Sort of out of it tonight. Spent the better part of the afternoon dealing with people on the phone, then when that was finished ended up on the phone with USAA for about 45 minutes. I have to say I like that company, though- nice people and good service.
For whatever reason, I picked up a thing of the SoupMan’s gourmet soup for dinner (you know him as the guy who inspired the Soup Nazi on Seinfeld). I had never had it before and got the Italian Wedding Soup. It was good, and ginger in wedding soup was interesting, but it was really overpriced. I doubt I will do that again.
In other news, it appears the ACORN plan to take over the world by infiltrating a series of silly protests by even sillier people is such a cunning plan that not even the head of ACORN knows anything about it, but then again that may just show how disciplined they are (“Anyone who runs is a VC.
The Board of Canvassers that was convened to preside over the recount and rule on challenged ballots conducted itself honorably under difficult circumstances. In addition to board chairman Mark Ritchie, the Man from ACORN who is Minnesota’s secretary of state, four judges served on the board: Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Eric Magnuson, Associate Justice Barry Anderson, and Ramsey County District Court Judges Ed Cleary and Kathleen Gearin.
ACORN is turning into the phlogiston of wingnut conspiracy theories. They can’t tell you what they do, but if it upsets Republicans, ACORN is there, colorless, odorless, and pissing off Rush Limbaugh. I remember when it used to be A.N.S.W.E.R. and the ACLU that had these guys up in arms over everything. Maybe they are just working their way through the alphabet. If that is the case Big Brothers/Big Sisters and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation better get ready for the shitstorm of poorly written emails they are going to get during the 2010 midterms.
This fellow is having surgery today:
I’d like to watch some television tonight, but the igoogle tv guide thing is informing there isn’t much on. I suppose I will just read and insult some of you in the comments.
Staples picture stolen without permission from Cleek, who doesn’t get near the traffic he deserves.
*** Update ***
Not enough people appreciate Delbert McClinton.
Also, I am giving the Unusuals a test drive tonight. Figure it is new, so I will give it a shot. Also, Rescue Me.
demimondian
I take the iGoogle insult very personally, John.
guest omen
acorn don’t surf?
Steve V
Um, Lost?
Emma Anne
May I just say how much I am enjoying watching the wingnuts hold protests that everyone ignores? Finally some ironic justice.
icedfire
AFL-CIO are obviously next on the list.
Cat Lady
That is a handsome canine, yes indeed. Good luck good dog!
Big Brothers/Big Sisters = subversive. They know where you live.
John Cole
@demimondian: I wasn’t insulting it. I was just saying that there is nothing on tv.
Reks
How do I get a tv guide thingy onto igoogle?
Anne
I have USAA, and I like them a lot. Every time I’ve had to deal with them on the phone, they’ve been pleasant and helpful. Even if they didn’t also have good rates on auto and renter’s insurance, I’d consider staying with them just for the lack of annoyance.
slag
You could always watch TDS or Colbert on the interwebs. Is there any other tv worth watching?
Bill Teefy
It has to be the "A"
Because… it is all about the A for the Limbaughstards
clone12
ACORN, ANSWER, ACLU.
At this rate, they’ll blame ZZTop in about 35 years….
Jay B.
At this rate, they’ll blame ZZTop in about 35 years….
Given the way they approach everything else, I’m surprised they weren’t first on the list.
gbear
Ooohh! Open Thread!
This is a youtube video of actors auditioning for the role of real people affected by gay marriage in California. HRC got hold of the tapes and it’s kind of a howler. Fucking phonies. Fuck these people can’t be honest about anything.
John Cole
@gbear: They needn’t worry- Dreher is apparently working on a constitutional amendment.
gex
Ooh – awesome pup. Who’s is he? What’s his name? My pup (cone dog Casey) loves those Wubbas!
