Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

I really should read my own blog.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

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

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

Another missed opportunity for Jamie Dimon to just shut the fuck up.

Cole, when it comes to calico cats, restraint is overrated.

Joe Biden can go out like FDR, not by dying in office, but by crushing the fascists.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Cole is on a roll !

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

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

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

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Reader Interactions

125Comments

  2. 2.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Speaking of Mexican. I had the strangest bowel movement today and I’m not even Catholic.

  4. 4.

    Joel

    This shit happens at Red Mill Burgers in Seattle, whenever I want a fat, juicy burger. It makes me so goddamn angry.

  5. 5.

    JK

    John,

    I appreciated your enthusiastic and full-throated praise of Waiting for Columbus last week. I’ve always thought that Little Feat never received the proper recognition they deserved.

    I’d like to know which of Little Feat’s studio albums is your favorite.

    Great list I came across
    The 1,000 Best Albums Since 1965
    http://www.fastnbulbous.com/best_since_1965.htm

  6. 6.

    Bill H

    Hmmmm. I must needs go down to Old Town and eat some carnitas at the Old Town Mexican Cafe. And some of their made-by-Mexican-ladies-in-the-front-window tortillas.

  8. 8.

    Soylent Green

    There will be scattered weather across the area today, and the forecast for tonight: darkness.
     
    In other news, Arlen Specter thinks that Coleman should be named the winner in Minnesota.

  9. 9.

    demkat620

    Mmmmmm, enchiladas. Or quesadillas. Aw, man now I’m hungry and it’s past my bedtime.

  10. 10.

    Andy K

    Just because I know everyone wants to know:

    Arsenal 1-3 Manchester United

    Red Devils move on to Rome for the Champions League final against the winner* of tomorrow’s Chelsea/Barcelona match.

    *If there’s a tie at any score greater than 0-0, Barcelona moves on, or a PK shootout if the game ends tied 0-0 after overtime. “Away Goals” rule, ya know.

  12. 12.

    JK

    John,

    I just checked that post from May 1, where you listed your choices for perfect albums to see the final tally for comments. It received 446 comments. Off the top of your head, do you recall a thread ever breaking the 500 comments mark?

  13. 13.

    JK

    @Soylent Green:

    Chris Matthews was giggling like a teenage girl when discussing that Specter quote.

    Qunnipiac College has a poll showing Specter leading Tom Ridge by 3 fricking points.

    Thanks for reminding people of a great film by your choice of screen name.

  14. 14.

    JL

    Specter’s latest correction about the Coleman support..
    But questioned outside the Senate chamber Tuesday, Specter said the comment was a mistake.“In the swirl of moving from one caucus to another, I have to get used to my new teammates,” he said. “I’m ordinarily pretty correct in what I say. I’ve made a career of being precise. I conclusively misspoke.”Asked who he’s backing now in elections, Specter said, “I’m looking for more Democratic members. Nothing personal.”

    What does he mean when he says nothing personal?
    Maybe we should ask Anita Hill.

  19. 19.

    MMM

    Stare at that PETA ad at the top of your page long enough and you will not want to eat anymore.

  22. 22.

    JL

    @Litlebritdifrnt: I left you another comment downstairs. FYI, I hope that Francis doesn’t lurk but joins us in our rants.

    John, I have a complaint. Normally open threads have a picture of Tunch. Moxie is disappointed.

  23. 23.

    r€nato

    Texas police shake down drivers

    Authorities in Tenaha [Texas] seized $3 million between 2006 and 2008, and in about 150 cases — virtually all of which involved African-American or Latino motorists — the seizures were improper.

    Of course this could not happen in America, since as we all know there’s no more racism now that we have a black president.

  26. 26.

    Punchy

    How does Detroit have 9 runs in B4 and the game cant get the over (10)? Unpossible.

    Baseball’s fixed.

  27. 27.

    cleek

    tomorrow i learn if my job will be outsourced or not.

    i’ve been waiting to learn this for, literally, seven months. since Oc-fucking-tober. management told us they were trying to decide to outsource us or not over two hundred days ago. morale?

    even better, they’re gonna make us wait until 2:00 before they tell us.

    Fuck The Man.

  28. 28.

    Mr. Poppinfresh

    Phoenix Coyotes declare bankruptcy, with the plan being a move back to Canada. God rewards Canada for her continued faith in His One True Son, Barack Obama.

  29. 29.

    OriGuy

    Cinco de Mayo is probably not the day to get a craving for Mexican food. I was out of town last weekend, but usually the main streets near my neighborhood (San José) are blocked off the weekend before Cinco.

  30. 30.

    r€nato

    @Andy K:

    I’m a soccer fan but if you can ever get Americans to love the game as much as the rest of the world does, I’ll be amazed.

    You don’t count wins and losses; you count points based upon the wins and ties (!!!).

    You never know when each period in a game is going to end due to ‘injury time’.

    Did I mention there are tie games in soccer? Lots of them?

