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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread

Open Thread

by Tim F|  October 14, 200911:31 am| 29 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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I heard that we need one.

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Previous Post: « Here Is An Idea
Next Post: The power of myth »

Reader Interactions

29Comments

  1. 1.

    Comrade Mary

    October 14, 2009 at 11:58 am

    Empty for over 20 minutes? Really?

    One more time, then: the beta version of BJ 3.0. It’s not really a web site.

  2. 2.

    matoko_chan

    October 14, 2009 at 11:59 am

    First crossover tune to break the top 40 in alternative that is also a video game.
    Heads up, hearts down by I Fight Dragons

    Soon, gamers will rule the world…..we have already colonized your language.
    all your base are belong to us.

  3. 3.

    The Grand Panjandrum

    October 14, 2009 at 12:02 pm

    Matt Taibbi hates America and sides with the Taliban! Seriously if you are going to mock Obama winning the NPP this is how you do it.

  4. 4.

    Thadeus Horne

    October 14, 2009 at 12:04 pm

    Good morning. I don’t think I have ever been this high…on the board that is.
    A good day already. I defrosted my reefer and cleaned the ashes from my wood stove.

  5. 5.

    ellaesther

    October 14, 2009 at 12:06 pm

    @Comrade Mary: It’s really more of a platform, as I understand it.

  6. 6.

    ellaesther

    October 14, 2009 at 12:11 pm

    @The Grand Panjandrum: Oh dear. You see, even when I agree with the man he just makes me so irritable that I want to go over to the other side, reflexively! The instant I read “rolling around on the ground and spitting up greenish foam in a state of shock, as most of us were this past weekend as the news of Obama’s amazing award rolled over the airwaves…”, I was ready to be done.

    Sigh. Oh, Matt.

    (And I know you know, my dear GP, that I do in fact agree with Matt on this one!)

  7. 7.

    Brian J

    October 14, 2009 at 12:16 pm

    So what are the odds we get a good health care bill? I’m optimistic, since it’s probably easier to pass a bill that expands coverage in a less than perfect way and then fix the flaws later. I read some comments over the last few days from MIT economist Jon Gruber who suggested that ideally cost controls could be coupled with expansion of coverage, but that the latter is more important than the former now.

    On a separate note, I didn’t see any threads devoted to this, but since Elinor Ostrom of Indiana University was the first woman to win the Economics Nobel but isn’t an economist, there was bound to be some backlash. Most tenured professors like the guys at Marginal Revolution say it was well deserved, but reading comments from a graduate student board, you have to wonder about the ego of some people. I don’t like to place too much emphasis on authority, but I always find it amusing when students bash someone like Krugman for dumb or ignorant. Guys like him, no matter what their views, have probably forgotten more about their fields than some of these guys will ever know.

  8. 8.

    different church-lady

    October 14, 2009 at 12:16 pm

    So, looks like after the scary, bizarre August we had, it’s safe to simply laugh at republicans again?

  9. 9.

    Martin

    October 14, 2009 at 12:17 pm

    Empty for over 20 minutes? Really?

    Most of us are only into the open threads for the pets.

  10. 10.

    matoko_chan

    October 14, 2009 at 12:18 pm

    In the Alternative Conservative Universe, it is always October 13.

  11. 11.

    CJ's dad

    October 14, 2009 at 12:23 pm

    Can anyone tell me, is it the individual states or the federal government that limits insurance competition in the various states?

  12. 12.

    Chaz

    October 14, 2009 at 12:23 pm

    Whenever I’m feeling down there’s one thing that will instantly cheer me back up – rereading Hunter S. Thompson’s obituary of Richard Nixon.

    “These are harsh words for a man only recently canonized by President Clinton and my old friend George McGovern–but I have written worse things about Nixon, many times, and the record will show that I kicked him repeatedly long before he went down. I beat him like a mad dog with mange every time I got a chance, and I am proud of it. He was scum. “

  13. 13.

    Chad N Freude

    October 14, 2009 at 12:41 pm

    @The Grand Panjandrum: @ellaesther: Well, yesbut. How does the 1999 NPP for Doctors Without Borders (or Médecins Sans Frontières if you prefer drinking lattes) factor into Taibbi’s analysis? The exception that proves the rule? I think Taibbi does himself a disservice by ranting with a capital R instead of a lower case r.

    I think those five guys in Norway try to influence the course of international politics and diplomacy in selecting their awardees (talk about delusional), and they see all of the recipients through the prism of whatever good or making-nice they may have done, even after bombing the hell out of inferiors, as examples to be followed.

  14. 14.

    Chad N Freude

    October 14, 2009 at 12:45 pm

    @Brian J: Dude, we all know that work done by someone without academic credentials in the proper field can’t possibly be any good.

