Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Elections aren’t won by handwringing, cowering, and/or bashing your own candidates.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

T R E 4 5 O N

Their freedom requires your slavery.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

“Let’s not pretend [Trump] wants to engage in high-minded discourse.”

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

It’s easier to kill a dangerous animal than a man who just happens to have different thoughts/values than one’s own.

Republicans don’t trust women.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

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

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music. Turn it up.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

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Reader Interactions

141Comments

  1. 1.

    BDeevDad

    The CA budget deficit would be gone if we still had the Vehicle License Fee. This is what Gray Davis tried to reinstate and for which he was recalled.

    Here are some facts: between 1998 and 2008, General Fund annual spending in California increased by about $46 billion. $31 billion of this amount is due to inflation and population growth. How did we spend the remaining approximately $15 billion? The largest and fastest growing programmatic component of these expenditures is the Vehicle License Fee (VLF) reduction for car owners. VLF funds benefit local governments. So when car owners were spared on average $200 when Governorhad to, and continues to, make up the difference. This was voter approved and costs us between $4 and $6 billion each year

    I thought that dog looked familiar.

  2. 2.

    MikeJ

    Yesterday’s thread was dreadfully stupid. I now dread the accusations of liberal fascism because you refuse to allow strangers to shit on your living room floor.

  4. 4.

    Death By Mosquito Truck

    You fuckers have let us all down with yer boorish behavior. I’m frankly ashamed to be seen commenting in the same threads with you.

  5. 5.

    UnkyT

    Crazy, not 20 minutes ago someone I work with sent me the same pic of Kaya. Seems she is pretty popular over there as the lolz count is at 129. And Balloon-Juice is the only site on all the internets with the original pic.

  6. 6.

    passerby

    I have a request for information. Can someone please recommend a news aggregator site that has a good variety of breaking news?

    I visit DRUDGE because he updates frequently but I have obvious problems with his bent view and nutty links (that rabid Breibart). Then there’s HuffPo which has become the USA Today/Reader’s Digest of mainstream media websites.

    I also use BBC and AlJazeera English but that’s usually for world events.

    I may be having a Pie in the Sky dream about finding the perfect news aggregator but you don’t know unless you ask.

    From what sites do y’all get your breaking news?

  7. 7.

    TenguPhule

    You fuckers have let us all down with yer boorish behavior. I’m frankly ashamed to be seen commenting in the same threads with you.

    More Dogs, Less Boars.

  8. 8.

    JGabriel

    John Cole @ Top:

    … I am not afraid to drop the hammer on you idjits.

    Jeepers. On the one hand, I’m almost afraid to ask, on the other hand, I can’t help but wonder: What did I miss?

    .

  9. 9.

    The Grand Panjandrum

    Senator James Inhofe:

    Sen. Jim Inhofe said today that President Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo was “un-American” because he referred to the war in Iraq as “a war of choice” and didn’t criticize Iran for developing a nuclear program.

    Inhofe, R-Tulsa, also criticized the president for suggesting that torture was conducted at the military prison in Guantanamo, saying, “There has never been a documented case of torture at Guantanamo.”

    “I just don’t know whose side he’s on,” Inhofe said of the president.

    This Jed Lewison line at the GOS also applies to Inhofe:

    … once again proves that he’s the guy who put the ‘a’ in moron …

    IIRC I think he makes the following claims:
    1. Well the President’s un-American.
    2. Global Warmin is a hoax.
    3. No proof of torture at Gitmo!

    Add to the list if you wish but that places him firmly in Bachmann-Palin territory, no?

  10. 10.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    I had no problem staying out of that donnybrook of stupidity. It was definitely a spectator thread, not one to participate in. I loved my last refresh of the thread, douched of the douchebaggery and John’s closing words of wisdom. The beauty of it all almost brought tears to my eyes.

    Ok, I’ll admit it did bring tears. Of laughter.

    One of the better goat-roping threads I have seen here though, myiq2xu Goatboy would have been proud to call that one of his own masterpieces.

  11. 11.

    Bey

    So, Tennessee legislature has overriden the Gov’s veto on allowing guns in bars.

    Because *that* is such a good idea….

  12. 12.

    cleek

    So, Tennessee legislature has overriden the Gov’s veto on allowing guns in bars.

    maybe it’s a sneaky plan to turn TN into a dry state by getting all the drinkers to shoot each other ?

  13. 13.

    Ash

    Hey, we’re not the idjits! It’s only those that stumble upon your wisdom through outside sources.

  14. 14.

    Death By Mosquito Truck

    So, Tennessee legislature has overriden the Gov’s veto on allowing guns in bars.

    Sounds like the whole state is shooting for a Darwin award.

  15. 15.