Mike in NC
I’d been with USAA for over 25 years and was always very happy until we moved from VA to NC and our auto insurance premiums just about doubled. It’s complicated and there are several reasons (lots of rural and uninsured drivers, apparently), but we switched to Geico for a better rate. Still have them for homeowner’s insurance.
"Lost" is on shortly.
Bad Horse's Filly
How about that? I just received a call inviting me to a ‘tea party’. Can’t imagine why they’d target me. Maybe it was all that money I gave to the Obama campaign.
gex
@icedfire: They’ve always been on the list.
valdivia
yeah I am watching Lost soon. Where is Tunch? How is Tunch?
Dr. Loveless
The ACORN stuff amuses me to no end. I had some dealings with the local chapter a few years ago, and they were all sweet, nice-as-pie middle-aged women who spent their free time going to City Council meetings, registering voters, and writing letters to get potholes fixed and other things done in the poor neighborhoods where they lived. Seriously, these are the neo-Bolsheviks that keep wingnuts awake at night? Most of them were black and Latina, but I’m sure the right’s paranoid fantasies have nothing to do with that.
guest omen
yeah, i’ve noticed that.
gbear
John, did you just post something and then take it down or am I hallucinating?
It was about that constitutional ammendment that protects families (?)
asiangrrlMN
Good luck, handsome dog, you.
ACORN, ACORN, ACORN….
Be very afraid, Wingnuts, for the all-mighty ACORN is coming after YOU!
I said it before, and I’ll say it again–that ACORN must really be powerful to do all the things the right is accusing it of doing.
P.S. It seems that ACORN(s) can beat (off) Wingnuts any day of the week!
JenJen
I just bought a half-pound of the most gorgeous Stilton at my local cheese shop which just happens to be inside a Kroger.
It is a good day.
Laura W
I have a long, rambling comment for a rambling open thread since I’m sort of out of it tonight too. I had upper and lower GI tests today. I’ve heard all about how great these IV sleepy drugs are and of course I don’t believe anyone ‘cuz I’m sure I’ll wake up with this thing down my throat and FREAK. So I express this fear to Adam (who looks like what I imagine John looks like) and another man, Bobby G., when they come to wheel me into the room. I have not had an operation since I had my tonsils out at 3. Upon seeing the room, I say: "Look at all that equipment! Yikes!" and Bobby G. shoots back: "Whaddya expect us to use on you? A rock and a stick?" I howled. A very good sign.
Adam tells me to pick a favorite dream as he’s about to start the drugs and the next thing I know I’m on my couch surfing BJ and commenting away on BJ. I look up and Adam/John and some other male BJ commenter are in my house standing over me above my couch!! They’re all like: "Laura, time to wake up. You’ve had your procedures" and I’m all like: "How the hell did you guys get into my house?"
Of all the fucking happy places to travel to under drugs, I go to BJ.
So I’m lying there in the hallway cracking myself up about how high and silly I am and Bobby G. comes back and grabs my hands, says he’ll stay with me. I tell him I thought they were two guys from my favorite pol blog and I tell him the name and he asks me what my handle is and I tell him. But I tell him that I say "fuck" a lot so to be discreet and not judge me. He tells me his online handle and asks me the name of the blog again and I tell him should be easy for him to remember in his line of work. (That sounded super clever while high, you know? Balloon Juice? Anesthetic?) And then I whisper: "Are you a Democrat?" (‘cuz it’s a Super Christian Hospital and I needed to pre-qualify him.) And he whispers back: "I’m an anarchist".
Shout out to Bobby G. if he’s lurking!
Stabetha
I have USAA as well. They don’t always have the top rates, but I stay with them for the service. It’s amazing compared to the other shit out there on the market. I have a car loan, auto insurance, home loan, home insurance, checking, savings, ira, all with them. They bend over backwards for you.
Anyway, I bet you would be hard pressed to find a conservative who actually knew what ACORN is or does.
dr. bloor
At this rate, they’ll blame ZZTop in about 35 years….
