Reading OTB while eating a late lunch, I see a study was done that suggests Sarah Palin may have been hindered by her sex appeal. As James notes, she may have been too sexy for the White House.
I have nothing to add except for this:
At least I didn’t rick’roll you. Although this is probably worse.
TheFountainHead
So Sex doesn’t sell??
I am so confused.
Joshua Norton
Yeah, that must have been it – too sexy. Really had nothing to do with the backlash against the right-wing male mindset that any set of boobs will do if you really want to vote for a woman.
TenguPhule
Why couldn’t you rickroll us instead, you sick bastard!
Joshua Hueco
Right Said Fred = high school flashback/nightmare fuel.
PS – Watching that video was the longest three minutes of my life.
BDeevDad
Because politics is the main focus of college undergraduates.
ccham44
YouTube is blocked at work, but the video rolling in my head is horrifying nonetheless
…must…not let…lyrics…get stuck there… too late
Zuzu's Petals
Depends on how you define sex appeal. JFK was sexy, but no one thought him incompetent because of it.
Michelle Obama is a sexy woman, but exudes competence.
The McCain campaign was quite happy to tart Palin up…hoop earrings and tight, unbuttoned blouse while discussing a hurricane on its way to New Orleans. Soft, fluffy bangs and windswept ‘do … combine that with her Junior Miss South Carolina presentation, and yeah, it hinders your ability to be taken seriously.
Jay Andrew Allen
Utter nonsense. If sex appeal disqualified you from the White House, John McCain would be President.
garyb50
It may be a cliche but sexy, to me, always involves brains.
Delia
Yes. That is gag-me-with-a-spoon bad. Yet somehow fitting. I just wish some technically proficient person who doesn’t mind losing an hour or so of their life could splice images of Sarah the Snow Queen into it. Then I wouldn’t mind having those lyrics imprinted in my brain quite so much.
Brian J
Well, she is in this month’s GQ as one of the American Cougars. Of course, I’m not sure what to make of a list that includes such a diversity of names, everything from Martha Stewart(!) and Teri Hatcher to Nancy Grace and Halle Berry.
The Other Steve
I actually don’t find Sarah Palin very attractive.
I’m’ just not that into big hair.
Michael
Rush and Sarah together.
http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/690/roflbot20bu.jpg
Brian J
@garyb50:
That’s sort of like the foundation for any attraction, or so I think. It’s entirely necessary because, assuming our lives aren’t cut short, we’re all going to get old, and unless we have the money for extensive plastic surgery, it’s going to show. Yes, that means sagging boobs and old man pouches around the stomach for a lot of people. So if sex isn’t as frequent, conversation would become the norm. There, like with so many things, a sharp mind is key.
smiley
Is it me or is this just silly? Toy helicopters are fine but toy Marine One helicopters? That my friends is a serious gaffe.
Joshua Hueco
And they leave out Mariska Hargitay? That’s just turrrrible.
J.D. Rhoades
Wait, I thought a cougar was an older woman who sought out sex from younger men. Is there something about Sarah I haven’t heard about yet?
Michael
I wouldn’t tap Martha Stewart with Limbaugh’s, ah, unit (assuming he can find it).
These days, he can probably get his jollies by rocking back and forth in a chair.
jenniebee
Sparkles!
BethanyAnne
Ok, OT, but this is close enough to an open thread :-)
I *need* a better photo of this sign. It’s like the new moran picture to me. I love the cluster of stop sign, "don’t be ignorant" text, and circle-bar-symbol thingie superimposed at the top.
And! The "Homosexuality is NOT A RACE!" in the lower half. Perfection! My first thought was "Does she mean I should slow down and take my time?"
/scans google images for better copy….
gwangung
Actually, I AM into big hair, and I don’t find Sarah Palin attractive. But I do find Tina Fey attractive…VERY attractive (which suggests I’m into big brains…..)
Rick Taylor
Under the category of credit where credit is due, evidently Palin nominated a former planned parenthood member to the Alaska supreme court, over the more conservative candidate. Good for her.
J.D. Rhoades
This has to take the prize as the single silliest "outrage" ever.
EdTheRed
Arrrrghhh…here’s the Hendrix tune they used to help your minds heal (it starts out with a 5-second spammy thing about downloading the track for free somewhere, but then it goes into the song…only youtube of the album version I could find).
valdivia
hey I remember when that song came out. John why are you taking me back to my teen years?
EdTheRed
@smiley: This, however, is apparently just dandy.
Dork
It’s clear that America thinks you suck for posting the video; just look at the Dow today, for instance. Clearly there’s a correlation between your website and the market.
Clearly.
J.
Did you not see those hot pix of a bare-chested Barack Obama from his Hawaiian vacation, John? Apparently, Senator Obama was not too sexy for the White House — and neither is his lovely bare-armed wife, Michelle.
As to the song, I would pay money to watch some hapless contest or Simon Cowell sing it on American Idol.
Oh, and what have you got against poor Rick Astley, Mr. Cole?