    TenguPhule

    So, Tennessee legislature has overriden the Gov’s veto on allowing guns in bars.

    Darwin in action.

  17. 17.

    greynoldsct00

    Jeepers. On the one hand, I’m almost afraid to ask, on the other hand, I can’t help but wonder: What did I miss?

    I dunno, I was down w/ a migraine yesterday so I missed it too. Looks like some serious riff-raff [troll(s)] invaded. Been kinda like that all week…

  18. 18.

    Zifnab

    @The Grand Panjandrum: Run that man for President.

    … I am not afraid to drop the hammer on you idjits.

    I’m not sure which shocks me more – the fact that John found a stupid “cut off point” in a several hundred post long thread, or the fact that some collective of individuals hit the stupid quotient necessary to require a thread that should have been dead from neglect by lunch anyway.

  19. 19.

    TenguPhule

    What did I miss?

    Utter insanity.

    The least of which was the million body pileup at the Whitehouse.

  22. 22.

    TenguPhule

    I’m not sure which shocks me more – the fact that John found a stupid “cut off point” in a several hundred post long thread, or the fact that some collective of individuals hit the stupid quotient necessary to require a thread that should have been dead from neglect by lunch anyway.

    The problem with trying to make things foolproof around here is the fools are too damned clever by half.

  23. 23.

    Bey

    @Allan: Well, I’ve got $5 that says Tennessee won’t dissappoint! I predict many fine appearances in News of The Weird.

  25. 25.

    MikeJ

    Should we all chip to buy a round a drinks and reloads for Tennessee? Can we get Mississippi and Alabama to pass similar laws?

  26. 26.

    Will

    @JGabriel:

    Can someone help me out and tell me what I missed yesterday that caused John to delete hundreds of comments? How bad could it have gotten?

  27. 27.

    Apsaras

    There was a rather racuous debate around these parts concerning Andrew Sullivan. Is he an irredemable shithead, or merely slow and overburdened by certain prejudices, but well-meaning overall. The former camp seems to have one more piece of evidence for its position with Sully’s latest posting.

    Malkin’s on one of her false-equivalency jags again. Specifically, she’s upset that the murder of a few soldiers by a black nutcase isn’t getting the same media and white house attention the murder of an abortion doctor by a white nutcase. Double standard! Reverse Raaaaaaaaacism! (as she might say)

    Never one to avoid a good chance to sit in the middle and scream “A pox on both your houses”, Sullivan agrees with her and decides that both crimes deserve “equal attention and scrutiny.”

    Sure. Because just like abortion doctors, there’s a major political movement in the United States that constantly calls soldiers “murderers”, right? Because you can’t go to a recruiting center anywhere in the country without a crowd waving dead-baby pictures and calling recruits murderers, right? Because there are US senators who want to criminalize being a solider, right? And because the soldiers who were murdered by Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad were the subject of multiple “Special Comments” by Keith Olbermann where he called them baby-killers and threatened them with fire and damnation for doing their jobs, right?

    I mean, all that has to be true, otherwise you might think someone was playing bullshit semantic games here.

  29. 29.

    passerby

    @TenguPhule:

    and

    @Allan:

    The Chatt Times Free Press had a front page report on this action which included who voted it up and down. Tsk tsk, those TN Rs.

    Since we can never really protect people from themselves, and since I don’t frequent bars that these gun toters go to, I agree with the Darwin’s law in action viewpoint.

    I just can’t muster any more outrage for unenlightened thinking and so I say let Darwin rule. Alcohol plus firearms, how much more freedom can you ask for?

  30. 30.

    MikeJ

    The least of which was the million body pileup at the Whitehouse.

    Which sounds like it would have been interesting but it took five screen fulls of drivel to get to it. I say that as someone who doesn’t understand why people think Greenwald is longwinded.

  31. 31.

    TenguPhule

    Should we all chip to buy a round a drinks and reloads for Tennessee? Can we get Mississippi and Alabama to pass similar laws?

    But think of the widows and family members.

  32. 32.

    tripletee (formerly tBone)

    It was definitely a spectator thread, not one to participate in.

    I was bored and stuck my nose in a few times, then thought better of it once the stupidity got turned up to 11 and someone broke off the knob. John’s closing comment was dead-on perfect.

  33. 33.

    TenguPhule

    How bad could it have gotten?

    Techno-color scream meets Naru-taru blended with acid and shaken with a good dose of holier then thou and all of it set on fire with nuclear astroids from space bad.

  34. 34.

    Comrade Dread

    Damn. Sounds like an entertaining read.

    Someone should go through the internets and collect the worst, dumbest, most inane comment threads and publish them in a book.

