Get this out of your head.
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.
The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.
He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.
Consistently wrong since 2002
… gradually, and then suddenly.
You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.
You cannot shame the shameless.
People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.
Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?
Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.
The gop is a fucking disgrace.
The worst democrat is better than the best republican.
Joe Biden can go out like FDR, not by dying in office, but by crushing the fascists.
If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.
Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.
Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.
Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.
If you’re looking for someone who’s young and athletic, go watch a fucking movie.
We are aware of all internet traditions.
The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.
Shut up, hissy kitty!
Republicans do not pay their debts.
Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.
They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.
rawshark
Why did you do that? Jerk!
dslak
The White House fire: Was it a result of torture memos being carelessly destroyed, an attempt by the administration to create its own American Reichstag Fire, or both?
myiq2xu
I’m still struggling with “Baby Beluga.”
demimondian
BWAHAHAHAHA!
Paul L.
From the same control freaks (Democrats) who legislated the size of your Toilet tank.
Congress Can Have My Lightbulbs …
Got to remember to stock up on 100 watt lightbulbs.
Dreggas
Shorter Paul L. I have every right to burn my eyeballs out with super bright lightbulbs.
rawshark
The right says we need to restrict free speech in order to combat terrorism but Paul gets outraged that the left is attacking the light bulb industry’s right to make inefficiect lightbulbs.
Post that crap on redstate where there a bunch of know nothing ditto heads to excite. What a tool you are.
dslak
It takes a special kind of person to be more outraged by the government telling them what kind of lightbulbs they can buy than by a government that spies on its citizens without warrants.
Zifnab
No! Not the halogen bulbs! They burn brighter, longer, and cheaper than old-fashioned incandescents and now the US Government is MAKING ME PURCHASE THEM!
Truly, the freedom fighter in me knows now that liberals are truly fascist. The libertarian in me says I should be allowed to make my own light bulbs and to hell with government interference. Free Market Damnit!
What’s next? Mandated use of cheap and easily produced solar panels instead of burning shit tons of coal?
Damn you, DemoncRATS!
/hat tip DKos
Paul L.
Shorter Dreggas: The Government know better then you do what size toilet tank or Lightbulb wattage you need.
And you call me a authoritarian.
myiq2xu
Yeah, how dare they say I can’t waste water by mandating efficiency!
Krista
Um…so what? Up here, we’re banning all incandescent bulbs (except for where there are no alternatives, like oven lights) by 2012. We’ve already switched over all the ones in our household anyway — it’s awesome to not have to change them so often.
A good idea is a good idea. Who gives a sweet damn which party proposed it?
And dude, if you’re getting spazzed out about not being able to buy a 100 watt incandescent, you need to get your ass to a soup kitchen or something and gain some perspective.
rawshark
The same amount of light can be produced with less energy used and less heat given off. This is good for the country overall. Light bulb manufacturers aren’t going to do what’s best for the country, its not their charge, they do whats’ best for them. Someone has to force them to do what’s best for the country. That’s what a government of the people does. The government you want, a government that rules in favor of letting the corporartion do what it wants, is the conservative pipe dream, the fascist wonderland. But that ain’t here.
But for whole different reasons.
myiq2xu
Those damn liberalfascists have no business trying to interfere with my God-given right to pollute the water, air and soil and to use way more than my share of limited natural resources.
I want a car that gets 2 gallons to the mile, smokes like a forest fire and drips oil like a cheap taco. I want a 30 gallon tank on my toilet and a sewer connection direct to the nearest river. I don’t want any insulation in my home, a coal burning stove, and appliances that require their own nuclear power plant.
Oh yeah, and I want to smoke cheap smelly stogies in restaurants, churches and hospital waiting rooms.
Ninerdave
Great tune! Loved Eurythmics.
This is horrible. Happy Holidays.
Re: Paul bitching about light bulbs. Stop whining and go buy some CFLs. They’ll save you money.
Paul L.
Why can’t the consumer decide. If no one buys 100 watt lightbulbs, Light bulb manufacturers will not make them.
Now people instead of using one 100 watt lightbulb, they may use 2 60 watt lightbulbs.
Reminds of Car airbags. Government mandates them and it turns out they kill children in the front seat.
Government solution: Put warnings in the car to put the kids in the back seat.
And what will Al Gore and John Edwards use to light their 16000+ sq. feet mansions.
rawshark
Isn’t it awesome how big business owners have convinced average stupid people that the congress is attacking their individual rights and not that the congress is regulating big business? I mean Rush and Savage wouldn’t last eight seconds on the radio railing against congress if they had to tell the story from the proper angle. Who’d care?