    The only time a game doesn’t end in a tie is a playoff game, where you play two more 15 minute periods and then if the game is still tied (highly likely), you decide the game with penalty kicks, which is roughly akin to deciding a tied basketball game with free throws.

    Then there is the endless flopping. Good god. I usually watch Italian soccer so I don’t know if they are worse than other nationalities about this, but I have to say the flopping in Serie A puts the NBA to shame. How do you know if an Italian soccer player is flopping? He grabs his shin. No matter where the blow allegedly landed – face, chest, back -if an Italian soccer player falls down in some way, he will grab his shin and grimace in pain. If he puts on enough of an act to require the stretcher to be brought out, 9 times out of 10 he gets up and plays on after his little drama is finished and doesn’t even limp away stiffly.

    I watched the Genoa-Sampdoria game this past Sunday where a player put a yellow-card-earning facial hit on an opposing player and then threw himself on the ground and grabbed his shin in an effort con the referee into thinking he was the victim (didn’t work).

    Don’t get me wrong, I still love the game. But Americans will never, ever glom onto it in a big way like the rest of the world has. It’s just too different from the way we understand sports.

  32. 32.

    OriGuy

    @cleek: Good luck. We had layoffs Monday morning. Dodged the bullet this time, but I don’t know about next quarter. This after a pay cut that took effect only a month ago.

  33. 33.

    r€nato

    @Mr. Poppinfresh:

    good riddance. Gretzky and management ran that franchise into the ground. Not being able to put a winning team on the ice didn’t help matters.

    Hockey in the desert? Yah right.

    And having them play way the fuck out on the west side, there’s a genius idea. People will drive out that way on a Sunday 8 times a year to see NFL action. They will not get off work and schlep out there through the remains of rush hour traffic on a weeknight 8 times in a season, let alone 40. Not in Arizona where the only other way to find ice is in your freezer.

  34. 34.

    mantis

    The liberal/communist/fascist terror is over, fellas! RedState has the news that Alexandria, VA has elected two (count em!) Republican city council members!!1!

    The tide has turned and now all Republicans have to do is wait as the American people realize we are living in an Orwellian, fascist, communist, free-love hippie yet sharia law wasteland nightmare and strange Hispanic men have moved into our houses, and we’ll just put them back in charge with a permanent majority.

    Love their closing:

    Barack Obama lost today. The Democratic National Committee lost today.

    P.S. The Alexandria city council still has a Democratic majority.

  37. 37.

    The Cat Who Would Be Tunch

    @MMM:

    When I first saw that, I thought it was a picture of a roasted cat. Seeing as how this site has quite a few posts related to pets, I thought nothing of it and figured that it was an ad for some commenter’s, err, dark artistic vision. It’s only now, after you pointed it out, that I realized it was for PETA.

    Maybe I need some help?

  38. 38.

    Laura W

    Stare at that PETA ad at the top of your page long enough and you will not want to eat anymore.

    I grimace each time that comes up, and I eat meat. Figure that out.

    Anyway, speaking of BJ ads, the next time ProFlowers comes up I’m clicking, since I intended to send Mom’s Day flowers to my Mom and Grama thru them anyway. I’ve used them twice, and you can not believe how fresh their product is and how PERFECT their customer service is.

    Briefly (Do I know how to do “briefly”?)…I ordered something for my 94-yr-old Grama’s bday in early March. You get an email notice when it leaves their facility (they control their flowers in their own warehouses so no dealing with local florists that may or may not have what you think you are ordering. You get what you see on the web site) and then you get an email when it’s delivered, and a UPS tracking # so you can follow it. I paid extra for “before noon” delivery ‘cuz she’s 94 and all. Around 4pm EST I checked the web site to find that due to some bizarre UPS facility issue, my Grama’s flowers were not going to be delivered until TWO days past her bday! The woman just had a stroke and could not even speak and they are telling me this? I was apoplectic, to say the least.

    I got on the phone (not a good place for me to be when I’m apoplectic) and got the nicest customer service man down in San Diego, their corp. headquarters. He let me rant, rave and swear for as long as I needed to, and basically talked me back down to sanity and reason. He was very kind and sincerely apologetic. He reversed all shipping charges, ordered another bouquet for next day delivery, and called my Mom to explain the problem was their fault, not mine, while keeping me on the other line, unbeknownst to my Mom. My Grama ended up getting the gift I’d ordered the day after her bday at about 9am, and then at 11am, the replacement came in. I only paid for one, and no shipping charges. She got a bouquet for her bedroom, and one for the living room. And twice the chocolate candies, and two little stuffed Happy Birthday bears. My Mom said the roses were gorgeous, fresh, and that they lasted for well over 10 days.

    USE PROFLOWERS!
    The nice man on the phone told me he loved the company he works for and that they give him autonomy to make those sorts of decisions and calls, ie, whatever it takes to make it right.
    I’m proud that I was able to write all that out so briefly.

  40. 40.