And ZZTop will no doubt still be around waiting to be blamed.
MMM
Dreaming about Balloon Juice?
Sometimes I think I am having a Balloon Juice nightmare, but then I go in another room and find John Cole sleeping, wearing his alien gear.
Pinch me and wake me up.
MazeDancer
TV without the TV: Hulu.com has all the Firefly’s. Or the Dr. Horrible’s. (And plenty other non-Whedon/Fillion stuff)
Cain
@Bad Horse’s Filly:
Just tell them that you drink coffee and you like it Black.
cain
Cain
@MazeDancer:
If you have netflix I found the BBC series "Jekyll" to be pretty good.
cain
Steve M.
I remember when it used to be A.N.S.W.E.R. and the ACLU that had these guys up in arms over everything.
In the middle of Bush’s term, it was the C’s who were responsible for everything — Code Pink, Cindy Sheehan, and Ward Churchill.
Jennifer
Dollars to donuts none of them have ever even bothered to google ACORN to see what they themselves have to say about their nefarious goals, when a year ago most of them had never even heard of the organization.
This is ACORN, a group of 400,000 member families who fight for evil causes such as living wages, ending predatory lending, affordable housing – all that good stuff that our government has been too busy to deal with for these past 30 years. These are, you know, poor people, many of them minorities, so who the fuck do they think they are to get together and try to do stuff to help themselves and their families? Don’t they know that if you can’t afford a lobbyist with $600 loafers, you’re supposed to just sit down and shut the fuck up?
Disclosure: I work for ACORN a few hours a week. The evil plot I’m engaged in is trying to educate people about Obama’s proposal for a parallel public health insurance program and get small business owners signed up in support for it. I basically go out and talk to people who own small businesses, collect their stories about healthcare – do they have it, how do they get it, do they provide it for their employees, how does it affect their business, etc, and ask them if they’d like to sign on as a member of the HCAN (Health Care for America Now) coalition – which is a LOT of groups, not just ACORN.
I have another full-time job; I signed on to do this because I think it’s an important issue and I’m good at this type of work…though I must admit that ACORN’s current status as the rightwing’s Great Satan was a compelling motivation as well. I’m just disappointed that we haven’t gotten to the part yet where I get to register fictional voters who, being fictional, will never show up at the polls to help us steal another election.
South of I-10
@LauraW: Sounds like that went well! Glad to hear you finally got them done.
I am going to watch Lost shortly, just got the little one in bed and need a moment to decompress.
Cain
FUck.. I made the mistake of going to Sully’s and I had to look at a heart broken dog looking for his owner in Italy after the earthquake. Mother Earth, you are a cruel woman.
cain
Laura W
@MMM: I really can’t be faulted. The drugs were super good.
But now that you mention the alien connection, and that guy’s name was Adam, and there were definitely a lot of probes involved — perhaps it was not…..such……..a……..dream……..after………all??
Carrie
@Laura W:
BobbyG, regular commenter on FDL?
Love that guy!
No nothing on TV here either, i’m just waiting for John to insult someone, then Fuckhead will come on and insult John then Laura will make everybody happy again…Gawd i love this place. Feels like my family get-togethers.
PS, want to thank everyone with all the great suggestions the other night (Capri, i owe you big time.)
Mimi is doing great, had the pukes and the runs for a bit but the vet said she just had indegestion.
DonkeyKong
ACORN is just NAMBLA spelled backwards.
Cain
This is fucking wrong. They’ll kill all the farmer’s market and it’s likely unenforceable. My inner conservative tells me that people who don’t wash their vegetables or cook them problem are stupid. Bah. There are a billion people in India who are not getting sick despite the fact that they have to boil their milk/water in order for it to be safe.
Let’s not be coddling our population and instead make them wise.
cain
grimc
Having eaten at the actual joint some years back, sounds like SoupMan was able to translate the experience into retail, to a T. Although I did get a roll, piece of fruit and napkin in the deal.