Losing strategy:
Governments forcing you to stop making an inefficient product? Boohoo.
Winning strategy:
Governments taking away my right to use 100 watt bulbs as a light and heat source? Outrage!!!!!
Paul L: Tool of the hidden aristocracy. Trace the history of the conservatives in this country Paul. You’ll be lead all the way back to the people who didn’t want to fight King George. Tories.
myiq2xu
Airbags (and mandatory seatbelts) saved my life. I rolled a 1999 Pontiac Sunfire doing about 60 mph and walked away with a scratch on my finger.
rawshark
It depends on the situation. In this case I suspect we’d end up with people choosing 150 watt bulbs and bitching about the electric bill. Some don’t make connections in their heads. They don’t get to decide. IMO.
demimondian
Hey, Paul L. — how many children were actually killed or injured by air bags? (Hint — it’s about as many people who were raped by the Duke Lacrosse team.)
John S.
Free market invisible hand rules all! But seriously, when the shelves are stocked with 90% energy in-effecient bulbs that are cheaper for manufacturers to make (and more profitable), how will consumers stop buying them? What is their alternative?
Uh, no. They are talking about phasing out incandescent bulbs altogether in favor of LED bulbs. Hell, even Wal-Mart has started to put them into their stores (because it saves them money).
You are a special sort of idiot. How many lives have airbags saved vs. children killed by them from being in the front seat? Which incidentally, any good parent knows you aren’t supposed to have small children in the front anyway.
Oh, no! Those evil warning labels. Look you fucking moron, if they don’t tell people not to do something potentially hazardous, there is more chance they wil ldo it. People will do it anyway, despite the label. Idiots like you that don’t seem to realize that you aren’t supposed to put small children in the front anyway, something people knew even before the airbag warnings came out.
And Dick Cheney and George Bush and all the other mansion owners. If they are smart, they will switch to LED bulbs that save money and energy. Or if they are Republican, they will do whatever makes them more money.
But what does all this have to do with the Duke lacrosse players, Paul? I haven’t seen you make the connection yet. I wait with bated breath.
Jake
Rubber saw or glass hammer?
demimondian
Oh, that’s easy, John — the number of kids actually killed by airbags in the front seat is very close to the number of rapes which the Duke Lacrosse players were convicted of committing.
Dreggas
You know what is the funniest part. We have those warning labels such as the ones on hair dryers stating not to use while in the shower because some idiot somewhere did just that, used it while in the shower this idiot was probably voted most likely to bitch about warning labels and not being able to buy 100 watt lightbulbs…
Nathan
Putting your kids in the back seat has been the suggestion for a long, long time now. I still remember seeing the commercials advocating such in the early eighties when I was a kid. I think Big Bird was in them. Air bags were around, but weren’t common and certainly weren’t mandated. Kids are just as likely to slip through the seat belt (thanks to their diminutive nature) or unbuckle themselves (thanks to their immaturity/ignorance) and fly through the window. The back seat is safer with or without the presence of airbags.
Maybe we should repeal all safety laws! After all, if the emergency exits are locked in your place of employ, you can always just go work somewhere else, right?
Tamsyn
1) I love that song!
2) We switched all our bulbs last year and are saving $20 PER MONTH now.
3) As an educator, I can understand why this teacher in India shocked his pupils.
myiq2xu
I had my pupils shocked once – I walked in on my grandma and grandpa doing the wild thing.
TheFountainHead
The necessity for this “lightbulb legislation” comes from the very simple fact that at present, there is no incentive for light bulb manufacturers to convert the majority of their manufacturing power to producing the more complex and more expensive to construct CFLs. Market forces weren’t going to do it because while the long term benefits of the CFLs are well documented, when confronted with replacing a light bulb at Home Depot, the cheapest one on the shelf will garner the most sales and therefore the most shelf space. It was a self perpetuating system that needed the nudge that the government is going to give it. This would be authoritarianism if there were anyone out there who would actually argue that there is a benefit to producing and consuming traditional incandescent light bulbs. Since there isn’t, and no one is, this is just good lawmaking, if not a little bit underwhelming good lawmaking. I’ll take what I can get these days.
Jen
It’s so bizarre to me how wingnuts can get themselves worked into a lather about things like not being able to buy inferior, inefficient light bulbs six years from now.
Can we get the R’s to work this into their campaigning somehow? We’ll be talking about health care, the environment, and Iraq, they’ll be talking about the iron fist of government crashing down on your incandescents. Paul, please do contact your representatives with these concerns.