Brian J
I think one of Tina Fey’s biggest attributes is that she seems like the sort of woman who can chill with the guys and be completely at home. At least that’s why I find her very attractive.
Montysano
@BethanyAnne:
I thought we all agreed that this was the new "moran".
Punchy
Holy Penthouse Forum flashbacks….
Delia
Okay, the wackos have completely lost me. I don’t even get it.
Maus
It is true, in that what made Palin most appealing to the Limbaugh-crowd (and promoted as one of her biggest draws) is what made us not take her seriously.
OMG GILF HOW EXCITING!!!!
Incertus
If it’s bad music from the 80s and 90s you’re after, Virgin Mobile has a promotion going called "right music wrongs." They’ve gotten Vanilla Ice to apologize already.
Keith
So the knee-high leather boots *didn’t* help?
Krista
That’s the hilarious thing: a lot of fRight-wingers said that Obama was all style, no substance.
And yet there they were, in the very next breath, singing the praises of Sarah Palin, who really WAS all style and no substance. Woman couldn’t even list what newspapers she read, for crissakes!
Yes, she’s reasonably pretty, and has obviously kept herself well, but as her interviews and live appearances showed, her brain only had two settings: "Mean" and "Off".
If she’d been "sexy", but with intelligent, well-researched opinions that she could communicate coherently and persuasively, then her looks would have just been a bonus. As it was, it was embarrassing to watch people falling all over themselves for someone who was pretty, but so ignorant it hurt. And were I a woman in America, I would have been pretty damn insulted that the Republicans expected me to vote for this twit, solely because of the fact that she’s a woman.
smiley
@Delia:
I took it to mean that homosexuality is not like being black or Asian. It’s a choice and you can’t discriminate against a choice. I take that to be the argument.
edited
Paul L.
Wow a study using 133 undergraduates.
Insecure and can’t take criticism too
Typical Liberal
Montysano
@Keith:
Sometimes, they do help.
Sexy isn’t the right word…….. but there was always something compelling about Condi.
Joshua Hueco
@Delia:
You can’t choose your race, but supposedly we choose our sexual orientation. Therefore a "chosen" behavior shouldn’t be legitimized/recognized/protected by the government in any way (Religion of course being an exception).
Laura W Darling
@garyb50:
And equally important to me, pants-wetting, make me laugh till I snort, funny. Fortunately, wit and brains usually come in tandem.
I can not imagine being partnered with someone who wasn’t funny.
Why bother?
BethanyAnne
@Delia: I don’t know that I can make their argument make sense, even enough to explain it. I guess they thing race is a protected class because one is "born that way", rather than sexual orientation, which is chosen. Like, er, religion. Um…
gbear
Obviously the protester has never been in a gay bar around closing time…
Shawn in ShowMe
That may be true in a lot of cases but these alleged researchers torpedo their own study by choosing an attractive woman who can’t answer basic policy questions. In this case it isn’t attractive or incompetent, it’s attractive AND incompetent.
If these assclowns were actually interested in proving their hypothesis, they would have chosen the drop-dead gorgeous and highly accomplished Lara Logan. But that may not have netted them the result they were looking for.
Rick Taylor
By the way, why are we talking about Palin?
BethanyAnne
@Montysano: That’s good, I know, but it’s the triple no at the top of the gay sex sign that just does it for me. It’s like the guy holding the "moran" sign. He just makes it perfect.
BethanyAnne
@gbear: Sidewalk sale in 15!
BethanyAnne
lol, having work to avoid makes commenting seem much more compelling. must… focus…
Blue Raven
I see I get to be the first to throw myself on this particular sword… I LIKE that Right Said Fred song. Great beat, and the lyrics are perfect for what he was going for, which was the mindset of a runway model. Yes, it’s goofy, but I like goofy I can dance to.
Bubblegum Tate
@Krista:
Yes, but that was the media’s fault. You know, because of its LIEbrul bias and all.
Mike in NC
Would "incompetent" suffice as a right word?
John Cole
Do any of you read Karl Denninger at Market Ticker? I have no idea what to make of what he is saying, but he is predicting armageddon.
I really could use some good economic news.
Delia
Thanks to all who answered me on race. My first thought on seeing the sign was "race, as in a foot race" and I just went, huh? I guess the wingers are really hung up on race as well as teh ghey, so they can’t think of other categories of discrimination, which is why they email each other obnoxious jokes about Obama on the days they’re not trying to limit gay rights.
And that’s why we call them wingers.
Shawn in ShowMe
@Mike in NC
Maybe he’s into the Cruella DeVille look?
Obviously your perception of Condi as incompetent is skewed by the fact that she’s such a heartbreaker.
Frans
Imagine this blog kicking us in the junk – forever.
Ricky Bobby
I would say that Palin’s hotness directly correlates with lack of exposure to anything she says. And unfortunately the inverse of that is also true.
Personally, I think the Palinator is wicked hawt even though I have cringed through her interviews. Hey, hot and stupid has its place in the world, usually exiting the bar with me at 2:30am. However, I wouldn’t even throw shit at Nancy Grace much less begin to entertain amorous intentions. WTF was GQ thinking?
