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Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

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

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

This blog will pay for itself.

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Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

T R E 4 5 O N

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Books are my comfort food!

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

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Reader Interactions

152Comments

  2. 2.

    Comrade Mary

    God, the conjunction of “beer” and “Michael Jackson” has prompted me to think of at least two tasteless jokes involving alcohol and mistaken identity.

    I am a bad person and I should feel bad.

  3. 3.

    amorphous

    I’m sure the picture of Obama drinking a beer with his pinky up that’s splashed across the Fox “News” “website” is just a “coincidence.”

  4. 4.

    Cat Lady

    Must see TV tonight – Al Sharpton and Skank Coulter on Larry King. A smart, broad, temperate and insightful look at the topics of the day.

    /facepalm

  6. 6.

    CK Dexter Haven

    [http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2009/07/two-ga-officers-suspended-over-obama-background-check.html Two Ga. officers suspended over Obama background check]

    In DeKalb County, Ga., police officers Ryan White and C.M. Route were suspended while their department investigates allegations that they used a county computer system in their squad car to run a background check on President Obama.

    According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Secret Service notified the local department about the background check, conducted on July 20 about 4:40 a.m.

  10. 10.

    GambitRF

    Waiting for the first wingnut to call Obama elitist for drinking something more expensive than Natty Ice

  11. 11.

    RedKitten

    My goodness, I mention on one thread that we haven’t had an open thread in awhile, and we get TWO open threads right away!

    The power! Bwah-ha-ha-ha!

  12. 12.

    Morbo

    Friggin Obama pandering with his Bud Light. He couldn’t have been at least a little bit east coast elitist?

  13. 13.

    mcc

    Haven’t paid attention to the news all day, turned on MSNBC and learned that we are two hours away from the “beer” summit, and up next would be an interview with Michael Jackson’s former chef.

    Health care? What’s that?

  14. 14.

    ninerdave

    So the progressives in the house sent a letter to Pelosi stating:

    This agreement is not a step forward toward a good health care bill, but a large step backwards. Any bill that does not provide, at a minimum, for a public option with reimbursement rates based on Medicare rates – not negotiated rates – is unacceptable.

    I’m confused as why this is an issue for progressives. Anyone care to comment?

  15. 15.

    Sentient Puddle

    @Morbo:

    Friggin Obama pandering with his Bud Light. He couldn’t have been at least a little bit east coast elitist?

    Or at least drink something that doesn’t taste like piss?

  16. 16.

    amorphous

    @GambitRF: Kind of already beat you to it.

    Our president will be drinking a Bud or Bud Lite. Although much of the country may recognize Bud as an All-American beer, I am a bit disappointed that our beloved president chose a beer produced by a company that is now a part of the Anheuser-Busch InBev merger, owned by Belgians and publicly traded in Leuven, Belgium.

  18. 18.

    laughingman

    Just beyond parody or satire, aren’t they? There goes my performance art grant application to the NEA…

  19. 19.

    freelancer

    Media Matters just posted a screencap with a countdown timer, Post Title “This Really Can’t Be Happening Can It?”

    http://mediamatters.org/blog/200907300029

    There needs to be a new major in college for decent reporting and investigative skills on newsworthy topics. Painting those programs and this cable news buffoonery with the same “journalism” brush just makes me want to quit.

  21. 21.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @ninerdave:

    I’m not sure, but I think Medicare rates are based on higher COL rates for high population areas and much less for rural areas. The Blue Dogs want to be able to negotiate higher rates for their country realms to keep better docs and hospitals. And City folk are afraid it will mean less for them if they have to negotiate. This is much a guess on my part, so take it that way.

  23. 23.

    ominira

    @CK Dexter Haven: So what’d they find out from running the background check? Inquiring minds want to know. Maybe they were checking out whether he had a previous record of running a birth-certificate-forging ring. Helps to have that type of info handy for upcoming birther congressional town hall meetings.

  24. 24.

    Brick Oven Bill

    Dreams of My Father:

    “One not need be a Kenyan to note that when one goes to a good restaurant he mostly finds Asians and Europeans, nor has he to be a Kenyan to see that the majority of cars running in Kenya are run by Asians and Europeans. How then can we say that we are going to be indiscriminate in rectifying these imbalances? We have to give the African his place…”

    “Is it not the African who owns this country? If he does, then why should he not control the economic means of growth in this Country? It is mainly in this country that one finds almost everything owned by the non-indigenous populace. The government must do something about this and soon.”