D-Chance.
Wow, only two comments for the “reality based community” to go all Hitler on us…
myiq2xu
Yeah, this administration would never do anything crazy like that, would they?
Jen
Goldberg can do it in WAY less time…
Punchy
Shorter Paul–those damn Duke LAXers used these exact bulbs to rape that woman.
rawshark
Here’s why, IMO:
dslak
It took more posts than I expected for my snide remark to be deliberately misinterpreted. The wingnuts must be busy reading Pantload’s new book.
myiq2xu
I don’t think it’s deliberate. I remember reading something once that said frogs are only capable of perceiving two things; food and not-food.
Lord knows that frogs have bigger brains than wingnuts.
Dreggas
Let’s face it, they probably use point and speak program to read this stuff to them.
tBone
If PaulL wants to use kajillion-watt incadescent bulbs to light his DDT warehouse (which is cooled by a Freon air conditioner and pleasantly scented by industrial-strength CFC aerosol canisters), then by God that’s his right as an American. Why don’t you moonbats go hug a spotted owl or something?
cleek
toilet tank restrictions were part of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1992.
who was president in 1992? hmm ?
myiq2xu
Yeah, next thing you know they’ll want to make it illegal to drink and drive!
myiq2xu
Wingnut excuse #1 – It’s Clinton’s fault!
What the hell did he know about flush toilets? He’s from Arkansaw, so he must have grew up using an outhouse.
myiq2xu
from FDL:
That sound like a tacit admission of wrongdoing.
demimondian
Nope. It is an admission of risk conditioned on the possibility that the companies were held to be liable.
jcricket
I know we’ve all ripped Jonah to shreds, but this post by Ezra Klein is pretty funny:
Combined with the Jon Swift “Shorter Jonah Goldberg” summary and “LOLcats” version of Goldberg, and it’s just comedy gold.
Jen
Oh, don’t forego reading the 800 or so comments on the subject over at S,N. Even after imagining all the different ways to say “you’re fat and full of shit” that you can think of, it turns out there are still more.
myiq2xu
That’s lawyerese for “my client fucked up.”
jcricket
You know, CFLs are ok, but I want us to make the all-LED transition sooner, rather than later. Car manufacturers are going all LED by 2009. Should be the end to replacing lightbulbs unless you own your cars for like 15 years.
Simple things like converting the nation to LEDs would probably save 30% energy/waste, not to mention reduced landfill, packaging, transport, etc.
If we’re gonna subsidize stuff, let’s start subsidizing the green energy (but not corn ethanol) industry. Make laptop batteries that last 10 years and can hold 10x the charge. Get rid of standby power use/loss in most devices. Use material science to make packaging thinner, lighter and smaller.
Even simple things, like the newest “ultra” tide (same number of uses in 1/3rd the package) do things like reduce the shelf space, number of trucks needed to transport, production of bottles, etc.
Conservatism is clearly the hobgoblin of little minds.
myiq2xu
Fixed
jcricket
I was just reading the comments at Jon Swift and noticed that our own resident troll (Psychout) has taken up residence there. Hee Hee.
“I wrote you a book, but I eated it”. And the picture of Jonah and the “cheezburger”. Gonna die laughing.
Again, I think we’re seeing the “death throes” of movement conservatism if people like Coulter, Malkin and Goldberg are the leading literary lights. And with Instaputz and Hindrocket as their lawyers, I think we’re safe from any Republican academic takeover :-)
Jen
Well, they are fond of their foolish consistencies.
myiq2xu
Wasn’t that from Emerson, Lake & Palmer?
jcricket
I’m really trying to find a way to work Eddie Murphy’s “Buckwheat” “Wooking pa nub (in all da wong pwaces)” into this thread, so I will say that I keep picturing Huckabee as Buckwheat.
Unce, tice, fee times a mady…
myiq2xu
How about Elmer Fudd singing “Fire“
Jen
You consistently think about Eddie Murphy as Buckwheat? You lost me there.
I know that line from Next Stop Wonderland.
Another good line, you request? “I’m looking for a woman who is tall, yet clean…”
Faux News
I’m with Paul L on this issue ,and by the way DAMN the gub’mint for taking lead out of gasoline! If lead is good enuff to be in housepaint it’s good enuff to be in gasoline.
jcricket
What are you, 12? It’s a classic. “Da baba of dabille…”
And I don’t consistently think of him, but the “wookin pa nub” gets stuck in my head often.
jcricket
Yeah, and it helps to make those kids toys so nice and shiny too. Kids these days, sheesh, can’t handle a little lead poisoning. Why in my day kids had the black lung from working in the coal mines 12 hours/day. And they liked it!