On a sadder note, how horrible is it that I know all the words to the Right Said Fred song and Rick Astley’s masterpiece? Can I get those minutes of my life spent listening to those songs back please?
BethanyAnne
@Delia: Aye, and my snark about slowing down primed ya for that confusion :-)
bootlegger
@Delia: It means you slow down and don’t cum too fast.
r€nato
*shrug* it’s a bull market for bear news. Just like during a bubble everyone goes along with the happy talk because it makes one’s job easy.
Joshua Norton
I saw that. I really can’t tell if this is a serious interpretation of the current status of the economy, or a Glenn Beck-ian attempt at pull-it-out-of-your-ass "War Room" hysteria. (The malls are closing, the malls are closing!)
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
@John Cole:
Yeah, I read Karl sometimes. I also hang around LATOC and Cryptogon and other doomer sites, and they’ve been all "Arkk…blarghh!1! ZOMG, this is IT! wE’re go1ng down!" for years now. And who knows…. maybe this time it is "IT!!". Or maybe not. I do know this: "We’ll muddle through" doesn’t drive traffic to web sites.
I always think about the final scene of Vonnegut’s brilliant "Player Piano", after the riots, where the guy grabs some tools and tries to get the Coke machine working again. Humans don’t lie down and wait to die; they adapt and move on.
BTW: Kunstler’s "World Made By Hand" is highly recommended, and would make a great movie IMHO.
bootlegger
@smiley:
Like say a religion or political party. Morans.
r€nato
LOL! Who knew that fag-bashers were secret Frankie Goes To Hollywood fans?
canuckistani
Banks are doing just fine in Canada. Of course, we didn’t deregulate up here. I wonder if the bankers are grateful now?
bootlegger
@Paul L.: This is simply another bit of a long line of evidence that when women are thought of as sex objects that there are other cognitive consequences for the viewer, i.e. they see the person as less capable as well.
Interestingly, this doesn’t hold true to the same extent for men. Or, more precisely, it takes more to objectify a man sexually than some topless photos. Good looking men are not responded to in the same way as good looking, i.e. sexualized, women.
bootlegger
@gbear: Giggle-snort.
blahblahblah
That music video was thoroughly uncalled for.
Shawn in ShowMe
That’s like expecting a pick-me-up story in the wake of 9/11. We’re still dispatching firefighters to the scene of the crime for crissakes.
bootlegger
@Shawn in ShowMe: Then why did the non-objectifying control group judge her as more competent? This is actually a well-done study and published in the top social psych journal.
Krista
Me too, actually. You’re braver than I, for having admitted it first. It’s a silly song, but it’s fun.
Dude, I don’t think that’s the kind of good news he meant.
r€nato
I, too, really like "I’m Too Sexy".
And, no, I am NOT gay!
blahblahblah
@garyb50
That’s because you’re a zombie. Duh!
The Republicans have it right: boobs with a low cut blouse wins every time.
bootlegger
@John Cole: Three minutes passed John, are you still there?
Tony J
There is none. Sorry.
And thanks for the dose of Right Said Fred. That will always remind me of being 17, sitting on the back wall of my first serious (as in, constant sex) girlfriend’s house, when her parents had gone on holiday for a week and all of my best friends were helping her ‘house-sit’ (as in, drinking a lot and having fun), during the longest and hottest summer I can remember.
My friend Mick was all excited telling me about this cracking video he’d seen on MTV which featured skinheads, who were obviously gay, claiming that they were ‘Too Sexy’ for more or less everything. He was very excited. I mean, Brick Oven Bill excited.
Now he’s a lawyer.
Ah, good days.
But there is still no good economic news, and won’t be for a while. You didn’t think El Ex-Residente could break the habit of a lifetime by not run his latest vanity-project into the ground more comprehensively than anyone else, didja? The only thing that prick ever majored on was Fail, and he out-did himself when the vanity-project was running the US of A.
Still, I’m too sexy for this thread.
Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist
@Frans: Imagine this blog kicking us in the junk – forever.
While wearing clown shoes.
gbear
Ahhh! EXcellent! Our friendly and helpful consultants will be contacting you shortly.
Violet
Holy cow, that bit by Karl Denninger at Market Ticker is bleak. And right on cue, the markets fall and fall and fall…
Should I go empty out all my accounts so at least I can put the cash under the mattress?
Montysano
Karl at Market Ticker:
I dunno Karl; I’m thinking it’s a little late in the day to rethink the entire economic system of the USA.
Shit….. For business reasons, I’m heading for the Gulf Coast on Sunday. Should I pack a sack of beans and a campstove? What should I wear?
AIG…. our $200B baby…. is trading at 36 cents, down from $72.00.
Chris Johnson
John- I would pay MORE attention to his talk if he was not masturbating…
I think it would be a lot less trouble just to say "Sarah Palin will abolish all Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, just after she is sworn in as president because Obama quits in disgrace and shame of the taint in his unamerican blood and… wait, what was the name of the cranky old fart again?"