    Why would a post-racial President name a novel, which he most surely wrote himself, without any help whatsoever from anybody like Bill Ayres, where he describes his tactics to talk to white people with, after these dreams? This is RACIST. Officer Crowley had better be careful as he drinks his Blue Moon beer.

    It should also be noted that the Prominent Scholar Professor Gates’ Red Stripe beer, despite being produced in Jamaica, is owned by Diageo, which in turn is owned by those same Asians and Europeans that so pissed off Obama Senior before he finally got his own car.

  26. 26.

    General Winfield Stuck

    It should also be noted that the Prominent Scholar Professor Gates’ Red Stripe beer, despite being produced in Jamaica, is owned by Diageo, which in turn is owned by those same Asians and Europeans that so pissed off Obama Senior before he finally got his own car.

    This is some kind of crazy shit, even for you BoB.

  27. 27.

    geg6

    Although we have already established that the Today Show is NOT in any way, shape, or form a “news” program, I was appalled that the Former Chef of Michael Jackson was given a 5-10 minute segment in each of the two first half-hours of this morning’s show. Now I’m not talking about an interview in the first half hour and then a repeat of that in the second, I’m talking one interview segment in the first half hour and, because she is obviously such an important personage, a second interview segment in the very next half hour.

    The only mention of health care was Chuck Todd concern trolling and opining over how health care has made Obama’s popularity “plunge.”

  28. 28.

    Woody

    12 July 30th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
    Morbo
    Friggin Obama pandering with his Bud Light. He couldn’t have been at least a little bit east coast elitist?

    I couldn’t agree more: It should have been a Sam Adams, at least. Not that generic, industrial malt beverage crap Bud couldn’t sell as beer when they sponsored the World Cup last time in Germany…It would have been a perfect time to put in plugs for “micro-breweries” all over the contry, many of which produce exemplary suds… Abita Springs in Covington, LA, for one; New Belgium Brewing Corp in Ft. Collins; Redhook, in Seattle, etc…A missed opportunity…

  30. 30.

    Seebach

    <i“One not need be a Kenyan to note that when one goes to a good restaurant he mostly finds Asians and Europeans, nor has he to be a Kenyan to see that the majority of cars running in Kenya are run by Asians and Europeans. How then can we say that we are going to be indiscriminate in rectifying these imbalances? We have to give the African his place…”

    So it’s now outrageous to suggest that Kenyans ought to have a larger role in the economy and government of Kenya?

  31. 31.

    Butch

    I don’t normally watch TV after the evening news but made the mistake last night of briefly flipping on Anderson Cooper 360, only to find him and a flock of Michael Jackson “experts” (who would admit to such a thing?) still blathering on about “breaking news” concerning Michael. What would that be? “Still dead?”

  32. 32.

    cmorenc

    Sometimes for a few hours to a couple of days at a time, I think the less I pay attention to the news, the happier I am.

    What always pops me out of this cocoon is the realization that this is EXACTLY where the Karl Roves of the right-wing world want the likes of me to be – on the apathetic, solopistic sidelines thinking that the entire political system and the vast majority of politicians are so hopeless and corrupt and beyond my ability to influence that it isn’t worthwhile to attempt to fool myself into thinking that participating – that’s it’s a fools errand and a chump’s game. Their game is to narrow the playing field to a manageable size they can manipulate and control.

  33. 33.

    Comrade Darkness

    @Linkmeister: If you decide to sell on the side, you may find ebay useful for finding the final price of the last most closely related item. But you need an account to search for “closed listings” which is what you want to do. You run a search, then on the left menu, somewhere randomly in the middle, you’ll find that check box. Tres useful.

  34. 34.

    jibeaux

    @ninerdave:

    There’s a fascinating explanation in Atul Gawande’s book Better (recommended) where he explains how Medicare got its reimbursement rates. Basically for every procedure you can think of, a complicated metric went into it in an attempt to capture the expertise, time, difficulty, etc. required. It was this slightly odd, but at the same time logical, attempt to codify what a medical procedure should cost, e.g. a simple surgery should cost less than a complicated surgery, etc. And so what I think the point is, as they go on to say in the letter…

    It would ensure higher costs for the public plan, and would do nothing to achieve the goal of “keeping insurance companies honest,” and their rates down.