Jen
No, I’m TZ, remember? I KNOW about Eddie Murphy as Buckwheat, what it has to do with hobgoblin of little minds I got no idea.
Cassidy
That’s a real authoritarian streak you got there. The Gov’t MUST! make people do what YOU! think is right. We’re all just kids and you are the decision maker.
Tell you what, you show me the poll/ petition/ etc. that says the majority of America wants this, then I’ll go with it. A gov’t of the people listens to it’s people. Not just the select few who think they know better for all of us.
So now, you want to force the working poor to spend more money to light their homes? You know the price of efficient bulbs would only go up once they are mandated. Unless of course the gov’t gets involved and mandates the price of the bulbs, to hell with a private company setting its own pricing. Or we could create another social program to hand out free LED bulbs..
How many lives have airbags saved vs. children killed
Tim F.
That is simply false. The price of bulbs is high because (1) they aren’t mass produced like they could be, and (2) there isn’t that much competition in the market for efficient lightbulbs. Your statement assumes that efficient lightbulbs are a fully matured product and that production cannot possibly ramp up to meet or exceed demand, neither of which is remotely true.
Cassidy
Bullshit. Do you really a believe a corporation in this country would lower the price of a higher end product once that product is mandated for use? I want whatever drugs you are on.
demimondian
Why, yes, I do.
One relevant example is that of incandescent light bulbs, the price of which has fallen steadily over the years. For that matter, CFL bulbs have also grown cheaper over the years.
Jen
Hint: When wingnuts break out the argument that something is going to hurt poor people, some high-octane BS is about to be laid.
tBone
Why does Cassidy hate representative democracy?
demimondian
Oh, and this? It’s called “a election”. You’ve heard of them, right? We have them here, Cass. If you don’t like the outcome, you can do what the dems around you have done in the last few years: run against Rep Harman on the issue.
myiq2xu
You forget the savings from reduced electrical usage and the longer life of the bulbs. CFL’s save money.
demimondian
Why, no. Show me a statistically sound study indicating a net reduction in deaths due to gun ownership, and I’ll be perfectly willing to consider that as an argument in favor of gun ownership.
Of course, the notable absence of such studies is perhaps something worth taking into account here…
myiq2xu
Ever heard of anyone being killed accidentally while cleaning their knife? How many drive-by stabbings have you read about?
Cassidy
What a quandry with this issue.
I love representative democracy. I wish it was practiced more. Unfortunately, the current state of today’s rep’s is nothing but two shades of authoritarian. But hey, I guess this means you’re on board with banning gay marriage and the death penalty, right?
Fixed.
cleek
whew. this site gets the dumbest trolls. it’s really quite impressive.
yes, Cassidy, i’m talking about you.
demimondian
Cassidy, is that a challenge? Such studies exist, you know…
jcricket
Drive by body pierce…
myiq2xu
Where there are no guns, there will be no gun deaths.
John S.
Poor Cassidy. He thinks that he got himself a real zinger there with the old strikethrough and reverse maneuver. There’s only two problems with this:
1) Proving that gun ownership reduces the number of deaths is quite difficult because any study will struggle with proving whether the effect is correlation or causation, whereas
2) Proving that gun ownership increases the number of deaths is a simple matter of causation due to the fact that one can conclusively say that deaths resulting from guns (and the ownership of those guns) were, well, caused by those guns.
Better luck next time, Cassidy.
myiq2xu
Rudy just released an ad that unintentionally spoofs Huckleberry’s Xmas ad.
Satire is not only dead, it’s been posthumously excommunicated.
myiq2xu
Accoding to TPM, Hanoi John is back in a tie for first in NH.
I guess by comparison, “cranky old fart” is starting to look good.
John S.
Aw shucks, I wasted precious mental energy refuting Cassidy’s retarded point about guns. I should have just cribbed his standard response and called it a day…
Cassidy, you are sad and pathetic. It really amazes me that people like you can exist and breed. One would think that evolution would have caught up with you quite some time ago. Oh well. Maybe we’ll be blessed with a Christmas miracle.
/Cassidy
Jen
Cass, when you “fix” something, it’s supposed to be funny, see? Crossing something out and writing the opposite is not, well, it’s not high satire, is it? Can you do any better?