    Brick Oven Bill

    I have reviewed renato’s article to check for racism. I have also reviewed mantis’ Pat Boone article to check for extremism.

    I come to the opposite conclusion from both of these articles. In reality, it appears that our nation’s affirmative action and immigration programs are working. The most cash I ever carry around is maybe a couple of hundred dollars. I am a white male.

    In contrast, the targeted minorities pulled over by the Texas police seem to be doing quite well for themselves. Roderick was carrying $8,500 cash; Jennifer and Ron were carrying $6,000 cash; and Amanee seemed to be doing exceptionally well for herself, carrying $50,000 cash.

    What is even more encouraging is that these individuals seem to be affluent enough to be willing to forfeit their cash money without protest. I’m not rich, but I’m not poor either. If a cop tried to take away even $100 from me, I would get very combative and challenge the police through the justice system. Part on principle, but part because $100 is a lot of money, to me at least.

    Good on these new American success stories.

  41. 41.

    Dennis-SGMM

    @Litlebritdifrnt:
    Bwahahaha! Oily Titz is accusing her own webmaster of hacking her website. This when said webmaster is also the registered owner of the domain. This should go well.

  42. 42.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @cleek: Been thinking about ya since you mentioned it. In a similar situation myself since we got bought by an Indian multinational about a year ago. Crossing my fingers for ya.

  43. 43.

    Kevin

    REDSTATE ALERT: Schwarzenegger kids vote Arnold best parent, beating liberal democrat mother Maria by total of 3 votes to 1! Obama is done, can’t even win an election in liberal California anymore! Take that DNC!!

  44. 44.

    mantis

    @Brick Oven Bill:

    Are you saying that the strange Hispanic man who broke my window, moved his family in, and stole my car is a secret millionaire? Well, I’ll be…

  45. 45.

    tripletee (formerly tBone)

    @cleek:

    Sorry to hear that. Good luck tomorrow. And fuck your upper management for being such douchenozzles.

  46. 46.

    JL

    @mantis:

    “Questions About God – And the Answers that Could Change Your Life”

    I guess God doesn’t love the illegals, huh.

  51. 51.

    Brick Oven Bill

    In other good news, I concur with Laura W’s assessment of Proflowers, and have also received excellent customer service and satisfied reviews. Don’t forget to type in ‘Michael Savage’ at the top of the web-page when you purchase flowers for your loved ones, because I think he gets a buck or two out of the deal when you do this.

  52. 52.

    gbear

    Bwahahahaha!!

    The Senate dealt a blow tonight to Sen. Arlen Specter’s hold on seniority in several key committees, a week after the Pennsylvanian’s party switch placed Democrats on the precipice of a 60-seat majority.
    In a unanimous voice vote, the Senate approved a resolution that added Specter to the Democratic side of the dais on the five committees on which he serves, an expected move that gives Democrats larger margins on key panels such as Judiciary and Appropriations.
    But Democrats placed Specter in one of the two most junior slots on each of the five committees for the remainder of this Congress, which goes through December 2010. Democrats have suggested that they will consider revisiting Specter’s seniority claim at the committee level only after the midterm elections next year.

  53. 53.

    r€nato

    Don’t forget to type in ‘Michael Savage’ at the top of the web-page when you purchase flowers for your loved ones, because I think he gets a buck or two out of the deal when you do this.

    I’ll get right on that.

  55. 55.

    Comrade Kevin

    @cleek: I already know my job as been outsourced. I have already trained my replacement in Pune. I’m only still around for now because of the WARN act.

  56. 56.

    r€nato

    @gbear:

    isn’t that great? I’m all for a big-tent Democratic party but shit, if you’re gonna wear the tag you have to vote with us at least some of the time. Enough of this freelancing bullshit.

  57. 57.

    Laura W

    @Brick Oven Bill: Well thank you, Bill. For not only offering up a supporting testimonial of your own but for (apparently) reading my lengthy post. Unlike some persons who claim to be my “friends” but can only mock.

    I would like to suggest that Balloon Juice readers wait until the ad shows up again via Google Ads and click through from here so John gets the pennies, but are you saying that there is a way they can type BJ into the ProFlowers web site to achieve the same effect? Because not all of us can sit here all day refreshing BJ waiting for the ad to pop back up, of course.

  58. 58.

    gbear

    @r€nato:

    They also need to tattoo ‘I will sit down and shut up for a while’ to the inside of his eyelids. I hope he’s done thinking he’s the star of the show now.

    Ya gotta love that unanimous vote.

  60. 60.

    Cris

    JK@12: I think some of the election night open threads topped 500 pretty quickly. I can’t be bothered to check right now, though.

  61. 61.

    JL

    @r€nato: I still want Specter to switch back and I would pay to see DeMint kiss his ass. Then I want the democratic candidate to beat Toomey because no way can Arlen beat him. Once a snake, always a snake.