John Cole
@bootlegger: I’m here. Just busy going through ebscohost checking sources. Fun times.
Shawn in ShowMe
One group finding her less ignorant than another group doesn’t change the fact that on the absolute scale of ignorance, she’s pretty damn ignorant.
Again, if they were actually interested in providing meaningful results, find an attractive woman who can answer basic questions about her field of expertise. It really isn’t that hard.
DonkeyKong
I thought "Right said Fred" was Fred Hiatts nickname? Too sexy for climate change.
Chris Johnson
I would also note that there are people in the world who do not have stock market portfolios, 401Ks or other such retirement funds. It seems not at all unthinkable that capital, by which I mean imaginary capital, will or is collapsing.
But aren’t we forgetting that the people this clown thinks will turn all ‘zombie apocalypse’ don’t have retirement or stocks, and the ones who will be decimated are not street fighters (and for that matter probably have many tangible resources that could be liquidated)?
Right, dude. The masses are going to turn Zombie Apocalypse and kill you because Obama will throw Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and ALL forms of social net away to try to cover the asses of failing bankers. Imagine that, oh wait, you are.
How about, FAT CATS are maybe fucked, and can bloody well get in line at the soup kitchen with everybody else? Do you know what? I can’t think of many of those guys who are MY customers. Seems like they’ve been taking those billions and doing something else with it that has never contributed to my bottom line in the slightest.
I don’t see how it affects me and my little 20K-a-year business with no IRAs or 401Ks or health insurance etc etc. and I’m NOT seeing it affecting me, as yet. I have not seen a change. Every single month I make contingency plans in case it’s the last time I earn a dollar, and every month things are about the same as they were.
That said, contractors around here are getting pretty frantic as house-building is definitely down. But I’m not a contractor, I’m not defaulting on any of my bills or running up any credit at all, not spending less at the grocery store.
Look at it in class war terms. For decades, the upper class has won. Now, the upper class goes ‘splat’ and we don’t have to erect a single guillotine.
Be ready to help out your neighbor and work locally. We’ll be fine. Rush Limbaugh is going to be really upset though :) dude has a LOT of capital investments…
Tsulagi
That was a really uplifting, rosy set of predictions. Liked they way they picked up speed ending with the military and Guard being called out as…
Dang, I better start making some bulk purchases of reloading supplies now. Plus for the family see if Dragon Skin body armor is available in kids and petite women’s sizes.
Like Buffet I think it’s going to get worse before it gets better. Might take another couple of years till this avalanche reaches bottom. But don’t think it’ll get to the point needing to put hillbilly armor on our cars to go pick up some Chinese takeout.
Brick Oven Bill
Civil Servant Update:
I was on with the government man for tomorrow. But he cancelled, presumably because he is busy.
The other government guy does not work for the government, he works for a ‘consultant’, who bills the government. This is the guy I told you who has two desks, a trick I also mastered back when I got a government check.
Anyway, I’ve been trying to track this guy down. I left a message on Friday, and let it go unanswered until Wednesday, when I left him a second message, which, of course was not responded to. Today, I followed up with a third message, to this guy who bills the government, which I pay taxes to, in theory to serve me (“civil servant”).
Now I will begin with the emails. I enjoy the theory and practice of electronic carbon copies. This is something that I did not have to fear when I had two desks.
This is one reason I like Sarah Palin, above and beyond her beauty and sex appeal. I believe that if Sarah Palin was in charge, she would kick these guys in the ass. This I would also pay to see on Pay-per-View.
Indylib
OT tristero over at Digby’s has written a manifesto for the idiot Randians.
Bubblegum Tate
Unfortuantely, I can’t find a video of it online, but the SNL Napster trial skit wherein Conan O’Brien played one of the Right Said Fred guys was a killer.
Sen. Evan Bayh: Okay, Mr.. Said Fred.. do you have a prepared statement?
Right Said Fred: Yes, Sir, I do. [ turns on boombox to play his one-hit wonder “I’m Too Sexy”, stands up and gyrates ]
Sen. Evan Bayh: Please! We need you to turn off the music!
Right Said Fred: [ turns music off ] I’m sorry, Senator. [ reads statement ] "There was a time when I was to sexy for my shirt. Now I find myself forced to be too sexy for copyright infringement." [ lowers testimony ] My livelihood depends on my ability to sell copies of my many hit songs, like "I’m Too Sexy"… and other songs that I may one day write.
Sen. Trent Lott: Uh.. excuse me for a minute, Mr.. Said Fred. Now, we have here up-to-date records, and, since the inception of Napster, your work has bee downloaded.. uh.. let me check here… [ consults folder ] …mmm… okay… never.
Right Said Fred: I see.
Sen. Evan Bayh: Excuse me, Mr. Said Fred, I need some clarification here. At one point, weren’t you a lot more buff?
Right Said Fred: Uh.. if you will allow me to stand up here… [ stands ] As you can see, I am still too sexy for my shirt.
