political progress?

  12. 12.

    jrg

    December 7, 2007 at 7:35 pm

    I’ with jake on the abstinence-only programs (although the outcome of the discussion here would be predictable). I’m also wondering about the resident collective take on the Huckabee Fiasco.

  13. 13.

    Krista

    December 7, 2007 at 7:37 pm

    Did anybody see the Golden Compass? Picket it?

    No. Nicole Kidman’s shiny, lineless, motionless forehead frightens me.

  14. 14.

    jake

    December 7, 2007 at 7:44 pm

    Um. Would someone tell Bild O’Rly that the term Great Orange Satan is a joke?

  15. 15.

    Ted

    December 7, 2007 at 7:47 pm

    I missed that entire thread and the challenge. Bugger.

    That’s a shame. It was hilarious. LOL!

    Bob Owens has a pretty insightful post up today.

    TIDOS Yankee? Uh, yeah. Not likely. But I will be nice and not call him what TBogg calls him, cuz that’s just mean.

    No. Nicole Kidman’s shiny, lineless, motionless forehead frightens me.

    Agreed. It looks like it’s been stretched more tightly than a snare drum head.

  16. 16.

    Bob In Pacifica

    December 7, 2007 at 7:57 pm

    12across, how much for an ounce of that stuff you’re smoking?

  17. 17.

    RSA

    December 7, 2007 at 8:05 pm

    Nicole Kidman’s shiny, lineless, motionless forehead frightens me.

    The New York Times agrees:

    As Mrs. Coulter, an emissary of the reigning powers (known only as “the Magisterium” in the film), Ms. Kidman has rarely looked more beautifully and exotically alien. When she first appears, she pours across the screen like liquid gold, her body provocatively shifting inside a shimmering, form-fitting gown, her gilt-blond hair and alabaster skin all but glowing. She’s the film’s most spectacular special effect (her wonderfully vicious little daemon-monkey runs a close second), and for once, the smooth planes of her face, untroubled by visible lines, serve the character. This masklike countenance helps hide Mrs. Coulter’s malignant designs from Lyra (the newcomer Dakota Blue Richards, spunky and serviceable), who, not long after the story lifts off, falls into her care through a series of complicated developments.

  18. 18.

    Krista

    December 7, 2007 at 8:15 pm

    Besides — it always irks me when redheads go blonde. Why this desire to look like everybody else in Hollywood?

  19. 19.

    Paul L.

    December 7, 2007 at 8:20 pm

    Our lady of perpetual outrage is swiftboating/staking more victims of the institutional racist in this country.

    Free the Baltimore 9!!!!
    Are you with me The Other Steve?

  20. 20.

    jake

    December 7, 2007 at 8:27 pm

    She’s the film’s most spectacular special effect

    Snerk.

    the newcomer Dakota Blue Richards, spunky and serviceable

    I move we declare a five year moratorium on using the word “Spunky” to describe child actresses just so movie critics will be forced to crack open their damn thesauruses. And “serviceable”? Are we talking about person or an old car?

    Anyway, I can’t deal with more than one actress named Dakota at a time. This young lady will have to change her name.

  21. 21.

    maxbaer (not the original)

    December 7, 2007 at 8:33 pm

    A lot of people like to joke that the Democrats hate America and want us to loose. I don’t think that’s true.

    Leaving aside the fact that we’re not winning or losing, which is the definition of quagmire and the joke of the Dems want the terrorists to win and convert us all to Islam.

    The point is that the word which is the opposite of win is lose. It has one fucking o. Loose is the opposite of tight. Is this internet thingy like using teh for the or is it just the inability to spell?

  22. 22.

    grumpy realist

    December 7, 2007 at 8:35 pm

    Totally OT, but that reminds me of a waspish comment made by a reviewer about Jacqueline Bisset in some forgotten movie: “Ms. Bisset looks like a sex object on which the warranty has just expired.”

    Snerk!

  23. 23.

    grumpy realist

    December 7, 2007 at 8:37 pm

    Oh, and I’d propose that the term “serviceable” never be used around anyone who’s done any work in animal husbandry, if you catch my drift….

  24. 24.