  36. 36.

    sarah

    @Apsaras:

    Because just like abortion doctors, there’s a major political movement in the United States that constantly calls soldiers “murderers”, right? Because you can’t go to a recruiting center anywhere in the country without a crowd waving dead-baby pictures and calling recruits murderers, right? Because there are US senators who want to criminalize being a solider, right? And because the soldiers who were murdered by Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad were the subject of multiple “Special Comments” by Keith Olbermann where he called them baby-killers and threatened them with fire and damnation for doing their jobs, right?

    “false equivalency” is going to become the name of the game for the next 4 years. and it’ll stick because dems and ‘moderates’ will go along with it because explicating issues is just so hard for everyone but Obama.

  39. 39.

    jibeaux

    Without poking back through the entire thread, I’m guessing the cutoff happened somewhere in the vicinity of the comment suggesting Obama and the Secret Service couldn’t hold off forever a massive wave of imaginary anarchist kamikazes attacking the White House to get answers regarding his interpretation of the Constitution.

    Sadly, I think my Superbad reference got lost in the carnage. But that’s all the stupidity I contributed, I promise.

  45. 45.

    TenguPhule

    Damn you, Peak Wingnut! Shall you ever elude us?

    The event horizon of wingnut keeps the naked wingularity hidden from the rest of the universe.

    As we approach it, observation shows we never will never reach it.

  47. 47.

    jibeaux

    @TenguPhule:

    Geez, I’m too lazy to even do more than skim this thread, apparently. You referenced it first.

    It *was* kind of amusing, though, the idea of millions of people willing to lay down their lives not for revolution, exactly, or for overthrow, exactly, but for the opportunity to ask the President some tough questions. Sedition fail!

  48. 48.

    LD50

    John wrote:

    The last several hundred comments on this thread, which I have now deleted (something I have never done before), were some of the stupidest shit I have ever seen on the internet, let alone this website.

    I missed this. Can someone give a brief description of what happened? I assume North Dallas started going nuts?

  49. 49.

    TenguPhule

    It was kind of amusing, though, the idea of millions of people willing to lay down their lives not for revolution, exactly, or for overthrow, exactly, but for the opportunity to ask the President some tough questions. Sedition fail!

    I swear that deleted string of comments in the locked thread is going to become one of those “You had to be there” moments in BJ, which regulars will use for reference and in-jokes.

  50. 50.

    SGEW

    Can someone please recommend a news aggregator site that has a good variety of breaking news?

    I rely on Google News (personalized, natch) and the NYT’s Associated Press and Reuters pages. Perfect for “breaking” news (tho’ a l’il light on in-depth reportage – but that’s why we have The Economist blogs!).

  52. 52.

    Fulcanelli

    @TenguPhule: Tengu, are you sure you want to reach it? I mean, after the weapons-grade stupidity you wrangled with during your tete-a-tete with SD30 recently. That dude is badly bent. Maybe we should just leave it alone and wonder…

  53. 53.

    jibeaux

    @TenguPhule:

    But when enough people take up arms and storm John Cole’s fortified compound, demanding the restoration of the thread, Tunch can probably take out the first few dozen, but they won’t be able to hold us back forever.

  54. 54.

    TenguPhule

    Maybe we should just leave it alone and wonder…

    If there was a red button in some hidden cave that had a sign saying “Do not push, world destruction”, the paint wouldn’t even have time to dry.

    -Shamelessly lifted from Prachett

  55. 55.

    Comrade Stuck

    hammer on you idjits.

    The last several hundred comments on this thread, which I have now deleted (something I have never done before), were some of the stupidest shit I have ever seen on the internet, let alone this website.

    My new computer arrives late next week, so gird yer loins for a whole nuther level of stupider shit. That is all.

  56. 56.

    SGEW

    Also, re: “The Endless Thread of Dismal Stupidity”

    It felt like the End of All Things. Or the USAToday comment pages. One or the other.

    But Mr. Cole’s hammertime made it entirely worth it.

  57. 57.

    LD50

    Maybe we should just leave it alone and wonder…

    You mean Peggy was right, and we should just walk on by?

  59. 59.

    LD50

    There was a rather racuous debate around these parts concerning Andrew Sullivan. Is he an irredemable shithead, or merely slow and overburdened by certain prejudices, but well-meaning overall. The former camp seems to have one more piece of evidence for its position with Sully’s latest posting. Malkin’s on one of her false-equivalency jags again. Specifically, she’s upset that the murder of a few soldiers by a black nutcase isn’t getting the same media and white house attention the murder of an abortion doctor by a white nutcase. Double standard! Reverse Raaaaaaaaacism! (as she might say) Never one to avoid a good chance to sit in the middle and scream “A pox on both your houses”, Sullivan agrees with her and decides that both crimes deserve “equal attention and scrutiny.”

    This might not so much prove that Sully is an irredeemable shithead, but rather that he’s considerably less bright than people give him credit for.