    …is that negotiated rates abandon that metric for the market, which will demand higher reimbursements than Medicare.

  35. 35.

    ominira

    Anyone have actual experience with installing a white roof covering to cut energy costs? If you’ve done this, how much did you save on cooling bills roughly?

  36. 36.

    Nicole

    I’m in Los Angeles for barely four hours and already a complete stranger asked to try on my hat. I want to go home.
    But since I am here, any recommendations on where to eat and stuff? Staying in West H’wood.

  37. 37.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @CK Dexter Haven:

    I saw that today and it fair warmed the cockles of my heart to know that the Secret Service are not only on top of their jobs they are all over it and oozing down the sides. Makes you wonder what kind of dossiers they are building up for the wingnut/birfer sites before they bring the hammer down. May the FSM keep them in his noodly appendages.

  38. 38.

    Xavier Cugat

    Or, one of the Chicago-area micro-breweries, like Two Brothers. And, Gates and Barack should drink their beers out of a brown paper sack and see what the cop does.

  39. 39.

    tisalaska

    oh oh please do have a comment on this ridiculas email being sent around.
    Congressman John Fleming (Louisiana physician) has proposed an amendment that would require congressmen and senators to take the same healthcare plan they force on us (under the currently proposed legislation they are curiously exempt). Congressman Fleming is encouraging people to go on his Website and sign his petition (very simple – just your first name, last name and email address).

    > I have immediately done just that at: http://fleming.house.gov/. If Congress forces this on the American people, then Congressmen should have to accept the same level of health care for themselves and their families. Please send this on to everyone you know.

    Can he possibly say this with a straightface while his 3 of his 5 top campaign contributors is the health industry and pharmaceutical companies. Not to worry…we wont sign his damn petition but we will send our quiter governor down there to campaign for him…wink wink

  41. 41.

    Steven Donegal

    All of you eat your hearts out. It’s Seafair time in Seattle and that means the Blue Angel are flying today. Nothing like a high performance jet screaming past your office window to brighten the day.

  42. 42.

    wilfred

    Maybe Obama can invite this kid next and explain why he was trying to keep in prison all this time

    WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Thursday ordered that one of the youngest detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, be released by late August in a case that drew wide attention because of rulings that he had been tortured by Afghan officials and abused in American custody.
    “Enough has been imposed on this young man to date,” the judge, Ellen Segal Huvelle, said in a courtroom crowded with people drawn by what had become a confrontation between the judge and the Obama administration.

  43. 43.

    jacy

    In the interest of open-threadedness and cookies, a doggie update.

    We brought our new friend home from the vet’s yesterday, and determined that he will walk well on a leash, but has no idea how to sit, will tolerate a bath, and loves children.

    Reaction from the critters:

    Lab says, “Meh. Where are the snackies?”

    Spike the cats says, “WTF? A dog? Seriously? We already have dogs. Was there a sale or somethign?”

    The cattle dog say, “OMG, I don’t even know you people anymore.” But she let him eat first — and she lets no one eat first. Go figure.

    So all in all, very successful.

  45. 45.

    Comrade Jake

    @Morbo:

    Bud is owned by Belgians. It’s like Obama’s extending an invisible middle finger to millions of Americans.

  47. 47.

    Sentient Puddle

    @tisalaska:

    Wait let me make sure I’m understanding this…the congressman is proposing a law that would force lawmakers to be able (but not compelled) to choose a public option when deciding on various health insurance alternatives?

    Um…OK. Pretty sure that would’ve been offered up in whatever kind of health care bill came out of congress anyways, but I guess if you want to be absolutely certain that you can opt in, congressman…

    Or I suppose it could be a super-convoluted endorsement of the plan.

  52. 52.

    Anne Laurie

    Must see TV tonight – Al Sharpton and Skank Coulter on Larry King. A smart, broad, temperate and insightful look at the topics of the day.

    Maybe one of them will forget that it’s all roleplaying and attempt to strangle the other, live and on camera?

    And the altercation will give King a final, fatal heart attack?

    C’mon, a girl can dream…

  56. 56.