    D-Chance.

    December 7, 2007 at 8:38 pm

    Isn’t there also another Narnia installment hitting the theaters?

    Prediction: All the fundies flood that film, it outgrosses Golden Compass, fundies scream, “WE WIN!”, end of controversy.

  25. 25.

    RSA

    December 7, 2007 at 8:43 pm

    I can’t deal with more than one actress named Dakota at a time. This young lady will have to change her name.

    I’ll suggest Minnesota.

  26. 26.

    demimondian

    December 7, 2007 at 8:48 pm

    I’m with grandpa realist here — the use of the term serviceable to describe a human, particularly a human child, and PARTICULARLY a female human child…is kind of…nasty.

  27. 27.

    JWW

    December 7, 2007 at 8:49 pm

    Tim,

    Of the 30 or so comments, I see two that are of normal sane people. Your crowd either has enough money to not give a shit or totally out of their minds.

    Do you read all the responses or only those addressed to you? The jackasses above really don’t care. They don’t know how to care because the have “NO” common sense and they are very limited in respect, for themselves and the country they live in.

    You shoud find a better place to blog, these idiots only drag you down. Why? You ask and prepare very good blog questions and ideas, you get a 10% real response, the other 90% is pure venting BS.

  28. 28.

    Off Colfax

    December 7, 2007 at 8:52 pm

    I can’t deal with more than one actress named Dakota at a time. This young lady will have to change her name.

    I’ll suggest Minnesota.

    Carolina? Montana?

    Just not Iowa.

  29. 29.

    chopper

    December 7, 2007 at 8:59 pm

    You ask and prepare very good blog questions and ideas, you get a 10% real response, the other 90% is pure venting BS.

    it’s an open thread, retard.

  30. 30.

    12across

    December 7, 2007 at 9:01 pm

    I thought the whole point of the surge was for the sake of political progress, which is nowhere to be seen. Military progress, sure—how long should we stay in Iraq waiting for political progress?

    As long as it takes frankly. The consequences are too severe otherwise.

  31. 31.

    12across

    December 7, 2007 at 9:05 pm

    If you see where the Democrats in Congress fall on issues on something like the Political Compass, relative to actual “far left” groups, the more intelligent among us are unlikely to reach the conclusion that the problem with the Democrats is that they pander too much to that particular constituency.

    Yes because a web toy like the link is a very accurate indicator of someones political posturing.

    All I have to do is look and I know all I need to know about Democrats.

  32. 32.

    12across

    December 7, 2007 at 9:07 pm

    The point is that the word which is the opposite of win is lose. It has one fucking o. Loose is the opposite of tight. Is this internet thingy like using teh for the or is it just the inability to spell?

    Care to actually discuss the article? Or are you too obsessed with typos.

  33. 33.

    demimondian

    December 7, 2007 at 9:08 pm

    Umm…chopper? Please don’t feed the troll unless you want it to follow you home. There are several conservatrolls out there right now which I think we should be thinking of taking on as pets (besides the inimitable Paul L, who has already contributed upthread, there’s Cassidy and Peter “Pricky Prick” Johnson, for instance). JWW…not so much.

  34. 34.

    demimondian

    December 7, 2007 at 9:11 pm

    12across? I think that the article has already been discussed and discarded.

    “As long as it takes” is no longer an acceptable answer to the question “how long will we stay”, and “Congress is not doing exactly what I, TCY, wanted it to do” is not an answer to “The Iraqi Parliament is a failure which shows the surge to be a failure.” That’s enough right there.

  35. 35.

    tBone

    December 7, 2007 at 9:16 pm

    Military progress, sure—how long should we stay in Iraq waiting for political progress?

    Until the lemon-soaked paper napkins arrive.

    Do you read all the responses or only those addressed to you? The jackasses above really don’t care. They don’t know how to care because the have “NO” common sense and they are very limited in respect, for themselves and the country they live in.

    Wow. JWW is either a really big Nicole Kidman fan, or he’s posting this in response to some other thread. Possibly one from a different blog entirely, or an alternate dimension.

  36. 36.