Tom Brandt
ACORN is turning into the phlogiston of wingnut conspiracy theories.
One of the great lines in the blogosphere.
amorphous
Funniest thing you’ve written in months.
Incertus
Saw Flight of the Conchords live last night in Miami. Kristen Schaal opened, and was really funny. Now I’m trying to motivate myself to return to grading.
Indylib
@Stabetha:
We had our car and renters insurance through them about 6 years ago because they offered an awesome military discount, then they cancelled our auto policy after my husband got in an accident caused by someone else.
This pissed my husband off considerably. He still spits when he hears the name.
Laura W
@Carrie:
I dunno! I HOPE SO! Never heard of him before today, and I didn’t even have make up or clothes on. Ick! He’s awesome, and he saw my butt? Christ. I hope he comes by and forgets what I look like naked and high. How is your dog, BTW?
@Incertus:
Ah man….how I envy you. Did they do Business Time?
Indylib
@MMM:
If I was going to dream about John I would hope he was wearing the pith helmet outfit.
MikeJ
I hate you, you mutha ucker.
Laura W
@Carrie: Sorry. I got so excited about the rest of your post and Incertus’ I did not see your PS about your Mimi. Good news! (and I don’t have permission to edit my previous comment, so thank God I didn’t say anything more embarrassing than I already had, huh?)
Krista
Mmm…Italian Wedding Soup. I only tried it for the very first time about a year ago, and weep for all of the years in which I missed out on it. Good stuff.
And Laura W., those DO sound like good drugs. I didn’t get to go to happy places when I had my surgery, but the pre-surgery drugs did prompt me to ask a very cute resident what he looked like under his scrubs. Considering that I was only 17 at the time, I’m sure my mother was very impressed.
Tattoosydney
@Laura W:
Hope all went well on Super Tube Day. Bradley says to tell you that a cheeseburger and a glass of red wine makes all residual queasiness go away (well, it worked for him anyway).
Brian J
Don’t laugh, but I’m trying to figure out how to write my own iPhone application. I’ve signed up for the developer program at Apple’s main site, but unless I find it easy after a few tries to write something really simple, I think I’m going to need a book that starts from the beginning. (I’m trying to follow a tutorial to build something basic now, but I doubt that it’s as easy as copying the simple layout.) Does anyone know of any that are good for people with no programming experience? There are a few that looked okay from what I saw on Amazon, but before I buy them, I want to make sure they aren’t over my head.
Come to think of it, I should ask my uncle about this. He’s a software engineer for one of the big firms that is under contract with the Department of Defense. He’s had investigators come around to his neighborhood to ask people if he’s, you know, a terrorist or likely to become one, so I’m guess he’s fairly high up for what he does. That, and when they went through major restructuring many years ago, he never lost his job. Perhaps it’s a bad assumption, but if he can write software for the military, I’m guessing it’d be fairly simple for him to write a program for the iPhone. I remember him being pretty pissed that his retirement accounts lost so much, so perhaps he’d be interested in making some extra money. I come up with the ideas, he writes the program. Sounds like a plan, eh?
28 Percent
Tempting to show up for a tea party in character… think I could get zany enough to land a guest spot on Glenn Beck?
Brian J
By the way, did anyone catch the part of "Hardball" tonight where they showed Barney Frank at Harvard Law for a speech and then a Q&A segment? What looks like a conservative student asked him why he didn’t do more to prevent the financial collapse. He then responded in what seemed like an annoyed tone, before another student in the audience yelled at him to answer the original question.
I wish they showed more of this clip, if only so I could have a better recollection of what happened. But really, I’m curious to see what he’d have to say more so because it seems like a lot of people toss his name around, as if he had a big role in what happened. I don’t really know if he’s the living equivalent of the right’s use of the Community Reinvestment Act and/or Fannie and Freddie as the causes of what happened, but it seems like he is.