[ senators discuss Right Said Fred’s statement amongst themselves ]
Female Senator: Actually, it is the opinion of this committee that you are not.
Right Said Fred: [ sits ] Okay… I’ve, uh… I’ve had some hard times… eventually, I became too sexy for my gym membership fee.
…
Right Said Fred: [ enters wearing a beekeeper costume ] I, uh, have some testimony that I think you’ll find quite interesting.
Sen. Trent Lott: Who are you?
Right Said Fred: I’m the… Beekeeper… from The Village People!
Sen. Trent Lott: Very well, you may present your, uh…
Sen. Evan Bayh: Wait a minute! There was no Beekeeper in The Village People!
Sen. Trent Lott: It’s you, isn’t it, Right Said Fred?
Right Said Fred: [ removes his bonnet in shame ] Yeah, it’s me! Please! Somebody feed me! I’m not too sexy to eat day-old bagels, just anything!
Common Sense
Nauseatingly cute pet stuff:
Can you see me now?
Dennis-SGMM
Sarah Palin was so sexy that no one appreciated her branes.
JM
Uh, if Palin’s sex appeal was her problem in 2008, that means she’ll be a major political phenomenon by 2012.
Girlfriend is turning into the Cryptkeeper but fast.
Calouste
@canuckistani:
No, because they didn’t get the opportunity to loot the whole thing from the inside as their US colleagues did. SASTQ. Bankers are greedy pigs that need to be collared. Other bank stakeholders (shareholders, accountholders) probably will be very grateful though.
gil mann
In fairness to these guys, BOB, you’re a pretty tough cat to respond to. What you intend as a simple inquiry probably reaches their ears as a tone poem with a question mark on the end.
The Cat Who Would Be Tunch
Off topic. Also.
ACORN has nothing on this
SnarkIntern
That reminds me of a BOB joke.
BOB went to the doctor, and the doctor said, Bob, you need to stop masturbating.
BOB said, why?
The doctor said, Because I’m trying to examine you.
This is a true story.
ChrisB
@Montysano: "Compelling" is a good word, particularly if you envision Condi with a riding crop.
@Krista:
One of the best observations concerning Palin that I have read.
Brick Oven Bill
I do remember SnarkIntern stating that I gave her palpitations. Two hands on the keyboard SnarkIntern!
AhabTRuler
@The Cat Who Would Be Tunch: Add one moar to the DFH column (sigh). It’s not easy being
greenCassandra.The Moar You Know
@Brick Oven Bill: Hate to be the one to tell you this. Sarah Palin is one of those guys. Dual desks, flaky on appointments, and all that.
Chris Johnson
AGAIN- the zombie apocalypse scenario is based on the idea of Obama acting like a banker, and trying to hose 90% of the population totally to retain largely imaginary and artificial standards of what capital means.
na. ga. ha. pen.
It DOES NOT TAKE that much to keep a population from rioting and destroying all of civilisation. It does not TAKE that much to keep people fed, sheltered, and so on. I’ve seen figures that the 700 billion dollar bailout, which the banks spent on VACATIONS, equates to about $2,300 a person in the US.
That’s twice as much as your average person LIVES on in India. It’s about ten times the resources of say an Ethiopia or Somalia. The resources are there. We’re set up to effectively distribute them to the citizenry.
These guys are just pissed off their paper millions are wastepaper. The only way their heads are seriously at risk is if they try to stage a revolution in favor of bailing out the bankers (again). And half the time THEY are the ones talking about how they’re going to buy guns and learn to grow turnips. They’re the danger, not zombie hordes of black looters.
Krista
Meh…it could have been better. I forgot to stick an extra "also" in there, so points do need to be deducted for that error.
The Moar You Know
@John Cole: He’s likely right about pension/401k funds. The rest of it seems a little…extreme, to say the least. The civil unrest prediction is ludicrous and tells me all I need to know about him; he’s an apocalypse junkie, plain and simple.
Brick Oven Bill
During that particular exchange, I had speculated that SnarkIntern had graduated to quivers. And then she stopped typing. One can only wonder.
John Cole
@The Moar You Know: What the hell do you mean he is probably right about 401k and pensions but the rest is extreme? If every 401k and pension across the country is wiped out, you will have civil unrest. Shit will hit the fan.
J. Michael Neal
Jesus Christ, I never said I want to date her.
valdivia
I don’t know much but that market ticker post sounds to me alarmist beyond anything that I have heard and I spend a lot of time hearing worse case scenarios. but again. I am not an expert just a consumer of info.
J. Michael Neal
Unless Denninger decides to back that shit up with some reasoning, I plan to just toss it out. When you make look Roubini look like an optimist, you should probably try to reboot to reality.
Paleo Pat
@TheFountainHead:
Sorry… I had to come outta the wood work for this one…
*SNORT*
Paleo Pat
As far song goes… one word: EW!