    12across

    December 7, 2007 at 9:18 pm

    “As long as it takes” is no longer an acceptable answer to the question “how long will we stay”, and “Congress is not doing exactly what I, TCY, wanted it to do” is not an answer to “The Iraqi Parliament is a failure which shows the surge to be a failure.” That’s enough right there.

    Well things have just started to settle down there, now the Iraqi parliment can start to do their thing without having to worry about being killed.

    Why is “as long as it takes “no longer acceptable?” ACceptable to who? You?

  37. 37.

    tBone

    December 7, 2007 at 9:24 pm

    All I have to do is look and I know all I need to know about Democrats.

    Speak truthiness to power!

    There are several conservatrolls out there right now which I think we should be thinking of taking on as pets (besides the inimitable Paul L, who has already contributed upthread, there’s Cassidy and Peter “Pricky Prick” Johnson, for instance). JWW…not so much

    Respectfully disagree. I love JWW. His non-sequitur mojo is second only to that of Birdzilla.

  38. 38.

    Xenos

    December 7, 2007 at 9:25 pm

    As long as it takes frankly. The consequences are too severe otherwise.

    I can’t think of a more clear and explicit admission that the invasion of Iraq, or at least the Administration’s handling of it, is an irrecoverable disaster. That is the very definition of ‘quagmire’.

    I appreciate your admitting that George Bush has committed the most egregious act of governmental malpractice since Napoleon invaded Russia. I mean, it was not entirely clear that Vietnam would end so badly, and even Hitler had a chance of tying up the Russian oil fields before winter hit. This approach to Iraq? Never had a chance.

  39. 39.

    maxbaer (not the original)

    December 7, 2007 at 9:29 pm

    Why is “as long as it takes “no longer acceptable?” ACceptable to who? You?

    Acceptable to the 60-70% of Americans who have more than had enough of it.

    I don’t believe it was a typo, I think you don’t know how to spell.

    My reaction to the article is that it doesn’t matter if Congress cuts off the money, because Bush would find it elsewhere. It would be sort of like Rudy paying for his police escorts for mistresses.

    The article makes a snide comparison of the Iraqi Parliament and American Congress. My reaction to that is thank God we don’t have a foreign power in this country arming the enemies of our legislative body. That is what our military is doing by arming Sunni miltias.

  40. 40.

    grumpy realist

    December 7, 2007 at 9:30 pm

    Hmmm, my view of trolls was more as cat toys to bat around….

    ….unfortunately, JWW has the consistency of jello.

  41. 41.

    caustics

    December 7, 2007 at 9:33 pm

    12across Says:

    Bob Owens has a pretty insightful post up today.

    Someone should write a script that automatically appends wingnut troll links with the LOLinator.

  42. 42.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    December 7, 2007 at 9:33 pm

    To put blockquotes around text, use [blockquote] [/blockquote] only with >

  43. 43.

    incontrolados

    December 7, 2007 at 9:37 pm

    I’m trying to get someone besides my ‘observer’ to have an interest in Africa — specifically Somalia and the Horn of Africa and Condi’s visit there this week.

    I’ve never overtly blogwhored before here, but I feel strongly about what’s going on there (or not going on there) and since this is an open thread, and I’m shameless (this evening exclusively), and I’m only thinking that maybe there’s a few people who might be interested in talking about Africa. . .

    I promise never to blogwhore again, really.

  44. 44.

    12across

    December 7, 2007 at 9:41 pm

    Even liberals think the NIE is about as worthless as toilet paper.

  45. 45.

    jake

    December 7, 2007 at 9:44 pm

    Just not Iowa.

    Or Idaho.

  46. 46.

    Darkness

    December 7, 2007 at 9:53 pm

    Jake says: Anyway, I can’t deal with more than one actress named Dakota at a time. This young lady will have to change her name.

    snerk! Shouldn’t it be Lakota anyway? Why name someone after a mis-translation by the French?

    I haven’t seen the movie yet, but it will be the one I go to for the year. I liked the books and was shocked, shocked! I tell you to see that they’d made a movie. I felt as Lyra did in Church as a child, like my unique, creative humanness was the target of forcible extraction by those who feared and saw only a threat to their power in it. And were control freaks anyway.