    General Winfield Stuck

    Haven’t paid attention to the news all day, turned on MSNBC and learned that we are two hours away from the “beer” summit,

    Well hell Cole, I don’t know what yer bitching about. You just turned the Teevee off too soon is all. I’m watching Tweety on a segment that has Virginia Fox/wingnut warning us that Obama care is going to see the government euthanizing old people and Lars Larson backing her up saying we should all be afraid, very very afraid. Who wouldn’t want to hear such important news? I ask you.

  57. 57.

    kay

    Can we pull out the living will provision? Living wills and advanced directives are a great idea. Putting it in there is just fodder for conspiracy theorists.
    Just take it out. We can’t spend week after week discrediting crazed, moronic, lying wingnuts. We won’t do anything else.
    They won’t get an advanced directive consultation. It’s not the end of the world. You can’t cure stupid anyway.

  58. 58.

    El Bandito Blancito

    O/T

    So, I need to come up with a new fantasy football name this year, and was hoping to swing something political since I have a couple righties in my league.

    So far, I’ve got “The Larry Craig Toetappers” and “Sarah Palin’s Mighty Mighty Metaphors,” but I’m looking for something better.

    Ideas?

  59. 59.

    shoutingattherain

    @cmorenc:

    Sometimes for a few hours to a couple of days at a time, I think the less I pay attention to the news, the happier I am.

    I spend two months every winter living on a small island in S. Thailand w/ no internet service. They are happy, anger-free months.

  60. 60.

    Comrade Dread

    Haven’t paid attention to the news all day, turned on MSNBC and learned that we are two hours away from the “beer” summit, and up next would be an interview with Michael Jackson’s former chef.

    Our society is really doomed, isn’t it?

  61. 61.

    LD50

    Bud is owned by Belgians.

    Well, that proves that Belgians can make shitty beer when they really need to.

  63. 63.

    The Moar You Know

    All of you eat your hearts out. It’s Seafair time in Seattle and that means the Blue Angel are flying today. Nothing like a high performance jet screaming past your office window to brighten the day.

    @Steven Donegal: I work right next to Miramar MCAS and it was neato for the first two days. After a year and a half of it, I am sick to death of it and would kill for a workday with no jets.

  64. 64.

    Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)

    @Brick Oven Bill:

    Why would a post-racial President name a novel, which he most surely wrote himself, without any help whatsoever from anybody like Bill Ayres, where he describes his tactics to talk to white people with, after these dreams?

    Is this some sort of code?

  67. 67.

    Jen R

    kay, if they pull that out now, the right will just say that the evil old-people-hating Democrats were forced to pull their mandatory euthanasia proposal when the heroic Republicans uncovered it. It would strengthen the right’s narrative. And who’s going to correct them? Journalists?

  68. 68.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @shoutingattherain:

    I spend two months every winter living on a small island in S. Thailand

    I hope you take your high water boots along in case of Tsunamis. Otherwise, I’m envious/

  69. 69.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @Jen R:

    Exactly, If done now, the wingnuts will be finding secret evil plots in every bill they don’t like. Never feed the trolls should now be policy for entire GOP, off or online.

  71. 71.

    Moira

    This is me leaving a comment to fix my ah, “problems”. If only my other problems had such simple solutions.

  74. 74.

    WingNutz

    @Linkmeister: if you do decide to go the ebay route, go around the house and find 12 other little things to sell. Post and sell them in groups of 6, minimum bid, 1 dollar. It will get your rating up as well as get you clued in in a low risk manner. THEN sell the high(er)-value item.

    Oh, and if you find a listing like your item that did well, copy the item title and adjust for your item. That’s the clincher for searches.

    *Pets open thread.*

  75. 75.

    kay

    @Jen R:

    You’re probably right politically, but must we put everyone’s pet idea in there? Medicare won’t pay for an advanced directive consultation with a doctor, and doctors want to have those, to the extent that they lobbied Congress to get it. Okay. Couldn’t those doctors who want to do that just speak in the course of a normal visit? We’re not monitoring what they say in there.

  77. 77.

    Warren Terra

    All Things Considered just followed up yesterday’s story about the beer selection for today’s “Beer Summit” with reader letters, of which several apparently recommended a Black-And-Tan as a symbol of communities coming together.

    Because, you know, they’re idiots.

    And that would be my judgement even without the strong Irish-Catholic heritage of American cops, of the Boston-area cops in particular, and iirc of Sgt. Crowley.