  15. 15.

    Chad N Freude

    October 14, 2009 at 12:49 pm

    @CJ’s dad: The states set the rules for insurance companies that operate within their borders. They don’t explicitly limit competition (nudge, nudge, wink, wink), they just set the rules that make it possible. This is what makes the prospect of buying insurance from out-of-state insurance companies so frightening — they will all rush to relocate in the states with the most company-friendly rules.

  16. 16.

    JenJen

    October 14, 2009 at 12:54 pm

    Just noticed over at the increasingly hilarious GOP.com, that the “O” in GOP is, from time to time, Hiram Revels.

    Except… the caption says he’s some guy named Hiram Rhodes (Revels’ middle name). :-)

    I’m not great at screencaps, but here:

    http://ow.ly/uodz

    This site is just gonna give, and give, and give…

  17. 17.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    October 14, 2009 at 1:03 pm

    @JenJen: lol

  18. 18.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    October 14, 2009 at 1:07 pm

    @JenJen: There are also lots of pretty young ladies named “Beta”.

  19. 19.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    October 14, 2009 at 1:13 pm

    Steele on Bipartisanship: Can we have a Rodney King moment?

    If by “Rodney King Moment” Steele means four men beating him over the head with riot sticks, then yeah, I’m all for a Rodney King moment.

  20. 20.

    JHF

    October 14, 2009 at 1:16 pm

    Oh good! If this is an open thread, I can pimp my latest invention, a blog post with a soundtrack!

  21. 21.

    geg6

    October 14, 2009 at 1:22 pm

    @Chad N Freude:

    I’m with you on the Taibbi article. I am usually all over his stuff, cheering him on. But in this instance, I think he is painting with a very, very broad brush. I accept his argument re: Obama getting the prize (though I am totally torn on the issue myself–I get both sides). But I don’t accept his characterization of what the prize symbolizes. If you look at the history of the prize, there are many instances of them giving it to someone who they hope will live up to it, but who has not yet. Many of them quite warlike in temperment (TR, anyone?). Sometimes Matt’s hyperbole hits and sometimes it misses. In this case, it misses for me. Not because I idolize Obama or anything, but because I don’t think he makes a good argument that you couldn’t poke a million holes through.

  22. 22.

    Chad N Freude

    October 14, 2009 at 1:29 pm

    @J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: Not only that, but this:

    Michael Steele just told Fox to look out because he is “cow on the tracks.” In other words, in addition to his other shortcomings, Steele is apparently unschooled on the history of train/cow confrontations, though I’m not sure it’s a metaphor Democrats will necessarily want to dispute.

  23. 23.

    Chad N Freude

    October 14, 2009 at 1:34 pm

    @geg6: Maybe Howie Kurtz can defend Taibbi. If that’s too mysterious a remark, see https://balloon-juice.com/?p=28219#comments.

  24. 24.

    JenJen

    October 14, 2009 at 2:07 pm

    @Just Some Fuckhead: Maybe the DNC should caption JFK as “John Fitzgerald.” Just to even things up a bit, no?

    And “Beta” is GOP for “Hot Chick.” What Up? You didn’t know?

  25. 25.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    October 14, 2009 at 2:21 pm

    @JenJen:

    And “Beta” is GOP for “Hot Chick.” What Up? You didn’t know?

    Yoyo, *makes gang sign for bipartisanship and thumps chest twice*

    I’m down wid’ it now.

  26. 26.

    JenJen

    October 14, 2009 at 2:36 pm

    @Just Some Fuckhead: You are practically “jiggy” with it, my main man!

    (I speak fluent Suburban Republican, having studied in the field)

    In other news, I will never tire of Our Lady of Perpetual Outrage’s favorite trick: “Keith Olbermann was mean to me, and then I got mean letters from nasty liberals, so really, I’m way, way, WAY too victimized to address anything KO or the nasty liberals were complaining about to begin with.”

    http://michellemalkin.com/2009/10/14/this-is-what-a-big-mashed-up-bag-of-meat-with-lipstick-looks-like/

  27. 27.

    Morbo

    October 14, 2009 at 2:44 pm

    @Chad N Freude: Steele is truly the gift that keeps on giving.

  28. 28.

    Kathy

    October 14, 2009 at 3:27 pm

    I busted a gut and ruined a keyboard laughing at wonkette’s take on Michael Steele’s appearance on Fox this morning. Lame attempt to post link failed. Check out Wonkette, I know everyone here has it bookmarked. Make sure that you read the updated link from the comments.

  29. 29.

    Bubblegum Tate

    October 14, 2009 at 3:27 pm

    Did you know that Levi Johnston is totally the same thing as a minstrel show? No, really!

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