Liberals lay down the high octane BS when you hear us say, “but the poor CEOs”…because, see….we don’t give a shit…see the parallels…
Really, though, nothing topped opposing SCHIP….because it was funded with a tobacco tax….and poor people are more likely to smoke…so it HAD to be opposed, because it hurt poor people! If there is any soul in the world so gullible as to believe that was really what those guys didn’t like about it, I’ve got a nice sweet Christian guy named Psycheout to introduce you to…
rawshark
Projection alert!!! That’s not what I said. There’s no ‘MUST’ in there. It’s not what ‘I’ think is right. Quite the stretch there Darrell. Also is forcing a corporation to do government bidding authoritarian? I thought it was authoritarian when we forced people to conform to government desires. BTW I don’t recognize a corporation as a ‘person’.
We don’t elect representatives to vote what we want, we elect them to make decisions for us. Decisions like this that most americans wouldn’t give a shit about if the right wing didn’t invest billions in stupid outrage campaigns.
This ‘government of the select few’ idea of yours is BTW the definition of conservativism.
Tamsyn
If regular bulbs were made illegal, then fluorescents would become the “regular” bulb and they would be made in greater quantities than they are now. The greater quantities and greater brand and type choices would enable consumers to discriminate in their buying patterns, causing this little thing called “competition” which lowers prices.
/pedant
rawshark
Eddie Murphy, SNL, Kill the White People.
I win.
‘we’re gonna hit’em in the head with a bat
and make him cry’
rawshark
I hate basketball but the Celtics are really good this year. Should I watch them?
jcricket
First, your daily does of a teensy bit of good news. Republicans back off in their attempt to politicize (read: fuck up the ass) another independent part of the government.
Then, more importantly.
I see your Eddie Murphy with Chevy Chase and Richard Pryor
And I raise you a “But nooooooo…..”
jcricket
Or something like that.
Republicans are such WATB. Countless innovations are sprung from the tail end of increased regulation and oversight, most good for the environment, citizenry, economy and ultimately the companies.
Companies drag their feet, for good and bad reasons, all the time. Kicking them in the pants now and then is a good thing.
That Republicans are such fraidy-cats they see a little regulation and they’re all “ZOMG! IT’S TEH END! HIDE THE PR0N!” is just pathetic.
demimondian
“Never mind”
Cassidy
Does anyone here wipe there ass without getting their local politico’s permission first? Seriously, maybe you guys do need an authoritarian gov’t, if you’re too weak willed to make decisions for yourself.
I’d really like to see those “studies” that correlate death with gun ownership. I’m sure they’d be good for a laugh.
Sure, Japan, England…oh yeah, maybe not.
rawshark
Are you saying there are no guns in those countries yet there are gun deaths?
demimondian
Oh, and Tim? If you’re going to go unconventional, and use the Eurythmics… beware. When it comes to Seriously Bad late seventies and eighties “music”…FDDD and I are Seriously Well-equipped.
I study nuclear science
I love my classes
I got a crazy teacher, he wears dark glasses
Things are going great, and they’re only getting better
I’m doing all right, getting good grades
The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades
jcricket
Of course an ironic song about the fear of nuclear war/winter often misinterpreted as being totally serious.
Just like Republicans think “Born in the USA” is some paean to American militarism.
jcricket
I think what Cassidy is saying is “okasdjf;laksdjf ;aosdkjfhpowqeiry23o4iuy sdijhsadlkjhf ijh2314908u osdfjh oijsadhfl kjsdhfkl sdjhfsdf”
Or something that makes about as much sense.
John S.
If a person is killed by a firearm, how does that occur without a gun? Jesus man, learn when to shut the fuck up and walk away.
The CDC says:
So how do these deaths occur without gun ownership? In what magical fantasyland do firearm casualties happen without the firearms?
Jen
That’s the weirdest thing, isn’t it? Do they even listen to the lyrics?
I had a brother
at Saigon
fightin off the Viet Cong
They’re still there
He’s all gone
etc. etc.
lethargytartare
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/pressroom/cap/releases/2007/04/environmental_poll.html
be sure to call your congressperson as soon as possible to tell him or her how much you appreciate them bowing to the will of the people.
demimondian
Ironic, yes, and frequently misinterpreted.
I thought it was about an emerging class of self-righteous consumertives who viewed themselves as destined for great things. Or, at least, for owning a great many things.
tBone
That’s some aggresively interrogated logic there, Cass. I’d accuse you of deliberately missing the point but I don’t to be one of those shrill hate-filled ultraliberals that vex you so.
myiq2xu
Fixed
Paul L.
David Letterman Returns, Still Supporting the WGA
Makes me wish they would hire Scabs.
Paul L.
Where there are no
gunsautomobiles, there will be nogunautomobile related deaths.30,000 lies