  64. 64.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @JL: The only explanation is he’s losing his mind Jim Bunning-style and forgets day to day which party he’s in. Based on all the times he insisted he wouldn’t leave the Repubican party, it was prolly one helluva shock to him when he found out he’d left it. Blissfully, he forgot again until CQ reminded him.

  65. 65.

    The Cat Who Would Be Tunch

    @Dennis-SGMM: That entire lawsuit is a hoot. I especially loved the email from Taitz where she complains about being locked out of her site and then CC’s “Chicago FBI”.

    @Comrade Kevin:
    @cleek:

    I’m sorry to hear about that guys.

  66. 66.

    Rosali

    Since this is an open thread, I’ll say that it really pains me to see Elizabeth Edwards out there addressing John’s infidelity. Ever since the news came out last year, I think John Edwards is a worthless MF. He ran for the Dem nomination with this huge skeleton in his closet which could have given derailed everything I was fighting for.

    Elizabeth deserves more than having to deal with this bullsh-t at this time.

  67. 67.

    Brick Oven Bill

    That meat picture has a different impact on me, it makes me hungry Laura. My mouth is salivating thinking about it. It really is. There was no girl across from the trapezoidal lunch tray however, that was artistic license, I must disclose.

    I like Savage for the same reason I like Beck for the same reason I respect the will of Amy Goodman, even if I do not respect her intellect. They seem to be genuine people expressing their opinions. Consider this quote from Hyman Rickover:

    “To create you must care. You must have the courage to speak out. The world’s advances always have depended on the courage of its leaders. A certain measure of courage in the private citizen also is necessary to the good conduct of the State. Otherwise men who have power through riches, intrigue, or office will administer the State at will, and ultimately to their private advantage. For the citizen, this courage means a frank exposition of a problem and a decrying of the excesses of power. It takes courage to do this because in our polite society frank speech is discouraged. But when this attitude relates to questions involving the welfare or survival of the Nation, it is singularly unfitting to remain evasive. It is not only possible, but in fact duty of everyone to state precisely what his knowledge and conscience compel him to say. Many of today’s problems can be brought forward only by complete candor and frankness; deep respect for the facts, however unpleasant and uncomfortable; great efforts to know them where they are not readily available; and drawing conclusions guided only by rigorous logic.”

    Here you can read the rest of his excellent essay, Thoughts on Man’s Purpose in Life. You have to scroll down to the second essay if you want to read it. But the first essay is very good too.

    Freedom of Speech must be protected. Type in ‘Michael Savage’ when you order from Proflowers.

  68. 68.

    YellowJournalism

    I may just use that ProFlowers since I’m too lazy….er…busy to get my butt down to the post office to mail mom off a card.

  69. 69.

    El Cid

    Some actual good work being done in the world.

    The City that Ended Hungerby Frances Moore Lappé
    A city in Brazil recruited local farmers to help do something U.S. cities have yet to do: end hunger.

    To begin to conceive of the possibility of a culture of empowered citizens making democracy work for them, real-life stories help—not models to adopt wholesale, but examples that capture key lessons.

    For me, the story of Brazil’s fourth largest city, Belo Horizonte, is a rich trove of such lessons. Belo, a city of 2.5 million people, once had 11 percent of its population living in absolute poverty, and almost 20 percent of its children going hungry.

    Then in 1993, a newly elected administration declared food a right of citizenship. The officials said, in effect: If you are too poor to buy food in the market—you are no less a citizen. I am still accountable to you.

    The new mayor, Patrus Ananias—now leader of the federal anti-hunger effort—began by creating a city agency, which included assembling a 20-member council of citizen, labor, business, and church representatives to advise in the design and implementation of a new food system. The city already involved regular citizens directly in allocating municipal resources—the “participatory budgeting” that started in the 1970s and has since spread across Brazil. During the first six years of Belo’s food-as-a-right policy, perhaps in response to the new emphasis on food security, the number of citizens engaging in the city’s participatory budgeting process doubled to more than 31,000.

    The city agency developed dozens of innovations to assure everyone the right to food, especially by weaving together the interests of farmers and consumers. It offered local family farmers dozens of choice spots of public space on which to sell to urban consumers, essentially redistributing retailer mark-ups on produce—which often reached 100 percent—to consumers and the farmers. Farmers’ profits grew, since there was no wholesaler taking a cut.

    And poor people got access to fresh, healthy food.Another product of food-as-a-right thinking is three large, airy “People’s Restaurants” (Restaurante Popular), plus a few smaller venues, that daily serve 12,000 or more people using mostly locally grown food for the equivalent of less than 50 cents a meal.

    When Anna and I ate in one, we saw hundreds of diners—grandparents and newborns, young couples, clusters of men, mothers with toddlers. Some were in well-worn street clothes, others in uniform, still others in business suits.

    “I’ve been coming here every day for five years and have gained six kilos,” beamed one elderly, energetic man in faded khakis.

    “It’s silly to pay more somewhere else for lower quality food,” an athletic-looking young man in a military police uniform told us. “I’ve been eating here every day for two years. It’s a good way to save money to buy a house so I can get married,” he said with a smile.