  80. 80.

    Dulcie

    @kay: From what I’ve read, Medicare currently pays for one consult for an advanced directive every five years. I believe they’re just adding this option for everyone, as opposed to just the elderly on Medicare. Won’t help the moran contingent understand why it was added it any better than they do now, but that’s to be expected.

  81. 81.

    Comrade Jake

    Anyone watching CNN right now? They’re diagramming the location of the beer summit on their interactive screen.

    We are so totally fucked.

  82. 82.

    Ailuridae

    @kay:

    There is no point striking out the living will proposition. Its a long bill to presume that this is the only objectively good idea that Republicans would disingenuously misrepresent ignores a fundamental reality. If its not the living will provision, it will simply be something else. The way to respond to information like this is to directly attach it, without mincing words, as lying. To label those saying it as liars. FWIW, Politifact and fact check were both pretty unmerciful in dissecting this Betsysmear.

  84. 84.

    Comrade Jake

    I for one am shocked, SHOCKED I TELL YOU, that the WH has decided to “keep reporters at a distance” for the beer summit.

  85. 85.

    Warren Terra

    Since (at least my copy of) Google Chrome doesn’t have this Cookie problem (though my phone’s browser does), I haven’t bothered to do the Cookie thing myself, but I have a quesstion about it:
    If all these Cookie Monsters were to place their nominal comments in an older, largely inactive thread, would that solve their problem without sp@mming the current thread, or are they required to place their comment in the thread they wish to read?

  86. 86.

    MikeJ

    kay, you’re emboldening the terrorists. If you give the morons anything they’ll howl louder until they get everything. The only way to handle them is to tell them to fuck off.

  87. 87.

    Kirk Spencer

    @Brick Oven Bill: Many years ago I worked as the librarian in a prison. There were a couple of very popular books in my library – and I regret I cannot recall the titles of either these days – which had as their core thesis that only whites can be racists. The identical behavior from non-whites is not racist, but is instead at worst proactive retribution.

    That position makes just as much sense as your explanation of how Obama’s book proves he is a racist. Once more, Humpty Dumpty logic doesn’t work this side of the looking glass.

  88. 88.

    2th&nayle

    @Linkmeister: That’s a beaut, Link! Used to play one just like it years ago up in North Dakota that belonged to a friend of mine that never played it. Ever been to North Dakota, Link?

  90. 90.

    MikeJ

    I for one am shocked, SHOCKED I TELL YOU, that the WH has decided to “keep reporters at a distance” for the beer summit.

    If I am not allowed to see the original vault copy of the beer
    it is illegitimate.

  93. 93.

    kay

    @Ailuridae:

    I hate how Congress negotiates. I’m sure that’s probably unamerican, but there it is.
    It’s like they can’t concentrate on the goal, or the big objectives. It’s so ego-filled and unproductive. They are supposed to be laying out broad outlines, areas of agreement, not bickering over each and every pet provision just so they can say they added something to the draft.

  94. 94.

    steve s

    July 30th, 2009 at 4:14 pm Reply to this comment
    blahblahblah
    We would appear to have an abundance of open threads.

    Would you say we had…a plethora…of open threads?

  95. 95.

    Linkmeister

    @2th&nayle: Thanks. When I bought it I thought I was going to stay in a band with some friends in Japan after we got out of the Navy. That didn’t happen.

    Here I am 35 years later with a beautiful guitar which has essentially not been played since 1977.

    @WingNutz: what you’re saying is do an eBay trial run with a couple of bunches of books or something before I try to sell the high-value guitar, is that right?

    Makes some sense, but giving up other things? Yikes! ;)

  96. 96.

    MikeJ

    If you wish to make the minority party less powerful, the wrong way to go about it is to say, why yes, we did want to kill your grandmother but you caught us so now we’ll stop.

  97. 97.

    jeffreyw

    test
    test
    [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffreyww/3769895217/]birdie link[/url]

  100. 100.

    jeffreyw

    Yay! That worked, kudos to the commenter recommending the code toolbar.

    General Stuck-joined and left a few pics, thnx for the invite!

  101. 101.

    kay

    @MikeJ:

    Maybe a page limit. They ignore time deadlines, so maybe a page limit. 100 page proposal, and no screwing with font or margins. Like a challenge. I think they could do it.