    Eh, the books spoke to me. What can I say? Maybe others not raised Catholic wouldn’t quite get it.

  47. 47.

    demimondian

    December 7, 2007 at 9:57 pm

    Hmm. OK, about 12across…I’m giving it an 8.5. High scores for correct use of talking points, but taking half a point off for poor spelling, and a full point off for link farming.

  48. 48.

    Cindrella Ferret

    December 7, 2007 at 10:32 pm

    Well things have just started to settle down there, now the Iraqi parliment can start to do their thing without having to worry about being killed.

    He said, Iraqi parliament.

    How will a weak, Shia lead parliament settle differences with the Sunni parliament members who have no control over Sunni militias run by former Baathist Generals? The former Baathists have zero incentive to do ANYTHING. They have not been defeated. Period. Local militias wearing Iraqi Army uniforms, with the blessing of local US military commanders, have routed out most of the AQI elements, but they HAVE NOT defeated the militias run by former Baathist generals. Therein lies the rub.

    Why would these Sunni militias lay down the weapons that have served them so well?

    Until the Jordanians, Saudis, and Syrians are brought in to pressure the Sunni militias, and the IRANIANS pressures its
    Shia constituency we have ZERO hope of ever leaving Iraq. Period.

    If indeed we get all these parties involved, the US still has no guarantee that the shit won’t hit the fan when we leave.

    And … the Kurds. What about our “allies” in Northern Iraq? They exponentially complicate the calculus. Which is unfortunate, because the people currently running the Executive Branch can’t even do simple arithmetic.

    I have little faith in the Diplomatic skills of the Former Cheerleader and his Gang of War Criminals. Condi Rice poked her head up from her foxhole recently, but she’s still out gunned by the Twelve Pork Eating War Criminal with a Pacemaker. She is no match for him and David Addington.

    Jesus Babbling Christ! Will somebody please tell these deadenders the military options can go on until Sisyphus gets that fucking boulder up the hill and we won’t STRAIGHTEN out the Iraq Abortion until we get some competent goddamn diplomats in the mix!

  49. 49.

    demimondian

    December 7, 2007 at 10:46 pm

    Um, 12pct? Would you like to make the case that “things have settled down” in Iraq? Be warned…it’s hard to defend a false claim here, and you should be prepared to be eviscerated. Still, it’s a boring Friday night, and I’m waiting for a job to finish, so I’m game to let you try.

  50. 50.

    SGEW

    December 7, 2007 at 10:46 pm

    Did anybody see the Golden Compass?

    Yeah, just caught it. My take: great casting choices (but Ian phoned it in), a pretty decent screen adaptation of a densely plotted novel, acceptable CGI (well . . . mostly), ham-handed direction, really lovely design, and the absolutely worst editing I’ve had to sit through in years.

    Seriously. A tremendously painful final cut. It’s as if the editor was told “good job, but make the whole thing 20 minutes shorter without losing any dialogue or plot points or CGI shots,” and they had to snip a second here, 10 frames there, ad nauseum. Pacing? Tension? Transition? Flow? Breathing space? Punch? Sweep? Bah! Get it under 1:50 or we’ll find someone who will! It’s like a car commercial (without the attention to detail).

    Sorry. Had to put my B.F.A. to use sometime.

  51. 51.

    JWW

    December 7, 2007 at 10:53 pm

    Grumpy,

    You are as usual, worthless. Your name is not a joke it is a reality for you. Such a shame, you may at one point in the life you have never had, no longer a gutter rat. Suicide is not the way. Why, because nobody will no that you are gone. Be more dramatic, eat live goldfish until you burst.

  52. 52.

    12across

    December 7, 2007 at 11:09 pm

    Abortion until we get some competent goddamn diplomats in the mix!

    Abortion solves everything, eh?

  53. 53.

    SueinNM

    December 7, 2007 at 11:13 pm

    12across:

    I look at you and Dumbya and I know all I need to know about Republicans.

  54. 54.

    RSA

    December 7, 2007 at 11:15 pm

    High scores for correct use of talking points, but taking half a point off for poor spelling, and a full point off for link farming.