Krista
Adjusted for adult size, or the original kiddie size on his adult frame? Either way, it’s a disturbing image. Not that John isn’t a handsome beastie, but there ARE limits.
jenniebee
@Cain: my CSA sent an email alert out about that a few weeks ago. It’s a gift to Monsanto and ADM, even though it’s the mid to large scale producers that are the problem and the (ostensible) target.
Just Some Fuckhead
lmfao
nwithers
oh my gawhd…. Roger Ebert just wrote a hilarious takedown of bill O’reilly declaring war on the Chicago Sun-times.
just a small snippet, first class snark in there:
Link here
AnneLaurie
I’m gonna watch "The Unusuals" on ABC at 10, at least tonight, because I love Amber Tamblyn.
Adorable dog & I hope his surgery went well. (And I would say this even if he didn’t look like the desktop version of my beloved 15lb. rescue papillon Zevon playing in the snow… )
Laura W
@Krista:
Speaking of Italian Style Wedding Soup at a good price*, I discovered this months ago when I was stocking up my "OH MY GOD THE BANKS ARE GONNA CRASH AND I WILL DIE OF STARVATION" pantry. The cool thing is, NO MSG. That used to be rare, but now other lines are following suit. Fat free, sea salt, etc.
It’s really not bad. The first time I tried it I flipped for it. I just bought so many dozens of cans of it that I can hardly bear to look at it now, and it’s never tasted quite as "special" since.
Never as good as the first time.
And one more tiny pre-surgery drug anecdote: I was sharing with the nurse who started my IV fluids today that the last time I had anesthesia was in 1988 and that the Dr. looked JUST LIKE Michael McDonald, with the close cropped beard and sultry eyes. I had a crush on that guy for months after.
*Soup link fail. It’s Campbell’s Select Harvest, their new line.
Brian J
@Dr. Loveless:
I’ve never understood it, either. If there really was widespread fraud occurring, I’d be standing up there with them to make sure it was stopped. But as far as I can tell, they have a problem with the mere possibility of fraud and/or more (presumably) more Democrats being registered to vote.
If the former really freaks them out, why not respond in ways that actually preserves the integrity of elections? I don’t mean to advocate nonsense like that law in Indiana that was enacted which prevented, infamously, those nuns from voting, of course, but sadly, that’s what they end up doing. And if the latter really bothers them, WHY DON’T THEY SPEND THEIR TIME AND MONEY FORMING THEIR OWN FUCKING GROUPS TO REGISTER VOTERS? (Yes, I know ACORN isn’t officially a Democratic group, but still.) Who is going to stop them from doing that?
Carrie
@Laura W: No worries, and glad your procedure went well.
Check your purse, maybe one of the guys you flashed your ass to slipped their phone number in it.
(your purse, not ass….on second thought, maybe you should check there too)
Wini
John, yay for Rescue Me! It’s on my DVR and might get a viewing later this evening..
Indylib
@Krista:
LOL
Adjusted for adult size I think.
Kind of a "Dr. Livingston, I presume" thing.
Dr. Rockso
54-
Not quite what you are looking for.
Brick Oven Bill
Those are some real winners that make up ACORN. If I were slow on the uptake, I would crack a joke about the Special Olympics. It is good to know that the Democrat Party is the party of big ideas.
I made reference to my attending a Glenn Beck militia group earlier this evening in a different Balloon Juice forum. I need to clear the record as there seems to be a paranoia among this forum, and for all I know elsewhere, regarding Glenn Beck militias. So let the record reflect that the group was, in fact, not a ‘militia’ per say but instead should be termed a ‘mean and scary Glenn Beck group’.
As mentioned in another forum, under the leadership of a young mom, this ‘mean and scary group’ reviewed several chapters of a book about the history of the United States and an American lady of French descent explained why she wanted to become a Citizen as a child, and how this tied in with her impressions of Dairy Queen. The scary hall erupted with applause with this oration. Her English was good, but still a little goofy, in a cute way. Many people are planning on showing up on the 15th, but nobody mentioned ACORN.