  60. 60.

    Origuy

    pee-are, yr doin it rong:

    The Federal Reserve intends to hire a veteran lobbyist as it seeks to counter skepticism in Congress about the central bank’s growing power over the U.S. financial system, people familiar with the matter said.

    Linda Robertson currently handles government, community and public affairs at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and headed the Washington lobbying office of Enron Corp., the energy trading company that collapsed in 2002 after an accounting scandal.

    Why does the Fed need a lobbyist at all?

    Almost forgot a link.

  61. 61.

    InflatableCommenter

    Well, I was in the thick of it most of the day, and was actually well entertained until it was suggested that the White House didn’t have enough bullets to stop the angry hordes that would be coming over the fence …. at which point, it got a little ugly.

    But all’s well that ends well. The occasional act of aggressive moderation (thread truncation) was a good move.

    Just as a point of discussion, I have never subscribed to the idea that crazy trolls should just be ignored. To a hardass like me, that feels like surrendering to the crazy trolls.

  62. 62.

    Jess

    I’m sure I’m not the first to ask this, but is Liz Cheney being groomed as the next GOP candidate? Is that why Dick Cheney won’t shut up about his legacy? It would explain a lot…

  63. 63.

    Incertus

    @Comrade Dread:

    Someone should go through the internets and collect the worst, dumbest, most inane comment threads and publish them in a book.

    The current post-avant poetry movement might just publish it.

  64. 64.

    TenguPhule

    I’m sure I’m not the first to ask this, but is Liz Cheney being groomed as the next GOP candidate?

    Yes. SATSQ.

    Same-sex advocates weep.

  65. 65.

    Adrienne

    Same-sex advocates weep.

    Small note. Liz ain’t the lez.

    That thread was two shits in the wind crazy. Me being who I am hopped right in the middle of it to smack down the crazy but I suspect I just help it tailspin. It was hilarity personified, but yet still chilling that someone, anyone, really thinks like that.

  66. 66.

    Libertina

    OK, just for grinz…the reference to Lewiston’s “put the a in moron” sent me looking for the original pic. I found it, and along with it was a pic of this full of win protest verbiage:

    Descent is the greatest form of patriotic.

  67. 67.

    The Other Steve

    I missed the stupidity. I’m so sad. Damn you, Baby Alexander, for giving me a life!

  68. 68.

    R-Jud

    @The Other Steve:

    Damn you, Baby Alexander, for giving me a life!

    Heh. I am usually only here at BJ to amuse myself when Baby E-Jud wants to eat (now, ferinstance). How’s your little guy?

  69. 69.

    InflatableCommenter

    On May 12, 2009, in a debate of the motion “Diplomacy With Iran Is Going Nowhere,” sponsored by the Rosenkranz Foundation and Intelligence Squared U.S., Liz Cheney and Dan Senor argued in favor of the motion. R. Nicholas Burns and foreign policy analyst Kenneth Pollack argued that diplomacy has produced results. Before the debate, 34 percent of the audience agreed with the motion, 33 percent were against the motion, and 35 percent were undecided. After the debate, 35 percent of the audience agreed with the motion, 59 percent were against the motion, and only six percent were undecided.[29]

    From the Wiki.

  70. 70.

    Skepticat

    This is all your fault, John. My furminator just arrived. I’m glad it’s a cool day, as this is not a job one ought to undertake whilst sweaty.

  71. 71.

    Svensker

    This might not so much prove that Sully is an irredeemable shithead, but rather that he’s considerably less bright than people give him credit for.

    He is what the Greeks call a “pappadrexha” (spelling is approximate, accent on the 3rd syl) — someone who gets excited and jumps into the pool, and only notices the sharks in the pool when they start ripping off hunks of flesh. He’s always doing that. “Oops, never mind” should be his motto.

  72. 72.

    Anne Laurie

    Can someone help me out and tell me what I missed yesterday that caused John to delete hundreds of comments? How bad could it have gotten?

    Scarily intemperate. Even by my standards.

    John made the right decision last night.

  73. 73.

    Tonal Crow

    @TenguPhule:

    Damn you, Peak Wingnut! Shall you ever elude us?

    The event horizon of wingnut keeps the naked wingularity hidden from the rest of the universe. As we approach it, observation shows we never will never reach it.

    Rather, in our frame of reference, wingnuts never seem quite to fall in. But in their frame of reference, the entire history of the multiverse flits by so rapidly that Teh Rapture looks like an oncoming freight train.

  74. 74.

    Ann B. Nonymous

    This might not so much prove that Sully is an irredeemable shithead, but rather that he’s considerably less bright than people give him credit for.

    That would put him at houseplant level.