  103. 103.

    Dreggas

    @Nicole:

    Welcome to wonderful California and WeHo is a fun place. Admittedly it’s been a while since I have been up there but eating in the area depends on what you like and if you have a vehicle. Chinatown isn’t far away, nor is little tokyo. You can pretty much find any and all sorts of mexican food.

  104. 104.

    cbear

    @Nicole: Don’t know much about W. Hollywood, but you might think about heading out to the beach in Santa Monica and trying The Lobster Restaurant at the foot of the Santa Monica pier. MAKE sure you order the lobster cocktail appetizer.

    You can also go up the street a few blocks and ck out the Third Street Promenade, which has lots of neat bistros and sidewalk cafes.

    @shoutingattherain: Ahhh, Thailand, my favorite country in the world—been living there (mostly Bangkok) off and on since 2001.
    S. Thailand is beautiful, but, if you haven’t already, try going up north to Chiangmai. Beautiful mountains, beautiful temples, great people…

  105. 105.

    steve s

    Google shows 241 distinct Balloon-Juice threads where someone has been called a Concern Troll.

    Results 1 – 100 of about 241 from http://www.balloon-juice.com for “concern troll”. (0.09 seconds)

    For comparison, take a look at this:

    Results 1 – 21 of 21 from http://www.redstate.com for “activist judge”. (0.36 seconds)

    I thought ‘concern troll’ was to here as ‘activist judge’ was to the conservatives. I was wrong. Conservatives appear to be way more discriminating with their term.

  107. 107.

    Dreggas

    I think he should drink a corona with lime just to see the wingers heads explode. After all it would be a black president drinking a mexican beer.

  108. 108.

    2th&nayle

    @Linkmeister: Nothing rare about that. I’d venture to say that 50-60% of all guitars bought new, wind up it the closet with less than 5hrs playing time. If all those virtually brand new guitars ever hit the market at the same time it would probably drive the guitar manufactures out of business. Wish I wasn’t guitar poor already, I’d be sorely tempted to bid on it myself. Good luck! Someone out there has a damn fine guitar in their future!

  112. 112.

    MikeJ

    Conservatives appear to be way more discriminating with their term.

    Your concern is duly noted.

  118. 118.

    Warren Terra

    Steve S, you seem rather fixated with all this “concern troll” business, including in this thread, where the word “concern” was only used twice before, once in an irrelevant fashion and once to deride Chuck Todd. Now, I didn’t read that comment carefully and I don’t watch TV news and I don’t have much of an opinion about Mr. Todd one way or the other. But what are you so worried about here that you should bring it up? If there is some particular instance that bothers you, why not denounce it by name, preferably in a timely fashion? If those 241 instances Google found for you suggest to you that the term is being misused, why not investigate a sample and report on that, naming the culprits and the victims? Because your methodology is extremely weak: you say nothing about the relevant levels of comment traffic, you say nothing about the justice of the terms on those occasions which it was used, and you have arbitrarily chosen one term that gets to the heart of a lot of the conversation here (as in, the concern-trolling behavior of Joe Lieberman and various figures in the media) and compared it to another term that may not have been terribly relevant to the RedState conversation for the last three or four years.

    Finally, and I hesitate to raise this issue, your comment adopts a worried tone to raise a potential problem about the behavior of the community here, and it does so in a manner that is so poorly founded as positively to invite dismissal, even disparagement. Are you simply trawling for comments, placing a big fat bulls-eye on yourself in the hopes of being labelled with precisely the term whose use so troubles you?

  119. 119.

    breadnbeer

    Cop should drink Harpoon. Skip should drink Sam Adams. Barry should be drinking Dom Perignon, just because he can.

    thanks for cookie.

  120. 120.

    RedKitten

    I think he should drink a corona with lime just to see the wingers heads explode. After all it would be a black president drinking a mexican beer.

    That would be perfect. In fact, he could follow it up with a nice Middle Eastern cuisine supper, and end the evening with a great big latte.

  121. 121.

    Comrade Jake

    The word on the street is that the guys at the WH are playing “Asshole” and that Biden is going down hard.

  122. 122.

    RedKitten

    “Barry should be drinking Dom Perignon, just because he can.”

    Win. Wouldn’t that just be a giant middle finger to so many people?