    What’s saddest about this story is knowing that instead of messing around with all their anarcho-soci@list “participatory budgets” and getting poor people to be able to eat food and get farmers to sell fresh produce and have healthier, cheaper meals, these people could have organized good patriotic Brazilians to go stand around with teabags on their heads.

    Tragic.

  70. 70.

    JL

    @Just Some Fuckhead: He lost his mind decades ago, imo. This is a comment about the dems pushing Specter to the end of the line. It was in the WP article about the dems move against Specter.

    Republicans will win when they go back to running true conservatives. That will happen in 2010. Nancy and Hary will take a back seat. Hary may even lose his seat all together … just like tome Dash hole did after the Clintoh hard left turn during his first 2 years.Specter deserves to loose his seat… and his retirment.
    Posted by: markandbeth | May 5, 2009 9:54 PM

    Maybe Mark and Beth are brother and sister and maybe they have a genetic reason why they can’t use spell check .

  73. 73.

    gnomedad

    @Laura W:

    Because not all of us can sit here all day refreshing BJ waiting for the ad to pop back up, of course.

    Maybe John has a post snarking about Gennifer Flowers somewhere back before his conversion that would trigger the ad.

  74. 74.

    JL

    @El Cid: Obviously, I disagree.

    OT from the NYTimes..

    Bank of America Needs $33.9 Billion, U.S. Determines

    If Bank of America needs 33.9 billion, what does Citi need?

  75. 75.

    Brick Oven Bill

    If it makes you feel any better Laura, the topless lesbians fighting at the Chinese restaurant during my performance, these two were the real deal.

    I am scheduled to get HIGH SPEED Internet tomorrow, and I am looking forward to this, as I will be able to more easily view your links. Right now it doesn’t work well.

  76. 76.

    harlana pepper

    have i told you guys lately how much i luv u

    u make me laff

    i luff u guys

    i luff john and tunch, platonically, of course

  77. 77.

    Ninerdave

    A few things…

    I’ve been cranky today, and especially so since I have been craving Mexican all day, and the line at my favorite place was around the block.

    1) I refuse to believe that WV has good Mexican food. Good Mexican food requires a) to be made in California or the Southwest and b) one of these things must be true: You have to order in Spanish or it came off a taco truck.

    2) Michael Savage is a tool, and yes it is an act BoB. He got his start on KGO in San Francisco, was a weekend talker. He was no where near as radical as he is now. He basically took Rush’s schtick and moved it up a few notches.

    3) We have a special election coming up in California, so that means political ads are all over. It occurred to me, if you vote based on what you hear on a political ad, you should have your voting rights taken away. Take 15 minutes and read the voting guide and a newspaper.

    4) I’ve found ‘tube nirvana. LOL Cat (of sorts) meets fail videos.

  78. 78.

    r€nato

    @Ninerdave:

    I’m fully aware that most hate radio yakkers as well as Glenn Beck are just putting on an act.

    I don’t know how any sane human being can put on an ‘act’ like Savage’s and not be a raging asshole the rest of the time as well.

  80. 80.

    Andy K

    @r€nato:

    I know where you’re coming from, but I’ve seen some headway made over the last few years.

    Here in AMWAYville, there aren’t a lot of immigrants, but year to year I notice more people watching the game- mainly guys in their twenties. I noticeds a shift about 10 years ago around me: the kids don’t seem to care as much for the traditional American sports. They’ll pay no attention to baseball, but they’ll watch the friggin’ X Games or UFC. More of them are watching soccer.

    I watched today’s game with 5 or 6 other guys, and it was the middle of a weekday. The last few years I’d watch the Champions league semis with 3 or 4 people. I recall not so long ago watching the games in a pub all by myself.

    And yeah, flopping sucks. It sucks whether it’s a NFL wide receiver, a NBA power forward or Didier Drogba. Ever hear the quote that’s attributed to either Al Davis or John Madden, “If you aren’t cheating, you aren’t trying”?

    As for ties…The three generations of Packers fans in my family that preceded me grew up with ties. Hell, I’m old enough to remember watching ties as a kid. NCAA football instituted their overtime rules in the last ten years.

    I’m not so sure that the rules weren’t changed because the fans demanded change. I suspect that it’s advertisers who pushed for it. Advertisers don’t mind pitching changes in baseball, either. I watched a game that ran its entirety in under two hours today, halftime- brought to me by Heineken- included.

    (Thank goddness for the edit function. Yipes!)

  81. 81.

    gbear

    @El Cid:

    I really, really hate the blockquoting code on this site. I do.

    Something about blockquoting changed a few days ago. I used to be able to use the ‘p’ to set paragraphs and get rid of the bolding, but it doesn’t work now and I don’t know what to use instead. Did something get ‘updated’ in that wonderful way that totally fucks all your regular routines?

    edit: now the comment shows up blockquoted but unbold without using the ‘p’. This is odd (or as JtP would say, queer).