Rick Taylor
The reason Republicans are incoherent is they were in power for the least eight years, they got the tax cuts they wanted (and the war), and now they have to create a narrative why the mess we’re in isn’t their fault, and why the solution to our problems are the very policies we’ve been following the past eight years. Haywarth of Arizona blames our current troubles on a sneak attack on our economy by Schumer and Soros. These people have become a joke.
Chris Johnson
Bullshit. I bet not even 50% of Americans have that kind of safety net. 401Ks, for Pete’s sake? You wildly overestimate the number of people leading First World wealthy, entitled lives in this country.
The people GOOD at civil unrest don’t HAVE 401Ks or pensions. That’s kind of the problem. They’re not gonna riot over the collapse of a 401K neither they, their parents, or their children will ever have. They can, and do riot when police KILL too many of them with impunity.
Get a sense of perspective.
AhabTRuler
Workers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your corporatized debt!
The Moar You Know
@John Cole: Most everyone I know right now has had 50%, if not more, of their 401k wiped out. I see no unrest. Are people pissed? Yeah. Are they going "feral" in the streets, like in Mad Max? Absolutely not. And they won’t. Will they vote "the bastards" out? Maybe (probably not), but that is not "civil unrest".
Most everyone’s going to lose enough this economic cycle that their retirement plans will be changing pretty drastically. Probably somewhere along the line of "work until you die" plan. And that is going to suck. But it will not kill America, and it will not send the Dow back to 200, unleash koalapox, or send tax revenues under one trillion.
EDIT: Also, what Chris Johnson said. 50% of the people in this country have nothing in stocks, bonds, or 401k accounts. They have nothing to lose save their jobs.
John Cole
Am I the only one out there who finds it amusing that Michele Bachman is using theories from evolutionary biology to declare that Obama is leading us towards socialism? Amusing for obvious reasons.
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
@valdivia:
Then you need to get out more. These guys envision brain-eating zombies stalking the terra.
valdivia
@Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon):
LOL. Ok I meant realistic doom scenarios regarding the economy?
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
@John Cole:
All I have to do is hear her name and I reach for the popcorn.
Laura W Darling
CNN and MSNBC carrying Live Q&A White House Health Care Reform Thingey.
valdivia
@Laura W Darling:
oh is it good? I am stuck at work grading midterm exams which make that funny joke email about history according to students pale in comparison. Ugh. I need a drink.
Chris Johnson
Actually, that is a hell of a good point. Thanks to John’s efforts we’ve seen a LOT of stories of police running amok and beating on, tasering etc. people.
If you seriously want to stave off your zombie apocalypse scenario, civil unrest, and lots of rioting and destruction, hell with the bankers- crack down on the police officers. Pay to have enough of them, but don’t let them act like Abu Graib guards or Blackwater mercenaries. Go hunt up all the cases of police brutality and sadism you can possibly find, and prosecute them all to make damn sure being police isn’t a disgrace to the badge.
THAT is where your rioting will come from, not pensions going tits-up.
Never been more serious- and you know it’s true- or at least John has been posting the links all this time, and I’m telling you that THAT is where civil unrest will come from.
SnarkIntern
@Brick Oven Bill:
What is it with your little gender lames, fuckhead?
Are you insecure about your tiny genitalia?
Try one of these.
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
@valdivia:
Some of these guys’ economic scenarios stop just short of zombies. Seriously.
And everytime another "ZOMG! This is 1t!" moment passes, as they always do, there’s almost a sense of disappointment. The doomers seem like the ultimate wearin’-jammies-and-eatin’-Cheetos-in-Mom’s-basement types, so some hot zombie action probably seems exciting.
@Chris Johnson: Great comment.
AhabTRuler
Well, if anything were to threaten the food supply, that would cause riots right quick. I just don’t think it’s gonna happen, but yeah, food riots would work.
valdivia
@Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon): yes because it would confirm their warped ideas about the world and their junkie relationship to catastrophes?
I had a friend, okay not a friend, let’s call him someone I used to know, um, that quickly became an acquittance when I discovered he took his doomsday preparedness a little too far (this was 4 years ago): he not only had water and canned food he had lingots of gold in his apt. I imagine these days he probably has his own nuclear shelter and is raptly listening to Beck on Fox News. I am all for preparedness but this? Trippy.
smiley
@John Cole: Funny, yes, but I wonder where the hell she got that. Is it a 1000 monkeys with typewriters in a room thing? I mean those two words could be put together randomly, right?
valdivia
OT but this is a really great post by Coates. The last graph is perfection.
r€nato
The Diane Riehm Show this morning featured a couple of conservatards – including Richard Viguerie – as well as David Frum (who shows signs of deprogramming) opining on the sorry state of the GOP and what should be done.
Viguerie is of the opinion that it’s all gone to shit because the Democrats held Congress for the last two years of Bush’s 2nd term, and Clinton and Carter forced banks to loan to poor people.
To listen to him, you would have never guessed that the GOP held the White House for the last 8 years, Congress for most of that time, and has basically controlled the narrative (and a good chunk of the media) in this country for nearly 30 years.