    For some categories of trolling, I add points for poor spelling. BIRDZILLA wouldn’t be the same if he could spell. (Or use punctuation, for that matter.)

  55. 55.

    12across

    December 7, 2007 at 11:21 pm

    Um, 12pct? Would you like to make the case that “things have settled down” in Iraq? Be warned…it’s hard to defend a false claim here, and you should be prepared to be eviscerated. Still, it’s a boring Friday night, and I’m waiting for a job to finish, so I’m game to let you try.

    Cute…the handle insult game. I’ve read this blog for a while demimondian, I thought you were above that.

    To your point:

    “The number of Iraqis killed last month fell to 718, an Associated Press tally showed, the lowest monthly death toll since just before the 2006 bombing of a Shiite shrine provoked a vicious cycle of retaliatory sectarian violence.”

    link

  56. 56.

    12across

    December 7, 2007 at 11:22 pm

    Sorry hit the submit button too quick:

    link from the liberal AP

  57. 57.

    12across

    December 7, 2007 at 11:23 pm

    and what is up with y’all and typos? I see 5 on the front page alone.

  58. 58.

    12across

    December 7, 2007 at 11:27 pm

    I look at you and Dumbya and I know all I need to know about Republicans.

    Nice. Just like a liberal to lower the conversation to insults. The President deserves the respect the office he hold deserves. Even when Clinton had his “troubles” I never demeend the office, although he did a pretty good job of that himself.

  59. 59.

    tBone

    December 7, 2007 at 11:33 pm

    taking half a point off for poor spelling

    I’m with RSA. Poor spelling just adds to the verisimilitude.

    Be more dramatic, eat live goldfish until you burst.

    C’mon, demi, how can you not like this stuff? A good JWW post is like a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an empty Cheeto-stained vodka bottle.

  60. 60.

    demimondian

    December 7, 2007 at 11:34 pm

    Oh. Now let me understand something: 718 murders (reported by a notoriously inaccurate government) is “settling down”? Even if the figure were accurate, that would be a horrific murder rate. And then couple it with the continued exodus from the country, and the fact that 20% of the population of Iraq is internally displaced, and in excess of 10% of the civilian population is dead…and try, with a straight face, to really tell me things are “settling down”.

    Oh, and hey, things are better in Baghdad — the electricity is on for seven hours a day now!

  61. 61.

    demimondian

    December 7, 2007 at 11:38 pm

    Oh, and 12across — I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to mistype your nick. I wish I had thought of it, but, sorry, I just typed wrong.

  62. 62.

    12across

    December 7, 2007 at 11:40 pm

    demimondian, deaths are down, things are calming down. I don’t know what that’s so hard to accept. The surge has indeed worked to this point. Now without all the chaos the Iraqi people can get to the buisiness of starting their Democracy.

  63. 63.

    12across

    December 7, 2007 at 11:42 pm

    Oh, and 12across—I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to mistype your nick. I wish I had thought of it, but, sorry, I just typed wrong.

    So you are just projecting. *grin*

    haha, not a problem. I admit I was ammused.

  64. 64.

    SGEW

    December 7, 2007 at 11:47 pm

    Now, now. One does have to admit that things appear to be relatively “improving” in Iraq, objectively speaking. I strongly disagree with the phrase “settling down,” but it is good news that the situation doesn’t appear to be markedly deteriorating, as it has been for so many years. I think we can all agree that the most recent civilian death rate numbers are a sign that an outright descent into genocide and civil war may not be as imminent as some had reasonably feared.

    After all, Iraq now seems to be in a better place than, oh, say, Somalia. Or Sudan. Or the D.R.C.

    Not exactly comforting (to say the least), but not hopeless (I hope).

    Now is not the time to bitterly argue over whether the civilian casualty statistics can be deemed “settling down” or not. It is the time to bitterly argue about the causation of the civilian casualty statistics. Have at it!

  65. 65.

    demimondian

    December 7, 2007 at 11:48 pm

    The surge has indeed worked to this point.

    The surge has worked to the same extent that it has brought things back to where they were before the ethnic cleansing began in earnest? Back when there was no effective government, and no hope for establishing one? That’s not working, that’s a waste of lives.