There was also a homeschooler there. Be afraid, be very afraid.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Laura W: Jesus, I bet yer the first patient they ever had that rolled over and arched her butt in the air for ’em.
Carrie
…apparently i do not have permission to edit my comment.
Dr. Rockso
"Be afraid, be very afraid."
It is to laugh.
r€nato
Clearly you haven’t advanced to a high enough level to be shown the secret terrorist fist-bump.
Who controls the British Crown?
Who keeps the metric system down?
ACORN, ACORN!
Who keeps Atlantis off the maps?
Who keeps the Martians under wraps?
ACORN, ACORN!
Who holds back the electric car?
Who makes Steve Guttenberg a star?
ACORN, ACORN!
Who robs cave fish of their sight?
Who rigs every Oscar night?
ACORN, ACORN!
(yes I know someone else posted this first the other day)
Just Some Fuckhead
@28 Percent: Yes, I think you could/should do it.
Edit: You rock.
2nd Edit: I’m just lording my editing abilities over everyone now.
valdivia
I am sure a bunch of you saw the initial video of Maru the Japanese box loving cat that was a youtube sensation. I have been checking his blog (yep he has one) since he is such an adorable creature and tonight there is the most hilarious post about Maru, the vet and his instructions to Maru’s owner. All in barely intelligible english. And if you enjoy cat pictures the blog is a must. You can see it here
r€nato
@28 Percent:
the real question is, can one be too zany even for Glenn Beck’s show?
I think not. Give it your best shot.
Carrie
Just Some Fuckhead:
2nd Edit: I’m just lording my editing abilities over everyone now.
It’s because I’m french, right?
(steelers suck, Cole)
HitlerWorshippingPuppyKicker
@Carrie:
That usually just means that the edit timer has expired.
As for ACORN, I think we should be happy that the morans are still ranting about it. One, ACORN is a good thing and trying to use it as a scapegoat for something bad is not going to work.
Second, if you want an example of how epic fail that strategy is, just look at this:
Why we even pay attention to what these losers are doing is beyond me.
r€nato
@HitlerWorshippingPuppyKicker:
hey, it takes a lot of schadenfreude to detox from 8 years of Bush/Cheney misrule.
Delia
ACORN launched a hostile takeover of the Elders of Zion sometime last fall and the latter is now a wholly owned subsidiary. It’s now making menacing moves toward the Illuminati, and the Trilateral Commission cannot be far behind. Soon it will be the Tinfoil Conspiracy that’s Too Big To Fail. Malkin, Beck, and their cohorts are right to tremble in their sneakers and wet their knickers. It feeds on caffeine and every teabag they throw to it only makes it grow stronger.
JL
What a great open thread.
Jennifer your volunteer work sounds wonderful. ACORN makes such a difference and it’s too bad that the MSM won’t highlight what they do.
Carrie’s dog sounds like it is on the mend and Laura sounds like she survived her tests. Life is good.
I spent 6 hours working on my taxes and I have to say, that selling and buying a house plus different accounting procedures for selling stocks adds to some complicated returns. I still have some clean up to do, but am almost done.
I’ve been insured with USAA for 40 years and now I use their banking facilities. Instead of mailing in checks for deposits, you can scan them in, which is really cool.
DougJ
I agree.
eponymous
I’ve had USAA insurance since 1987 when I first went into the Air Force. They (at the time) catered primarily to military officers and their family members. I believe they’ve recently changed policies whereby now anyone with military experience (and family members) can sign up.
I have them for all my insurance needs (save health insurance which they do not provide), and I have never had any problems with them whatsoever. In fact, they have bent over backwards to make sure I have been taken care of (had a vehicle repaired after it was vandalized and recently had my roof replaced due to wind damage to name two examples). Their rates are very good, and I always receive a refund check from them every year – how many insurance companies do you know give money back to their customers?