I welcome this massive state of delusion on the part of Republicans. Where can I donate to help keep guys like Viguerie running the show over there?
John Cole
Fortunately, I have a back-up plan for all these doomsday scenarios. Also, I have been storing extra weight on my person the last few years just in case there is a famine.
At least that is what I am telling myself when I look in the mirror.
Brick Oven Bill
I am willing to exchange images SnarkIntern, this way you could put my picture up by your keyboard.
Obama may be deliberately targeting the dollar, to cause the social safety net to fail, and cause the unrest that was considered above. The reason I feel uncomfortable in New York City, is because it is surrounded by suburbs, and they do not grow their own food in the City. Preparing dishes is not the same thing as growing potatoes.
Now I must leave the house and attend a function. Bye SnarkIntern.
Mentis Fugit
If you want to get that song out of your head, take a look at where the name Right Said Fred came from.
Be warned: the cure may be worse than the disease.
The Moar You Know
@Chris Johnson: I have an interesting variation on the "cops running amok on poor people" story that is sadly too familiar these days. I live in SoCal, in a very wealthy part thereof. The cops, interestingly enough, treat the poor and homeless as is the case everywhere else – abuse, some beatings and shootings. Save for the egregious shootings, we’re otherwise like any other place.
The twist is that recently the cops have become real assholes with attitude in their dealings with people who make about as much in a month as the police do in a year. In other words, it’s not a class thing anymore, everyone is fair game.
I know some of these folks who got into it with some cops last year – I happened to be there. They needed a fainting couch after their treatment by the police (which, in fairness to them, the cops were complete dicks and out of hand, I was surprised none of them got a taste of the nightstick).
They did not like my comment "well, now you know what it’s like to be black". But it got them thinking.
We need to start treating the cops like accountable professionals instead of a Negro/homeless/undesirables disposal squad before it’s too late. They could go "feral" on all of society in a heartbeat if they feel threatened enough – there’s no accountability for police at all these days.
That would be a real problem.
Steeplejack
@John Cole:
Well, it doesn’t qualify as "news," because it’s just somebody blowharding on Sullivan’s blog, but I found this mildly encouraging: "Recovery by Christmas?" Or at least
semi-remotely plausible as an alternate take on things.canuckistani
@valdivia:
I have always wondered, how do you spend an ingot of gold after the apocalypse? It’s not like Joe Farmer can make change for a block of gold when you want to buy some eggs from him. Unless you’re buying a tank, I don’t see what you can practicably buy with the stuff.
I’d stock up on pennies, because they’re cheap and copper will be a useful material after the fall of civilization.
MikeJ
Please, can we refer to Glenn Beck with first and last name? I keep picturing someone with two turntables and a microphone ranting about the apocalypse. And get me the Becktionary. The rhyming Becktionary.
r€nato
the silver lining would be, that’s about what it would take for some of your neighbors to understand that when we throw civil rights out the window in the name of expediency, it affects EVERYONE. Not just those stupid people who didn’t have the good sense to be born into the correct racial and socioeconomic stratum.
I’ve yet to meet the person who claimed they were willing to give up some civil rights in return for ‘security’… who was not well-off and white. In other words, ‘it will never happen to me so who gives a shit’.
A few nightsticks up some white, Republican asses – like happens regularly in New York and New Jersey to non-whites – might create a newfound respect for the Bill of Rights.
SnarkIntern
So that’s what they call delivering Yellow Pages now?
I did not know that, Bob.
That One - Cain
@Brick Oven Bill:
You sir are a treasure. Please keep them coming, you’re the sugar in my coffee. The whip cream on a dessert.. the toilet paper for my.. never mind, you get the picture.
cain
r€nato
no, that’s what they now call, ‘giving blow jobs to strangers in the men’s room’.
Cris
Well I’ll be darned. I have a recording of Cindy Kallet and Gordon Bok singing that (a cappella, btw) but I never thought to seek out the original. Thanks for the lesson.
valdivia
@canuckistani:
thank you, my thoughts exactly. I pretty much thought he could use them to hit people over the head? In portability terms jewels are good (small and can be sold off one by one) but an ingot (sorry about the typo upthread) makes no sense as well as being creepy.
And I promise to call him Glenn Beck from now on.
SnarkIntern
@r€nato:
Ewww.
I hate to think of Our Little Bob behaving that way.
Don’t we apply DADT around here?
Gus
Reminds me of this:
Kent Brockman: Hordes of panicky people seem to be evacuating the town for some unknown reason. Professor, without knowing precisely what the danger is, would you say it’s time for our viewers to crack each other’s heads open and feast on the goo inside?
Professor: Yes I would, Kent
Steeplejack
@John Cole:
LOL. As soon as I saw "I have a back-up plan," I knew it was going to be " . . . and craft arrows from his bones." You can’t buy memories like that.
Bubblegum Tate
@MikeJ:
Odelay is a word!
gbear
Question: How many ex-Blackwater guards are finding their way into private security for corporations and uber-rich individuals? My concerns are that some kind of paranoid incident results in gunfire and a civil incident which the media ‘haves’ could point to as ‘OMG! they’re after us’.