  66. 66.

    stickler

    December 7, 2007 at 11:50 pm

    Whoa. Krista, really?

    Besides—it always irks me when redheads go blonde. Why this desire to look like everybody else in Hollywood?

    Nicole Kidman is a natural redhead? And she dyed her hair blonde? Why did I not know this before?

    This world is a cruel, cruel place. A true vale of tears.

  67. 67.

    jake

    December 8, 2007 at 12:21 am

    and what is up with y’all and typos? I see 5 on the front page alone.

    Even when Clinton had his “troubles” I never demeend the office,

    [Sigh] It was a good spoof while it lasted.

  68. 68.

    demimondian

    December 8, 2007 at 12:23 am

    You know, if it were real spoof, it wouldn’t have accepted my apology for the typo.

  69. 69.

    JWW

    December 8, 2007 at 12:24 am

    Has the Enlish language changed,

    I really must be missing sometihing! I thought that speech to text should be punctuated as such. Maybe if you had learned to read correctly it would not be an issue.. I have said many times in the past, read as if I were talking to you face. I don’t see the difficulty in doing so, that is unless nobody ever talks to you, and you receive all of you correspondence via written text.

    Is the , a new punctuation point I should understand, or does it only pertain to your style of reading.

    It is, as used by me, a moment of pause, so you may grasp the content of the previous word or words. I know you are slow and have a fondness of self-love, but give it a try. Let me speak to you, not write. For the simpler mind I will seperate each thought by writing individual sentences so you won’t be interrupted by strange marks on your screen.

  70. 70.

    Ted

    December 8, 2007 at 12:39 am

    Why, because nobody will no that you are gone.

    This is good stuff.

    I really must be missing sometihing! I thought that speech to text should be punctuated as such.

    If the troll is actually using a speech-to-text program (one that apparently doesn’t understand how to use context to correct grammar and spelling), it’s got to be the laziest troll alive. Jebus, was Dragon too expensive for you?

  71. 71.

    12across

    December 8, 2007 at 1:36 am

    I saw a recipe on the front page a while back, I love to cook so I thought I’d take an interlude to share what I threw together for the wife and I for dinner tonight. Oh and my BBQ will make a vegitarian eat pork again!

    Pork Chops with Pomegranent glaze and mixed veggies with cheese sauce.

    Note, I don’t measure as such, I taste as I cook and adjust, so don’t expect exactness

    Dredge chops in flour, salt & pepper.
    Heat a pan up with olive oil and fry until cooked.
    While cooking season chops again with salt, pepper & nutmeg.
    When the chops are cooked pull ’em out and set aside.
    Add Pomegranent liquor and scrape the pan.
    Add pomegranent juice, about the same amount as the the liqour.
    Add miriam, once around the pan and sugar.
    Reduce to a glaze.
    Glaze will thicken more if you turn off the heat and let it set too.

    Steam veggies. While Veggies are steaming, heat a non-stick pan and make a rue (butter and flour in equal parts), add milk, then shreaded cheese and melt, keep adding cheese until sauce tastes..like, um…cheese! and is thick enough

    Serve: put a chop and veggies on a plate and spoon the pomegranent glaze over the chops and cheese sauce over the veggie.

    Have a nice white wine with the meal!

  72. 72.

    12across

    December 8, 2007 at 1:47 am

    The surge has worked to the same extent that it has brought things back to where they were before the ethnic cleansing began in earnest? Back when there was no effective government, and no hope for establishing one?

    So…you are saying that things got out of hand and now things have calmed down giving the Iraqi’s time to get their new democracy off the ground. Wouldn’t that mean, the surge, is…working?

    That’s not working, that’s a waste of lives.

    you are contradicting yourself here my friend.

  73. 73.

    Jess

    December 8, 2007 at 1:54 am

    Suicide is not the way. Why, because nobody will no that you are gone. Be more dramatic, eat live goldfish until you burst.

    Long live Dada!

  74. 74.

    Phillip J. Birmingham

    December 8, 2007 at 2:43 am

    Jess: Long live Dada!