    Honestly, you know he’s spent more time thinking about the morality of breaking wind in public than about reproductive freedom.

  75. 75.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    You all behave, because I am not afraid to drop the hammer on you idjits.

    John, that thread yesterday was, as they say in the MasterCard ads, priceless. But if a better one comes along someday and you need a bigger hammer, this quote might come in handy (in the break-glass-in-case-of-emergency sense):

    “Here then is the source from whence all your sedition flows, and until those crotalophorus and ostentiferous institutions are disconcantinated-and the individuals who compose them experience a decollation, their querulous bombilations and debulitions will never cease to obnubilate the prospects of their superiors”

    – Virginia Chronicle, July 17,1794, speaking of the plague of seditious “Democratic Clubs” which sprang up in the days leading up to the Whiskey Rebellion, as quoted by Leland Baldwin, Whiskey Rebels-The Story of a Frontier Uprising, 1968, University of Pittsburg Press.

    So take that, you obnubilators!

  77. 77.

    Svensker

    Can someone help me out and tell me what I missed yesterday that caused John to delete hundreds of comments? How bad could it have gotten?

    Really? I missed it? Dang. Why do I have to be busy on days when inneresting stuff happens?

  79. 79.

    scav

    O! Obnubilators! To think that a mere defenestration would sound quaint and obvious!

  80. 80.

    Rosali

    Never one to avoid a good chance to sit in the middle and scream “A pox on both your houses”, Sullivan agrees with her and decides that both crimes deserve “equal attention and scrutiny.

    Not only does Sully agree with Malkin, but he titled the post “When she’s right…” As in, “when she’s right, she’s on fire and full of wisdom”. I read that I wondered when has Michelle ever expressed an opinion that showed intelligence and careful analysis of all the issues?? Granted, I don’t read Malkin’s blog often but I can’t think of one time when I thought her post made a whole lot of sense.

  81. 81.

    Surly Duff

    Just as a point of discussion, I have never subscribed to the idea that crazy trolls should just be ignored. To a hardass like me, that feels like surrendering to the crazy trolls.

    When troll comments are not moderated, the terrorists win.

  82. 82.

    gbear

    Tennessee legislature has overriden the Gov’s veto on allowing guns in bars.

    Next step: boxes of ammo in the crane machines.

    @anonevent:

    That cartoon came to my mind too during yesterday’s dust-up. So right.

    Can’t really call it a pile up though when there’s only 4-5 bodies that keep throwing themselves on to it over and over and over again.

  83. 83.

    les

    @The Grand Panjandrum:

    Ain’t it great? I’m reminded of a post Benen (I think) did, commenting on how, along with everything else, many Republican leaders and congresscritters are just flat, garden variety stupid. There’s no requirement for even noticeable intelligence, to swing power on the right.

  85. 85.

    TenguPhule

    “When she’s right…” As in, “when she’s right, she’s on fire and full of wisdom”

    But Malkin is never right about anything.

    This is one of the traits that defines Malkin.

  86. 86.

    sarah

    @passerby:

    Can someone please recommend a news aggregator site that has a good variety of breaking news?

    Depends on the type of news you’re interested in: world, national, local, tech, politics, policy, entertainment, culture…

    I’m a big feed reader and can give you a feed dump of my go-to sites if you’re more specific.

    But if you’re just looking for a one stop website, SGEW is right, customizing Google News may be a good bet.

  87. 87.

    Fulcanelli

    @gbear: By ‘crane machines’ I’m thinking you mean the wall mounted machines in the bathrooms with the “Steers” sign on the door that dispenses rations of cheap pimp oil cologne and LAWS Rocket Magnum XXL ginormous condoms to all those Real American(TM) hombres. Amirite?

    Yes, lets load those with bullets.

  88. 88.

    Chuck Butcher

    I was up late and bored so I followed that mess out to 400something out of curiousity to see just how looney it would get – plenty is the answer.

  89. 89.

    Bad Horse's Filly

    @JGabriel: I was thinking the same thing. But quickly forgot it when I started looking at the adorable puppies. I so needed that distraction this afternoon. Page 5 and still going. Could waste the whole day here.

  90. 90.

    joes527

    RE: The thread from hell

    Looking at the original post, I read:

    …
    Any thoughts?

    Evidently, John needs to be a bit more specific.

  91. 91.

    gbear

    @Fulcanelli:

    Nope, I mean the amusement machines that are usually full of stuffed toys. You have to move the crane into a position to grab whatever you want and you only get one chance for your quarter. Could be a real cash cow for the bars as long as the crane doesn’t smack a bullet in the wrong place. If that happens, not such a good cash cow.

  92. 92.

    Bubblegum Tate

    maybe it’s a sneaky plan to turn TN into a dry state by getting all the drinkers to shoot each other ?