  123. 123.

    Demo Woman

    So the visitors are in black or dark suits and the President and Vice President are without jackets.

  124. 124.

    Demo Woman

    @RedKitten: Tell your hubby that he owes you a bottle of Dom since you did not partake in $160 swim. Of course you could save it for later.

  125. 125.

    Scott

    Slooooooow site
    Strange Format.

    Somebody messin’ wit yo site???

    Will try for magic cookie….

    S

  127. 127.

    MikeJ

    How many judges, activist or not, show up to comment on red state, where they might be called activist? Compare that to how many trolls show up here, where they might be called concern trolls.

  128. 128.

    steve s

    I have to say I’m deeply, deeply shocked to be accused of concern trolling by a balloon-juice commenter. I mean, when’s the last time that happened.

  130. 130.

    shoutingattherain

    @cbear:

    Ahhh, Thailand, my favorite country in the world—-been living there (mostly Bangkok) off and on since 2001. S. Thailand is beautiful, but, if you haven’t already, try going up north to Chiangmai. Beautiful mountains, beautiful temples, great people…

    This will be my 18th winter over the past 20 years spent in the Land o’ Smile (since 1989) and it is, in fact, the bestest place in the whole wide world. Ask any Thai about that.

    Been to the North, Chiangmai, all the way to the GTriangle (like 15 years ago) so I’ve sort of seen all that already. Last time I was in CMai the air was so polluted it just wasn’t any good at all. Doi Sutep was nice, tho.

    I stay
    here</a in BKK for the one or two days I’m either coming in or going home.     Starry Place is the place.

    I go for the beaches, the tokables, the Eurobabes, and the food. I love BKK, but it ain’t S. Thailand.

  131. 131.

    Warren Terra

    Steve S, this may well appear after you depart, but it does rather appear to me from your later comments, i.e. a snarky response followed by a rapid departure, that you are confirming the suspicions I voiced in comment 117.

  133. 133.

    shoutingattherain

    @shoutingattherain:

    HTML fail, cbear:

    Starry Place. Nice little hotel over in Rang Nam. B900/night for a small suite. AirCon, sat, internet, etc. Back when Don Muang was open I could leave SP, walk a half block down the soi to the main drag, wait maybe a minute for a cab, make one left turn and we were on the expressway north. Toss the driver yee-sip baht for the tollway and I was at the airport in 20 minutes. No muss, no fuss. No Kao San Road bullshit…

  134. 134.

    debbie

    @Brick Oven Bill:

    “Why would a post-racial President name a novel, which he most surely wrote himself, without any help whatsoever from anybody like Bill Ayres, where he describes his tactics to talk to white people with, after these dreams?”

    Hate to break it to you, but Dreams of My Father isn’t a novel.

  135. 135.

    Bobby Thomson

    Frankly, I’m outraged at Julyfest.

    Joe Biden should have had a nice Dogfish Head. Mmmmmmm. Raison d’etre.

  141. 141.

    Anne Laurie

    All Things Considered just followed up yesterday’s story about the beer selection for today’s “Beer Summit” with reader letters, of which several apparently recommended a Black-And-Tan as a symbol of communities coming together.
    Because, you know, they’re idiots.
    And that would be my judgement even without the strong Irish-Catholic heritage of American cops, of the Boston-area cops in particular, and iirc of Sgt. Crowley.

    Heck, according to Wikipedia, when he submitted to DNA testing Professor Gates“learned that he is descended from the Irish King, Niall of the Nine Hostages”. No wonder the two started up scrappin’ the moment they laid eyes on each other, and I say that as someone who grew up in that same “strong Irish-Catholic heritage”. Neither Crowley’s nor Obama’s mother’s ethnic ancestry is mentioned in Teh Wiki, but the odds are favorable that one or both of them has at least some “Scots-Irish”, aka “mixed Celtic, extra angry” genes in their background.

    I was told, during my childhood, that the drink was called a black&tan “because it’ll knock you on your arse, and all you’ll remember the next morning is that nobody had a good time”. While checking TW could not confirm this, there was a disconcerting item under “Variations”:

    Black & Blue: Stout with Blue Moon Belgian White, or stout and blueberry ale, Guinness and Pabst Blue Ribbon, Guinness and Labatt Blue. Typically, this refers to any variation of stout coupled with blueberry-flavored ales or brands with the name “Blue” in them.