    I’m goin’ ta DizKneeLand!

    I’m also going to try and make Black Death Ale this weekend, if my sisters clear out early enough after my son’s fourth birthday party. The recipe:

    * 6 pounds Briess Pilsen dried malt extract
    * 3 pounds Trader Joe’s mesquite honey
    * 0.5 pound 40 L crystal malt
    * 0.5 pound chocolate malt
    * 1 ounce Columbus pellet hops (13.5% α, 60 min)
    * .5 ounce Cascade pellet hops (5.9% α, 15 min)
    * .5 ounce Cascade pellet hops (5.9% α, 15 min steep)
    * Safale US 05 ale yeast

    Projected OG 1.077, 46.3 IBU

    I may dial down the hops a bit and go with Safbrew T-58 for a more Trappist style of ale.

  75. 75.

    Randolph Fritz

    December 8, 2007 at 3:21 am

    I saw Golden Compass. I think it’s a film where the vision outstrippped the scriptwriter. Pacing was rotten–I actually checked my watch a few times during. The original has lost quite a bit of its edge and its ethical complexity. On the other hand, my god the design! The whole Girl Genius look of the technology (with a few more borrowings from the Air Force Academy chapel and Nazi architecture). And the choice of particle system dynamics to represent Dust was inspired. The witches were cool and sexy. So far, I don’t think the fundies have anything to worry about, though; the Magisterium of the movie is obviously evil, and so far it is hard to see that the books’s version of the story is a sharp rebuke of religious authoritarianism, on the one hand, and spiritual pride on the other.

  76. 76.

    jon

    December 8, 2007 at 5:42 am

    12across said, “Well things have just started to settle down there, now the Iraqi parliment can start to do their thing without having to worry about being killed.”

    I respond with, “That’s why their parliament decided to take the rest of the year off, go home, and come back at some undetermined time to do all this important work. And by all, I mean all of the important work: the disposition of oil revenues, fill all the positions, finalize rules, look like they are serious, and so on. The Iraqi Parliament is a fucking joke, and anyone who thinks otherwise needs an examination. It is not going to do a damn thing until it has to, so it’s a bunch of tribal assholes taking coffee breaks because it has Bush (and our military, GOP, and every single taxpayer or future taxpayer in our country) by the shorthairs. ‘Their thing,’ as 12across puts it, has already been done for a long while now: take breaks, don’t show up, don’t do anything, don’t risk compromise, accept check, go home. I have no faith in the Iraqi parliament and see no reason for a revelation.”

  77. 77.

    jake

    December 8, 2007 at 9:01 am

    JWW Says:

    Has the Enlish language changed,

    No sweetheart, EnGlish has been fairly stable for quite some time so there’s plenty of time to learn it.

    I really must be missing sometihing! I thought that speech to text should be punctuated as such. Maybe if you had learned to read correctly it would not be an issue.. I have said many times in the past, read as if I were talking to you face.

    Bwa.Ha.Ha.Ha.Ha. Except for the talking to you face part: {Shriek}

  78. 78.

    Svensker

    December 8, 2007 at 9:43 am

    12across Says:

    I thought the whole point of the surge was for the sake of political progress, which is nowhere to be seen. Military progress, sure—how long should we stay in Iraq waiting for political progress?

    As long as it takes frankly. The consequences are too severe otherwise.

    Well, glad to see that “as long as it takes” means you get to stay home and think up recipes for pomegranate pork chops. The folks out doing the “as long as it takes” thing for your pork-fed self aren’t so lucky. But, hey, somebody’s gotta sacrifice, right?

  79. 79.

    tBone

    December 8, 2007 at 10:51 am

    I really must be missing sometihing! I thought that speech to text should be punctuated as such. Maybe if you had learned to read correctly it would not be an issue.. I have said many times in the past, read as if I were talking to you face. I don’t see the difficulty in doing so, that is unless nobody ever talks to you, and you receive all of you correspondence via written text.

    When you post vague comments like this, it would aid our understanding if you could blockquote whoever it is you’re responding to.

    If it’s one of the voices in your head, feel free to transcribe what he/she is saying. I think we’d all it find it interesting.