    As Ed Helms said in a Daily Show segment: “It makes perfect sense: Alcohol causes problems, and guns solve problems.”

  93. 93.

    Little Dreamer

    Well, I suppose I was one who deserved some quiet time with warm milk and a binky. So be it, I accept that description. I do not take kindly or lightly the threat to drag the president out of the White House. I didn’t accept it when Bush was president, I certainly won’t accept it when Obama is president either. John, thank you for closing off that thread. I truly appreciate it.

  94. 94.

    Will

    @TenguPhule:

    If there was a red button in some hidden cave that had a sign saying “Do not push, world destruction”, the paint wouldn’t even have time to dry.

    Wasn’t that also the plot of every episode of Lost for at least 2 seasons? Lord, I hate that show…

  95. 95.

    kid bitzer

    dang–i’m so disappointed i missed all the fun yesterday!

    and i’m so relieved i missed all the fun yesterday!

    but even by third-hand description, it sounds like john was right to drop the hammer.

    it used to be when people said stupid things in a bar, the sound waves dissipated in the air and no permanent stupid was created.

    now that we all have bar-fights with keyboards, there’s an unfortunate tendency for the stupid to linger in print-form.

    sometimes, the old ways are better. thanks, john.

  96. 96.

    AhabTRuler

    Actually, the irony is that the most interesting thing happened within the first twenty posts: Wilfred was pleased, and he was civil about it. Everything after that was anticlimactic.

    ETA: apparently my comment to that effect got eated.

  97. 97.

    gwangung

    Hm. Wonder what my Asian compatriot from Minnesota is gonna think of the new cover of the National Review.

  98. 98.

    passerby

    @sarah:
    @SGEW:

    You know, I just came back from a trip home and my Dad had the iGoogle as his home page. I had been stubbornly avoiding using my iGoogle page because I didn’t want them making suggestions as to what news items I may be interested in based on my interest in “article x” and like that.

    But I have to admit I found that iG page caught my interest more than once. So I think I’ll give it a shot and as SGEW pointed out, it’s customizable. (Love those aquarium fish that you can feed–and my cat stares at them too.)

    As for AP and Reuters, I bookmarked Reuters and hold AP suspect as a too-well-greased propaganda outlet.

    Thanks y’all.

  99. 99.

    Comrade Dread

    Just as a point of discussion, I have never subscribed to the idea that crazy trolls should just be ignored. To a hardass like me, that feels like surrendering to the crazy trolls.

    Yeah, but there just comes a point when if you’ve thrown your points out and done your best to present your position, you just have to let it go.

    Arguing on the internets just ain’t worth it sometimes.

  100. 100.

    South of I-10

    I just had one of the grandparents call and offer to take the little one for the night! This weekend just got interesting.

  102. 102.

    JL

    @Svensker: Gee I was gone also. It seems as though we missed a mud fight.

    Errol Morris has a seven part series in the NYTimes called
    Bamboozling Ourselves. The first part starts out talking about the Nazi-era forgeries of Han van Meegeren. The entire series is about much more than that. The story is more about Amsterdam turning a blind eye to the plight of the Jewish citizens. After reading the series you realize that it could happen here. The series can be found on the opinion pages.
    FYI, Errol Morris made to documentary Fogs of War. The comments are also worth a read especially the one after part six.

  103. 103.

    AhabTRuler

    you just have to let it go.

    Good advice for everyone concerned, especially when it leaks out into other threads.

    It seems as though we missed a mud fight.

    Trust me, it was ugly and tedious and filled with “teh cra-zee” tl;dr. You only want it b/c you can’t have it. It’s more worthwhile to look up car accident porn (if you really want to go vegetarian, look up the Porsche girl from CNN. On second thought don’t do that.).

  105. 105.

    Little Dreamer

    @AhabTRuler:

    Agreed, but I didn’t let the cat out of the bag. Since it was out, I figured I should own up to my part in it.

  106. 106.

    Brachiator

    @passerby:

    I have a request for information. Can someone please recommend a news aggregator site that has a good variety of breaking news?

    Great question, because I want to learn how other people ride the InterTubes for news.

    I recently have been playing the latest toy from google labs, the Google News Timeline, which lets you see how a news story has risen or fallen in importance over a specified period of time.

    Otherwise I haven’t much used aggregators. I look at yahoo news and BBC News and then branch out to the online newspapers in the area in which the story occurs (so I will look at the Times Online, The Independent (UK) and the Daily Mail for British news, the Times of India for some Southeast Asia news, etc).

    I’ve never looked at Drudge, and find HuffPo not too informative, and kinda cluttered.

  108. 108.

    les

    It’s more worthwhile to look up car accident porn.

    You say that, and just stop??!

  109. 109.