  143. 143.

    Steeplejack

    @jacy:

    Good on you. You have given a home to an animal who sorely needed one, and it looks like the “integration” is going well.

  144. 144.

    Steeplejack

    @El Bandito Blancito:

    Go basic: the Wingnuts. Or, if you want to be edgy, the Wingnutz. Optionally embellish as the Flying Wingnuts/Wingnutz.

    And, by the way, shouldn’t your name be “El Bandito Blanquito”? The way you’ve got it now you get a soft c, which I’m not sure is what you want.

  145. 145.

    OriGuy

    @Anne Laurie:
    Obama’s Irish Ancestry

    Much more is now known about Barack Obama’s Irish ancestry. His 18th century Irish family were already politically active and ambitious. Our researchers have traced his family back to the 17th century, and uncovered a mass of detail about his Irish forebears. The family were prominent in the business and political life of Dublin City in the first half of the 18th Century. The head of the family, Michael Kearney was Dublin’s most successful wigmaker, and even his opponents said of him, “No man alive was equally fired with ambition” in a scurrillous pamphlet in which he was accused of trying to take over the Guild of Barber Surgeons & Periwig Makers in Dublin. The pamphlet further urged the “Black-guards of Town” to pelt him [Michael Kearney] with “Pellets of Perjury”. The Kearneys invested their profits from wigs, in property, as the city of Dublin grew rapidly in the 1700s.

  146. 146.

    Wile E. Quixote

    @John Cole

    Haven’t paid attention to the news all day, turned on MSNBC and learned that we are two hours away from the “beer” summit, and up next would be an interview with Michael Jackson’s former chef.

    And to think that there are still people who are incredulous when I tell them that I don’t have cable, a satellite or an OTA antenna to receive TV broadcasts and that I just watch everything on Hulu, iTMS or on DVDs. Like I’m going to pay 60 bucks a month so I can have fucking Fox, CNN and MSNBC piped into my home? Yeah, thanks a whole fucking bunch, can I instead pay 75 bucks a month to have a hairy construction worker come over and run a belt sander over my scrotum? It would be less painful and annoying and who knows, I might develop a warm and deeply meaningful friendship with the scrotum sanding guy.

  147. 147.

    Wile E. Quixote

    @steve s

    Google shows 241 distinct Balloon-Juice threads where someone has been called a Concern Troll.
    Results 1 – 100 of about 241 from https://balloon-juice.com for “concern troll”. (0.09 seconds)
    For comparison, take a look at this:
    Results 1 – 21 of 21 from http://www.redstate.com for “activist judge”. (0.36 seconds)
    I thought ‘concern troll’ was to here as ‘activist judge’ was to the conservatives. I was wrong. Conservatives appear to be way more discriminating with their term.

    But that’s not all, Google doesn’t display any matches for the search term “activist concern troll”! So this is all good news for John McCain. w00t

  148. 148.

    Wile E. Quixote

    @Warren Terra

    Finally, and I hesitate to raise this issue, your comment adopts a worried tone to raise a potential problem about the behavior of the community here, and it does so in a manner that is so poorly founded as positively to invite dismissal, even disparagement. Are you simply trawling for comments, placing a big fat bulls-eye on yourself in the hopes of being labelled with precisely the term whose use so troubles you?

    So are you saying that Steve S is concern trolling about concern trolling? Dude, that’s an awesome display of meta-fu!

  150. 150.

    Anne Laurie

    @OriGuy: All the best people, she said immodestly. Secret is, we’ve been getting kicked out of the Nice Neighborhoods since time immemorable (pre-classical Greek, anyways), and we’ll try anything once… which has more than a little to do with us getting kicked out of the nicer neighborhoods, probably.

  151. 151.

    Gravenstone

    @Wile E. Quixote:

    So are you saying that Steve S is concern trolling about concern trolling? Dude, that’s an awesome display of meta-fu!

    Dude, you just stole my snark about the meta abuse. Guess that’s what I get for showing up hours late in a thread.

  152. 152.

    Origuy

    @Anne Laurie:Well, I have Hatfields and MacCoys in my tree, though from before the famous feud; the English joined up with the Scottish aristocracy to clear out those dirty peasants so that they could make more money with sheep.

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