Maybe the chances of this are slim, but they’re probably rising. I have no doubt that the rich are sinking lots more money into heavy duty self-protection these days.
r€nato
see? The Bush economy DID create jobs!
valdivia
@gbear:
all of this is reminding me of the now defunct show Jericho.
AhabTRuler
@valdivia: Eh, jewels are okay, but they would devalue sharply should we go all Mad Max, the only advantage they offer is that they are concealable and portable, should one need to travel (and between you and me, one probably shouldn’t, I mean c’mon, haven’t you seen the movies?). The best barter goods are going to be the same ones that one’s bunker is filled with: preserved food, ammunition, porn, liquor, & fuel (in that order).
Alternatively, I look forward to joining one of the nomadic tribes of of outcast garbage-pickers who adopt the infant found abandoned in the unpopulated wastes between hamlets, only to discover as he comes of age that he is the lost son of dreaded overlord, prophesied to pluck his father’s heart from his chest and dash it one the ground, er…excuse me, mind was wandering, it does that sometimes.
gbear
@r€nato:
Oops. I got quoted before I finished my edit.
Origuy
Better save old ones; since 1982 they’ve been 97.5% zinc.
gbear
@AhabTRuler:
So my mint condition original copy of the Over Under Sideways Down album by The Yardbirds isn’t going to save me? Damn.
valdivia
@AhabTRuler:
OMG I forgot to include alcohol in my preparedness stash! Note to self–must.order.asap. How would I have survived? I am now eternally in your debt.
On a more serious note–so being from Lat Am we experienced not necessarily armageddon scenarios but we did have nasty military dictators and a lost decade and well, we did have to travel and the jewels helped.
Emma Anne
@Blue Raven:
The version with Snape is teh awesome
Gus
I’ll give you two bags of dried lentils for it.
canuckistani
1996 in Canada, but thanks for the heads-up. Now I have *no* strategy to survive the fall of civilization.
Montysano
@canuckistani:
I have high hopes for my wife’s mad skillz in …. ahem ….. indoor alternative horticulture.
gbear
@Gus:
I have seen the future of rock and roll…
The Populist
Keep trying. One day your troll posts will hit the proverbial home run. For now, it appears you are still figuring it all out.
PaulW
Problems with the Right Said Fred: it’s gay but kinda in a good way, but you’ve got girls hopping about in bikinis and catsuits so there’s some hetero stuff in there, but damn is the video gay but there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s like, it’s not as gay as Frankie Goes to Hollywood but slightly gayer than that one band that did that You Spin Me Round song.
And now I’m stuck with the song and the cats are looking at me funny.
Blue Raven
BOB, please. None of us come here to read your personal definition of the perfect date with your right hand.
r€nato
OK, is it gay if I know that Dead or Alive did that one?
J. Michael Neal
About as gay as that guy who was so gay he had to call himself "Boy."
AhabTRuler
@valdivia: Better yet, learn to moonshine, it’ll be a growth industry!
HRA
"And yet there they were, in the very next breath, singing the praises of Sarah Palin, who really WAS all style and no substance. Woman couldn’t even list what newspapers she read, for crissakes!"
She was not about to divulge what newspapers she read. It would have gone against the image they produced for her.
Some earlier photos of Sarah Palin showed her to be much different in hair, makeup and clothing. Her job was to appeal to a certain segment of the population. She drew in the crowds. That was what the campaign needed the most at the time. All of the rest of the campaign story has been hashed and rehashed many times. Failure has many faces.
Today a coworker said the clothes they purchased for her were being sold on EBay.
bootlegger
@John Cole: Denninger said we’d be goners in 3 minutes. I’m happy to report that it is 11:04 PM EST and all is well.
Should I buy all the canned beans and fruit cocktail in town?
TenguPhule
David Broder may soon be forced to actually work for a living.
burnspbesq
Sarah Palin sexy? Ummm … let’s just say I’ve never been that drunk.
gwangung
Yah, but that’s still all style, no substance. Not to mention damn incompetent on whoever was crafting that image–that was a softball question any dolt could expect would be asked.
It boils down to the same thing anyway…
Chuck Butcher
The survivalists are not too tightly wrapped, I live in the sticks, I’m a shooter and hunter and fisherman and I know these woods. There isn’t enough game out there to support more than a few and with production routes cut, the livestock won’t last long. Most fairly competent shooters can kill at 200yds with a rifle and that’s out of eye and ear shot of even paranoid survivalists. I’m deadly at 600yds, over 1/4 mile.
There is a lot of hard ass stupidity promugated by people with no clue in regard to a complete breakdown. The rule of force is not nearly as compliant to their desires as they like to think.
A person could postulate some methods to create some sense of danger for the wealthy/powerful, but it would be irresponsible. The nasty reality is that if you remove "nutcase" from the equation, nobody is unreachable. The fortunate piece is that some pretty reasonable and worried people are trying to keep things together.