Indylib – sorry to hear about your husband’s experience with USAA. From my experience, though, I can’t say anything but good things about them.
28 Percent
I dunno, I found a blog today that had the headline: The Richard Andrew Poplawski Smear: Cop-Killing Anti-Semitic Truther Falsely Linked to the Right which insists that the Pittsburgh cop-killer is a product of "radical left conspiracy-mongering" and any references to him as being on the political right are a smear:
His emphasis, sadly.
The commentariat there speculates that Poplawski was really an instrument of a government propaganda campaign that goes all the way to the top.
So, counting this out, it’s a smear to call Poplawski "right wing" because there’s nothing on the right other than the GOP, and that includes Nazis because why do you think they were called National Socialists if they weren’t radical leftists, huh? Anyway, it’s all those liberal conspiracy-theorists that did it, unless it was actually liberal conspirators, which would not surprise anybody one bit. Plus there are all the links to free sex offender reports right next to pictures offering dates with barely legal (if they’re legal at all) girls in your city!
Thanks for the applause, but I have to admit, for sheer self-contradictory contrilogical mayhem, ain’t nothing like the real thing, baby.
HitlerWorshippingPuppyKicker
* John McCain, U.S. Senator from Arizona
* Mike Huckabee, former Governor of Arkansas
* Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts
* Ron Paul, U.S. Representative from Texas
* Fred Thompson, former U.S. Senator from Tennessee
* Duncan Hunter, U.S. Representative from California
* Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of New York City
* Alan Keyes, former U.S. Ambassador from Maryland
* Sam Brownback, U.S. Senator from Kansas
* Jim Gilmore, former Governor of Virginia
* Tom Tancredo, former U.S. Representative from Colorado
* Tommy Thompson, former Governor of Wisconsin
Just came across that list while reading up on the election.
That’s the murderer’s row that it took ACORN to defeat.
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
A Squirrel
Dang, that dog is a beaut!
Bubblegum Tate
I too am with USAA (car insurance and credit card), and I think they are fantastic. I get terrific rates and terrific service.
Socraticsilence
I just watched the season finale of Life, man Damien Lewis is great and the show has a slightly offbeat look with an interesting story.
JL
@Brian J: The Community Reinvestment Act has been getting a bad rap. The way it was set up encouraged loans to people that could afford to pay them back. It was not sub-prime in nature. Banks could require the normal down payments and since they could not resell the mortgages banks were more cautious to who they loaned to. I’m not saying they did not have foreclosures but the foreclosures were caused by the downturn in the economy.
Fannie and Freddie are different because they did get into the sub-prime business but they only accounted for 14% of the bad loans. The real culprits were the big investment companies.
MazeDancer
@Cain
Netflix reviews for Jekyll certainly raved. Didn’t know of it, thanks for tip.
And the potential dismantling of farmers markets is insane. Its parallel is the having to tag every animal thing that’s looming. That will destroy small farms, even ones with a few chickens. Including the tiny sheep and alpaca farms that raise the animals for wool. There is a large artisan market for their product. Lots of independent dyers. The internet has made it possible for their products to reach a viable market.
Andrea
Good luck, puppy!
If there are any hockey fans here, Center Ice is unscrambled for the final week of the season.
>Balloon Juice nightmare
Where Tunch is overlord of all?
John Cole
Anyone watching TDS?
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
Yes. Salamanders! Salamanders!
Laura W
@John Cole: Well now that you reminded us. I just finally caught last night’s at 8. Very good.
What’d we miss tonight?
I’ll hang around for Colbert in case you wanna discuss that.
(Unless I fall asleep first, of course.)
Chuck Butcher
I believe I have previously, on so-called music threads, noted that I do the blues. By the time you were figuring out which end the bullet comes out I was already a Delbert fan. I have been married 18 years and some of the tunes playing on my monster B&K system at our reception were Delbert.