  83. 83.

    Dennis-SGMM

    Listening to DJ Danger Mouse “Grey Album.” Can anyone here recommend other works that make creative use of sampling or innovative remixes, etc.? I already have N.O.H.A.’s “Balkan Quick Step.”
    Thanks.

  84. 84.

    gbear

    There was no girl across from the trapezoidal lunch tray however, that was artistic license, I must disclose.

    Not true!! I’ve seen those trapezoidal lunch trays before.

  85. 85.

    Brick Oven Bill

    Salivating, not drooling HitlerWorshippingPuppyKicker. Give me four decades, perhaps three if I keep drinking at this rate.

    All media is an act, as you need to be entertaining to stay on the air. I personally judge Beck and Savage to be genuine, as I do Goodman. For the first time in my lifetime, I sense that if the government could take away our Bill of Rights, they would. The whole misinformation campaign about guns in Mexico is one reason why.

    When the President denied knowledge of the poorly-named ‘tea-parties’, and then later mocked these gatherings, this is another reason why I feel this way. Then there is the whole wind power thing. The English government banishing an American for expressing completely decent, if controversial, political opinions is troubling to me.

    If you think Amy Goodman would survive for a week without the 1st Amendment, you do not understand the nature of government.

  86. 86.

    PeakVT

    I can’t wait for the mewling from Specter tomorrow. Should be good. Hopefully it will upset the Broders of the world, too.

  87. 87.

    Fulcanelli

    @Brick Oven Bill:

    I like Savage for the same reason I like Beck for the same reason I respect the will of Amy Goodman, even if I do not respect her intellect. They seem to be genuine people expressing their opinions.

    BOB, you remind me of the retarded Steve Martin character “Ruprecht” in the movie Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Every time you post a comment I think of the scene where he’s at the dinner table with the Michael Caine character and some lady they’re both trying to pull a scam on and he asks “can I go to the bathroom?” and then he sits there at the dinner table with this grimace on his face, shits in his pants and then sighs and grins in relief.

    I visualize that same look on your face when you click the “submit” button.

    Go make a fucking pizza. Or something.

  89. 89.

    The Cat Who Would Be Tunch

    @JL: Well, let’s take a look at the direct infusions and guarantees that have been provided to Citibank.

    $36.5 billion under TARP.
    $7.5 billion from Abu Dhabi in ’07 (Abu Dhabi got a really good deal for their stake in the bank)
    $235 billion in guarantees on what Geithner euphemistically calls “legacy assets”

    In addition to these, Citibank announced in Q1’09 that it would suspend paying out dividends which saves $4 billion in cash. It was also planning to sell preferred securities to raise $2 billion. The ‘mark-to-market’ accounting rule changes allowed them to recognize another $2 and half billion in gains. And then there’s the expected savings from the 20K in job cuts …

    Getting an idea of how much of a hole Citi is in even after all that has been thrown in?

    In case anybody’s interested, check out this great table at the Christian Science Monitor detailing where all the bailout money has gone thus far.

  90. 90.

    Mike in NC

    I personally judge Beck and Savage to be genuine, as I do Goodman. For the first time in my lifetime, I sense that if the government could take away our Bill of Rights, they would. The whole misinformation campaign about guns in Mexico is one reason why.

    So Brick Over Boob has devolved from worshipping Glenn Beck to gushing over Mikey Savage, the self-loathing Jew. Who could have imagined that? And he keeps pulling the guns in Mexico crap out of his fat ass. We’re surrounded!

  93. 93.

    gbear

    First we had conservative teabagging, then religious righty 2M4M, now somebody has this rapture-ready license plate. Wingnuts really need to start a focus group composed of junior high school kids to screen for this kind of stuff. When the kids break out laughing, they’ll know that they should kill the idea.

    They’re already buying pizzas for clueless adults. At least they’d get some useful information from the kids.

  94. 94.

    Indylib

    I have been craving Mexican all day

    I hate it when that happens. Especially since I don’t live in a place that has mexican food anything like what I really crave, which is the stuff I grew up on. Guacamole and chicken flautas , chile rellanos made with Hatch green chiles and homemade queso blanco, carne adovada, any enchiladas with red sauce that tastes right, salsa with NO gawd awful cilantro, pasole, and green chile made with pork.
    Wisconsin, believe it or not has a decent selection of real non-chain Mexican food restaurants , but wherever the people who own them come from in Mexico they don’t use the same ingredients I grew up with. Things just don’t taste quite right.

  96. 96.

    Fulcanelli

    @gbear:

    They’re already buying pizzas for clueless adults

    That was BOB that made those pizzas, and it’s called a “focus group”.

  97. 97.

    Andy K

    @PaulW:

    Hmmm…He was tight with Charles Nelson Reilly, who died in ’07. Bert Convy was a pal, but he died in ’91. Jerry Reed died last September. I think that leaves Harry Dean Stanton. And Sally Field, Lonnie Anderson and Judy Carne, if they speak to him.