  80. 80.

    demimondian

    December 8, 2007 at 12:50 pm

    you are saying that things got out of hand and now things have calmed down giving the Iraqi’s time to get their new democracy off the ground. Wouldn’t that mean, the surge, is…working?

    No. I am saying that things got even more out of hand, and are still out of hand. I am saying that the things which were out of hand before are *still* out of hand, and that the claim that they are “better” is total nonsense.

  81. 81.

    Jay C

    December 8, 2007 at 1:15 pm

    incontrolados:

    Your post yesterday prodded me to do some googling to see how much (if any) press Sec’y Rice’s recent African visit has (or hasn’t gotten. Amazingly (well, not amazing, sadly): your three links -which I noticed were all non-American sources – were IT.
    Save for a very oblique mention in the NYT yesterday.

    I’m not surprised, really: having egged on Ethiopia to get involved in its own mini-Vietnam next door, then seen the whole thing degenerate into the bloody circular clusterfuck typical of the Horn of Africa, it’s not surprising that US offcialdom would want to back-burner “developments” there. As long as there’s no Glorious Victory Over the Forces Of Eeeevil to trumpet, Somalia will stay well off the front pages; Condi Rice’s well-wishes notwithstanding.

    Too bad for the folks that live there, of course: but then, they’re only Somalis. Tough.

  82. 82.

    grumpy realist

    December 8, 2007 at 1:21 pm

    Whee. This thread, between our crossword-puzzle afificonado, and JWW, sounds like a Derrida meth-head on acid.

    (Although not as coherent.)

    Sigh. I miss Fafblog and the Medium Lobster.

  83. 83.

    Gus

    December 8, 2007 at 3:12 pm

    Wow the quality of trolls here has really taken a dive. This 12across is the stupidest yet. As long as it takes? WTF does that mean? As long as it takes to do what?

  84. 84.

    BCT

    December 9, 2007 at 9:56 am

    I’ve never brewed a batch with that high a gravity. I was usually an all grain brewer and that type of beer would be a nightmare. Are you doing a secondary fermentation in a glass carboy? My beer got a lot better when I started doing that.

  85. 85.

    chopper

    December 9, 2007 at 10:07 am

    Well, glad to see that “as long as it takes” means you get to stay home and think up recipes for pomegranate pork chops. The folks out doing the “as long as it takes” thing for your pork-fed self aren’t so lucky. But, hey, somebody’s gotta sacrifice, right?

    hey, he’s busy coming up with ways of cooking something that muslims refuse to eat. so when the dhimmocrats finally take the white house and hoist the white flag and hand over the reins to osama, he’ll be doing his part by offending the hell out of our new islamist overlords.

    honestly. compared to losing your leg from an IED, he’s doing the real heavy lifting. you know how many seeds are in a pomegranate? what a mess!

  86. 86.

    BIRDZILLA

    December 9, 2007 at 12:51 pm

    The GOLDEN COMPASS looks like another big time antichrietian anticonservative box office flop it looks like this holiday season wont be a very happy one for the hollywood left AND THATS GOOD SQUAWK SQUAWK

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Political Action

Postcard Writing Information

Recent Comments

  • OzarkHillbilly on Thursday Morning Open Thread: But Seriously… (Sep 28, 2023 @ 9:58am)
  • Yarrow on Thursday Morning Open Thread: But Seriously… (Sep 28, 2023 @ 9:56am)
  • dr. luba on On The Road – way2blue – Valparaiso, Chile [1 of 2] (Sep 28, 2023 @ 9:55am)
  • zhena gogolia on Thursday Morning Open Thread: But Seriously… (Sep 28, 2023 @ 9:52am)
  • Josie on Thursday Morning Open Thread: But Seriously… (Sep 28, 2023 @ 9:51am)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
We All Need A Little Kindness
What Has Biden Done for You Lately?

Balloon Juice Meetups!

All Meetups
Talk of Meetups – Meetup Planning

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
TaMara
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Join the Fight!

Join the Fight Signup Form
All Join the Fight Posts

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Cole & Friends Learn Español

Introductory Post
Cole & Friends Learn Español

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!