    LD50

    Is there anyone who should be pleased with that cover? You don’t have to be Asian or Latino/a to find it offensive.

    Yes, but you do have to be a Republican to find it appealing.

  110. 110.

    gwangung

    @AhabTRuler:
    Well, you know us Asian types…socialized to under-react.

    Except the moment I saw that, I was scrambling to find Scalzi’s Loving Mallet of Correction while looking for who to apply it to…

  111. 111.

    AhabTRuler

    @Little Dreamer: FWIW, I really, really understood where you were coming from, but after a certain point it becomes a lost cause.

    I mean, is that horrendous “Prussian Blue” thread still fermenting in the Sadlies(TM) basement? That thread was a total write-off.

  112. 112.

    Colette

    @AhabTRuler:

    car accident porn (if you really want to go vegetarian, look up the Porsche girl from CNN. On second thought don’t do that.).

    Really, really, REALLY don’t do that. Seriously. There are things you cannot un-see. If you’re dying of curiosity, read this article (safe for work and no gory photos).

  114. 114.

    MazeDancer

    My mother lives in Memphis. Her 79th birthday is next month. I’m thinking of maybe a high standard MKIV – 9 shot 22 mag revolver in satin chrome. Just not sure there’s enough room to get something nice engraved on the handle.

  115. 115.

    gex

    @gwangung: Wow. Not this Asian. My dad is a hot head, and so am I (as many of you might have noticed in my posts.) I wish I had been socialized to under-react!

  116. 116.

    jibeaux

    @AhabTRuler:

    You know, I read about that girl or I assume it was her, in Newsweek, and then later there was a follow-up. It was a sort of heartening story because the family was taking a risk having their story published because they are very disturbed by the photos being disseminated and obviously a story like that is going to make more people search for the photos. But they reported that what they got more than anything, was people volunteering to help get the pictures removed from various places they’re displayed online. I’m not anybody’s net nanny or anything, but I have kids. No one should have the pain of a horrific death of a child compounded by receiving a stream of emails from sickos who have been searching for grisly pictures. The DNA that makes you want to look at such horrible things is something I’m glad that I was evidently born without.

  117. 117.

    Little Dreamer

    I mean, is that horrendous “Prussian Blue” thread still fermenting in the Sadlies™ basement? That thread was a total write-off.

    Not terms I’m familiar with. I am not understanding, sorry.

    I realize I don’t have much of a knack for colorful description, care to be a little less cryptic?

  118. 118.

    Brachiator

    @JL:

    FYI, Errol Morris made to documentary Fogs of War.

    He also made the excellent documentary, The Thin Blue Line (1988). Morris originally intended to make an artsy, quirky, pointless little film about an expert witness whose testimony always favored the prosecution, and ended up making a powerful film which pretty much proved that a man named Randall Adams was wrongly convicted for murder because the Dallas cops and the DA were hot to put someone away for the murder of a police officer.

  119. 119.

    passerby

    @Brachiator:

    I’ve never looked at Drudge, and find HuffPo not too informative, and kinda cluttered.

    Yes, HuffPo has become way too cluttered. I got in the habit of going to DRUDGE because during hurricane season, he always has the latest satellite and links up.

    Like you, I enjoy the british press and go to the Times Online and BBC on my regular rounds. The Independent I just got on Kindle but it is unabashedly far left and I’d like less emotion and more information.

    Apparently teh mighty google is on the ball. Thanks for the tip about the G N Timeline thingy.

  120. 120.

    AhabTRuler

    @Little Dreamer: There was a thread at Sadlyno! about “Prussian Blue,” the white supremacist fol duo tool, which was hijacked in the comments by racists. This is not shocking. What was shocking is that the comments went on for months (IIRC) after the front page had moved on. One of the Sadlies, I think it was Gav, but I’m not sure), later posted a link to the foul swill in “the basement.”

    @jibeaux: I felt terrible for the family, and it’s a shame that the pics made it out there in the first place. However, once they were out there, trying to make them go away doesn’t accomplish anything but to fuel the fire. Even with those people who were trying to remove them, they will still be out there (although why anyone needed to harass the parents about them, IDK. You can find the pics with google and they are pretty self explanatory).
    Beyond that, there is nothing in those pictures that hasn’t been seen on Rotten.com or the like. Furthermore, such photos are pretty standard fare for industrial accidents/car wrecks/combat injuries and the like. Despite the tragedy and how much sympathy I feel for her family, I take comfort in the fact that such a death was mercifully instantaneous, and that beyond the moment of death we are all just so much meat.

  121. 121.

    Gordon, The Big Express Engine

    For those interested in the newspaper biz, there is good profile of Carlos Slim in the current New Yorker (not on their website, so no link, sorry) and his increasing stake in the The New York Times.