    I’m thinking that Burt should record a cover of Jim Carroll’s People Who Died.

  98. 98.

    TenguPhule

    All media is an act, as you need to be entertaining to stay on the air. I personally judge Beck and Savage to be genuine, as I do Goodman.

    You have to admire the Zen of BOB.

    In one ear and back out again with no stops in between.

  99. 99.

    TenguPhule

    The English government banishing an American for expressing completely decent, if controversial, political opinions is troubling to me.

    Every word in that statement is false, including is and to.

  100. 100.

    gbear

    I’m thinking that Burt should record a cover of Jim Carroll’s People Who Died.

    I wish I would have shut off the computer and gone to bed before I read that.

    Crooks and Liars has a pretty funny video of Dom and Johnny Carson clowning around on one of the early Tonight shows. Raw eggs are involved.

  101. 101.

    Mike

    I became an avid soccer fan about 5 years ago when I discovered
    the English Premier League. It’s definitely an acquired taste for an older American (66) like me, but the endless commercials and the obtrusive graphics have rendered American football unwatchable in real time…

    I think the diving is much worse in Serie A than in the Prem although
    Ronaldo is no slouch in that department, despite being a great player.

    There are a couple of features of the Euro pro soccer leagues which might be interesting experiments in some American sports. Number one is relegation, in which the bottom 3 teams are demoted to the minor leagues and the top 3 teams in the minor leagues take their place in the major league, along with a full share of the bigtime TV money.
    Thus, the owners who field inferior teams take a hit along with the
    players and fans. Also, I like the fact that the team with the most points at the end of the 38 game regular season are the champions…no phoney baloney “playoffs” where some mediocre team can get lucky and win it all. It makes every game important,
    all season long, and you see a lot of exciting games among the bottom teams fighting to avoid relegation at the end of the season.

  102. 102.

    JL

    @gbear: Swampland had the same video posted earlier. I called a friend still chuckling and said the sad news is that Dom died but you have to watch this video. I have to admit that I have seen the Carson show more than Leno and Letterman combined.

  105. 105.

    Andy K

    @Mike:

    A couple suggestions, Mike, if you aren’t familiar yet: World Soccer Daily, which is live on Sirius (I think XM carries it now, too) weekdays, 1pm-3pm Eastern (repeats at 5pm). WSD also has a podcast available.

    The other suggestion is Chuck Culpepper’s book Bloody Confused, in which a jaded American sportswriter takes a year to discover a sport with which he’s relatively unfamiliar while dropping the reporters’ code of neutrality to actually cheer for a team. In Culpepper’s case the team is Portsmouth. The book focuses much more on the cultural differences than the sport itself, and it’s pretty funny (though not as funny as Culpepper would like to think, imo).

    And, yes, diving is worse in Italy, and Cristiano Ronaldo is a horrible flopper- but Drogba is the worst. A man that big shouldn’t even try to fake it when he’s attempting to draw a penalty from a guy who’s half his size.

  106. 106.

    harlana pepper

    I do enjoy seeing ms condi on the hot seat, there’s so much fun to be had in the next few years, amongst the hardship, much amusement and fodder for the grand comics of this era, serch as Stewart and Colbert — i iz gratyfyd

  107. 107.

    Steeplejack

    @Mike:

    I really like soccer too and watch at least part of a couple Premier League games each weekend on Fox Soccer Channel. I’m less keen on Serie A, for no reason that I can come up with.

    There are a couple of features of the Euro pro soccer leagues which might be interesting experiments in some American sports.

    I, too, really like the concept of relegation. It might really focus the minds of the owners of, say, the Detroit Lions if they were facing the prospect of playing in some Mid-America League next year instead of the NFL. They’d be looking at the end of the gravy train from big NFL TV money. It might get them serious about fielding a decent team. (I don’t mean to pick on the Lions; there are other awful, stagnant teams in baseball and football.) I don’t know how you’d work it here, but it’s a great idea.

    I also like the F.A. Cup tournament, which goes on all season and includes everyone from the top Premier League teams down to really small club teams. Every year you see some Cinderella team make it pretty far and end up in a match that is the equivalent of Slippery Rock facing the Baltimore Ravens. And sometimes Slippery Rock wins.

  108. 108.

    asiangrrlMN

    Hi. I am feeling very dispirited. Anyone have a song that might cheer me up? Thanks in advance.

  109. 109.

    Ninerdave

    @r€nato:

    I don’t know how any sane human being can put on an ‘act’ like Savage’s and not be a raging asshole the rest of the time as well.

    Capitalism baby, capitalism….

  111. 111.

    Andy K

    @Steeplejack:

    It isn’t like the Ford’s don’t spend money on the Lions. They do. They’d probably spend more if free agents didn’t look at metro Detroit and say , “No thanks.” Bill Bidwell has been pretty cheap for a long time and look where that got the Cards last season.