Pah, beginners… ;-)
Ricky Bobby
Hmmmm, why aren’t there any threads about the de-evolution of Alaska’s governor from the heights of GOP starburst stardom into Jerry Springer Show material? Or is that being redundant?
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/04/08/2009-04-08_levi_johnston_calls_sarah_palin_snobby_says_his_family_is_not_white_trash_on_cbs.html
timb
Best joke/sentence you’ve ever done, John. Did you Barrack Obama was elected because of ACORN? 7 points due to ACORN….or was it those Big Brother bastards!?
Fulcanelli
Ed over at Gin and Tacos peels back the Instapundit/Pajamas Media foreskin and takes a wire brush to it in Requiem For A Bunch Of Dipshits if you could use a good laugh.
Best of luck for the Pup undergoing surgery. Me and the Mrs put our heart and soul into keeping our beloved four legged son ‘Max’ alive and healthy almost two years longer than his terminal cancer diagnosis predicted with diet, meds, radiation and multiple surgeries. We did lose him last August and my eyes still fill up when I think about it. I still can’t believe how this dog inspired us and still does to this day. Kittehs are awesome but dawgs are still man’s best freind.
Brian J
@JL:
I know all of this. My point by bringing those subjects up and comparing them to Barney Frank was that people seem to insist that he did something wrong (or didn’t do something right when others were encouraging regulation) without, you know, much proof of their claim. For all of the times I’ve seen people debunk the CRA myth, there are still people on the right insisting that it was a big cause of the problem.
MikeJ
Just watched five minutes of that Unusuals show JC mentioned. They certainly were trying hard to be wacky. Ira Glass summed up my view of wacky:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=707
Indylib
@eponymous:
I was sorry we had a problem with them, too. We had always had really good service with them and excellent rates.
Now I’m living in Wisconsin paying more for car insurance than I was in San Diego. Go figure.
angulimala
I love plots that work even if you never conceive or execute them.
Bravo!
Cain
@jenniebee:
Monsanto??! Great, now my inner liberal is pissed off too.
cain
Cain
@MazeDancer:
We need some kind of cannabis party or something to protest.
cain
D-Chance.
Remember how T-Bagg, er, T-Bit, whatever… was laughing it up when PJ dropped all its ads on conservative websites?
Well, well, looks like his FDL, along with Kos, and a whole host of other liberal shill sites, are now, just nine short days later, bitter because they aren’t getting enough online welfare of their own.
Maybe if he changes his moniker to TBegg and does a few x-rated posts with him and his basset hounds… sex does sell.
Michael D.
Perhaps you should link him in your blogroll? Honestly, I have Balloon Juice set as my homepage and I use yours and Tim’s blogrolls as starting points for my day. If Cleek was there, I would read more often!
dog's eye view
Agree that Cleek’s blog is excellent. Thanks for the link; it would be a good addition to blogroll. (Cleek has a lot of interesting links too.)
John Cole
@Michael D.: I thought he was.
Jamey
Wedding Soup? Is that like "Honeymoon Salad"? ("Lettuce Alone.")
JL
@Brian J: They have nothing else. FYI, Media Matters has an article on Barney Frank.
JoJo
There’s plenty to watch on TV. Why on any given night HGTV alone has "Buy My House Please", "Let’s Fix Up this Crapshack So it Will Sell", "I’m Hunting For A House Way Beyond My Means Because I’m Entitled, Damnit!", and "I Spent 10k on Granite Countertops and Maple Cabinets – What Do you Mean I can’t Get a 100k profit!"
cleek
hey, thanks for the link, JC!
binzinerator
John that is damn funny. And it really hits at the core of wingnuttia — they’re always searching for that shadowy fifth element whose existence revealed to the world will validate their theories, indeed their entire view of reality.
Besides, I love the word ‘phlogiston’.
eyeball
I really like W. Ingnut.