  122. 122.

    Little Dreamer

    @AhabTRuler:

    I had no idea. I’m glad that didn’t happen here. I contacted John because I thought he should look at it. He did what was necessary, and now “poof”.

    We have no Prussian Blue thread fermenting in the basement. ;)

  123. 123.

    jibeaux

    @AhabTRuler:

    As I understood the follow-up in Newsweek, which I can’t find online, the risk that the family took (they also filed a lawsuit in addition to speaking publicly) was exactly that they were adding fuel to the fire. Everybody understands that the toothpaste is not going back into the tube. But the unexpected result was that they got a lot of people willing to work hard to get the pictures taken down. And when you have that + the passage of time, that should make them should be harder to find. And I don’t know, I’m not interested in searching google, and I don’t know what the statistics are as to whether it’s improved or not, but I know that her family was glad they’d made the decision to speak publicly and they were of the opinion it did more good than harm.

  124. 124.

    gbear

    I have a request for information. Can someone please recommend a news aggregator site that has a good variety of breaking news?

    I’ll add that Crooks and Liars is a good quickstop in the morning; kind of like swinging by the corner store for a couple donuts. Not a full breakfast, but usually some good tidbits and video clips. Usually not strident.

    John has a link to the site in his blogroll.

  126. 126.

    Zuzu's Petals

    @BDeevDad:

    A lot of people knew this back when Arnold was smashing cars as part of his anti-VLF campaign shtick. Yep, the guy actually campaigned on blowing a permanent $6 billion hole in the budget.

  128. 128.

    AhabTRuler

    @Little Dreamer: Well, since I have only linked to Prussian Blue and J.G. Ballard’s Crash, I assume you mean one of those.
    I wouldn’t want people to think that I’m posting links to accident photos. ;-0

    Also, I do not endorse visiting rotten.com.

  132. 132.

    asiangrrlMN

    @gwangung: I peacefully and meditatively considered unleashing a can of whupass on the asses of the entire of National Review’s board. Especially that of K-Lo (that’s her, right?) and Jonah the Whale.

    Someone posted a link to a cartoon about a Buddhist girl asked which person she would punch. She says no one because she’s a Buddhist. The dog prods her, and she goes into a beautiful take-down of Bill O’Reilly, and follows it up with, “But I would never hurt a person.”

    Yeah, like that.

    @gex: Yeah, me, too. When I get mad, I get all cold and scary first. If I can’t talk myself down, I explode. I don’t like it, but my dad and my brother are like that, too.

    As for the thread that John shut down, it wasn’t the Sully one. It was the one about Obama’s speech. I read some of it, but it bothered me too much to read after 300 or so.

  133. 133.

    freelancer

    @gbear:

    I’ll add that Crooks and Liars is a good quickstop in the morning; kind of like swinging by the corner store for a couple donuts.

    I have C&L on my RSS feed too, and while [EDIT, Spell Check] Neiwert’s posts and analysis are second to none, some of the poster’s there have somewhat turned the site into a liberal faux outrage machine, making sure to post video of every instance in which a Repug says something stupid and feigning feeling butthurt about it.

  135. 135.

    les

    @AhabTRuler:

    I guess I deserved that–a smart ass google, and a link describing the book as “auto-erotic.” Nicely played, sir.

  137. 137.

    les

    @AhabTRuler:

    uh…

    Oh, Ballard can be a hoot. Another interesting work of his, which also involves “auto-eroticism,” is Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan.

    Now that’s just too…well, the last one was ok…no, that’s just too much to…maybe just a peek…can’t do it. The pictures, the pictures in my mind…I’ll come back after a beer or so.

  138. 138.

    passerby

    @freelancer:

    Yeah, what gbear said. I used to go to C&L frequently throughout the day, it’s how I discovered Balloon Juice. I used to enjoy the commentariat there but now, I find, they don’t appeal to me anymore.

    And I second your observation that most of the videos are sigh-inducing and eye-rolling, hair-on-fire stuff. I do enjoy the driftglass posts, however.

  140. 140.

    grendelkhan

    @TenguPhule: I saved a copy I had in another tab when I reloaded, and saw that John had raised the baleful axe.

    I’m keeping it for later delectation; it’s meaningful to me, personally, since I comment a considerable amount (over 1500 in 2007, for instance; yes, I keep links to them; yes, I realize this makes me a double super weirdo) and this was only the third time I can remember that someone actually went to my profile and tried to use it to rag on me.

    Whether or not it justifies more blathering here is debatable, but it certainly justifies some more consideration on my part, and that’s what I’ll be doing.

  141. 141.

    jumpygrouch

    Re #75 i think they probably meant “disconcatinated” (not “disconcantinated”) since concatinate is probably the word they meant to dis, no?

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