    Did you know there aren’t roster limits or salary caps in soccer outside of the MLS? Did you know that the Premiership’s tv money isn’t divided equally between all of the teams in the league, and that the higher a team finishes, the more of that revenue they receive? I think those are reasons why relegation works there but wouldn’t work here. There are teams that are just, in a financial way, natural fits in whichever English football league they’re playing (and this is the same on the Continent, too).

    Sure, Wolverhampton and Birmingham want to get back up to the Premiership, but they’re realistic in their expectations. They try to stay up, but they know that if they get close to the top of the table they’ll have to take on more players to compete further into the FA cup, Carling Cup, UEFA Cup or Champions League. If they fail in those competitons with a larger roster, they’re likely to go bankrupt trying to meet salary. Maybe they stick with a small roster, but then they’re liable to tire out their spotlight players, lose games in the Premiership that they should win, and get relegated to the Championship again.

    Maybe they’d have to upgrade their stadiums to bring in more revenue, or raise the prices on existing seats, at the risk of isolating their fan bases. There aren’t many stadiums in England that seat over 50,000, while there isn’t an NFL stadium that seats under that amount. And a lot of those English stadiums date back to the early part of the 20th century.

    The differences are just more vast than you’d think at first.

  112. 112.

    Church Lady

    Tonight’s the first chance I’ve had to get online in days. Dad passed away early last evening after a long battle with cancer. We were truly fortunate that it was very peaceful and that all of us could be there with him at the end.

    It was really strange – the day before was his 77th birthday and was the first time he had been really aware and responsive in over a week. He even requested a lemon cake and vanilla ice cream. He had refused to eat anything at all for the previous six days. All of his family was there for his “party” and he loved blowing out his candles (with a little help from the youngest grandchildren) and having everyone sing “Happy Birthday” to him. It was a joyous occassion for the entire family. The next morning he woke up in pretty bad shape and went downhill very quickly.

    I’ve heard others tell of that “last hurrah” moment for terminally ill patients, but I never really believed it until I saw it myself. It brings a huge measure of comfort for the survivors to know that their loved one had one last good day. I only hope that everyone that has a friend or relative in the end stages of life is fortunate enough to have the opportunity to be a part of that one last joyful time with them.

  113. 113.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Church Lady: I’m sorry to hear about your father. How fortunate that he had family around him during his last days. My condolences, and may he rest in peace.

  114. 114.

    gwangung

    @Church Lady: Ahhhh….sorry to hear that. My condolences, also. The long, slow decline is very tough on family—I can only hope it was relatively painless to go with the peacefulness.

  118. 118.

    Mike

    Steeplejack and Andy K

    Thanks for the info. I’ll definitely check out “Bloody Confused”.

    I’m sure the mechanics of relegation are complicated for the owners,
    but hey, tough! It’s great for the fans and the players to get that
    shot in the major league spotlight, even if only for a season or two.
    In the US, the owners are generally rich guys who wouldn’t put up with the prospect of going down with their team. Many would rather field a losing team. The fans will still come out to see the big name players even when their own team is mediocre, the owners still make money and there’s always the hope for a wild card spot.

    I still like the idea of no playoffs, especially in a sport like
    baseball where they play so many games in a season. Maybe
    a World Series between the top finishers in AL and NL.

  119. 119.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    Sorry to hear of your loss CL, and hope you are yours are doing well. It is good that you were able to be there at the end.

  120. 120.

    Krista

    I’ve been cranky today, and especially so since I have been craving Mexican all day, and the line at my favorite place was around the block.

    Boo-hoo. I have to drive almost an hour to get anything besides mediocre Chinese food. If I want good Mexican, we’re looking at almost 2 hours’ drive.

    Bah — I’m cranky too. I just found out that my glucose levels are elevated, so my cravings for gummi bears and Twix bars are going to have to go completely unsatisfied for the rest of my pregnancy.

  122. 122.

    Woodrow "asim" Jarvis Hill

    @Dennis-SGMM: Most of the other works from Danger Mouse showcase that insane layering of samples — he’s got an AMAZING ear for music, better than any other producer out there today. I’d likely recommend starting with Gnarls Barkley, his team-up with Cee-Lo — you’ve likely head the song “Crazy” which is by them.
    The Avalanches also do a kick-ass job with sampling; “Since I Left You” is a sonic showcase, the likes of which I’ve not heard since.
    And in deference to our host, and my own tastes — Paul’s Boutique is way before it’s time; I just listened to the 20th Anniversary Ed. this weekend, and it truly stands up.
    I’d also recommend the work of DJ/Rupture (blog), who’s done some kick-ass albums mixing and mashing up world music, hip-hop, and more.

  123. 123.

    Krista

    Church Lady: I’m really sorry to hear about your dad — I’m certain it meant a lot to him to have that wonderful day together with his family before he passed. Take care of yourself, and don’t feel like you need to grieve on any certain schedule. It’s normal to miss him, and it’s normal to both cry from missing him and laugh at the good memories, often within the same 10 minutes.

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