Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Consistently wrong since 2002

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

In after Baud. Damn.

with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

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

Bark louder, little dog.

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

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

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

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

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108Comments

  2. 2.

    Midnight Marauder

    OT, but yep, this is exactly where this should go:

    Palling Around With Oprah: Winfrey Will Interview Sarah Palin Live Next Month

    Former Alaska Governor and best-selling author Sarah Palin will break her long media silence by sitting down with Oprah Winfrey for a live interview on Monday, November 16 — the day before Palin’s memoir is released.

    Of course, Winfrey is a big supporter of President Barack Obama, so it’ll be interesting to see if and how she and Palin talk about last year’s presidential campaign — not to mention some of Palin’s more inflammatory contentions, including that Obama was “palling around with terrorists.”

    Heh, indeed.

  4. 4.

    BerkeleyMom

    Well said sir. Too bad that to taken seriously by some in this country, the speaker has to state his military service bona fides first.

    When we hippies in Berkeley say the same exact thing in support of gay marriage rights, we get dismissed.

  6. 6.

    Amy

    That was one of many amazing statements made at the Augusta civic center, where the Maine legislature took testimony on the marriage law. The pro-equal marriage side had many heartfelt statements, as well as statements from the Maine associations of pediatricians and clinical psychologists. The anti side had people standing up with their Bibles talking about sin.

  11. 11.

    DanF

    I loved this line:

    My wife and I didn’t raise four sons with the idea that three of them would have a certain set of rights, but our gay child would be left out.

    Right on.

  13. 13.

    beltane

    So moving, an eloquent description of what freedom is really all about. I love these old-time New Englanders; when the Republican party started losing this crowd it was a big loss for them and for the rest of the country.

  14. 14.

    Zifnab

    I just don’t know who this is going to sway. You don’t have to be a hippie to get dismissed. You just have to say something no one wants to hear.

  16. 16.

    ellaesther

    Wow. So, you’re just really insisting that I be reduced to tears today, aren’t you.

    “I was raised on a potato farm… where I was raised to believe that all men are created equal, and I’ve never forgotten that.”

    I’m not sure that a more quintessentially American statement has ever been made. God bless him.

  18. 18.

    Davis X. Machina

    There’s an old-fashioned “I don’t give a damn what you do on your dime, provided you don’t do it in public and scare the horses” Yankee small-r republicanism that, while it drives anyone interested in taxes, zoning land-use planning, or public anything, I hope isn’t dead yet.

  21. 21.

    Jack

    @Davis X. Machina:

    Here in NH, the old guard long resisted the encroachment of southern/western movement conservatism.

    But they are literally dying off, and in their places we get freestaters, glibertarians and thumpers from the new crop of local megachurches.

  29. 29.

    licensed to kill time

    Heh – I was wondering what the “comments cleaning” referred to. Was wandering elsewhere and missed it. I should’ve known BOB was involved.

  30. 30.

    Crashman06

    This was a nice video to watch. Made me feel good about the future and the past on a gray day.

    Thanks for shutting down the resident troll before he could ruin it with pseudo-scientific nonsense.

  31. 31.

    Laura W

    I just hope BOB is being loyal to Little Becksy Bitsy during his visits to Ban Land.
    Hate not having any quality time with him anymore.

  37. 37.

    lamh31

    No offense to ya’ll Keith O and Rachel fans, but why aren’t we boycotting MSNBC yet?

    Serious Question
    by BooMan

    Traditional Americans are white. That’s Pat Buchanan’s term. Sarah Palin preferred to use ‘Real Americans.’ That’s probably because until 1920 it was traditional in this country to deny women the right to vote. Whatever, we get it.

    There are a lot of white people in this country who don’t like to see people of color immigrating here, legally or otherwise. A half-black president freaks them out. Even if they’ve always been dirt poor at least they had a leg-up in their citizenry rights and knew they had the darkies outnumbered.

    They feel like they’re losing their country. They can’t send their kids to public schools or colleges without them being taught about tectonic plates, evolution, and comparative religion. It’s a bummer.
    The question is, why would a major American political party tie themselves to this bitter and shrinking demographic?

    Patrick J BuchKKanan is one of the main reasons why I no longer watch MSNBC, sorry Rachel & Keith. I know it’s their own network and MSNBC signs their paychecks, but everytime I see Pat’ racist behind on MSNBC’s screen, and no one taking a stand against him (Tweety invites him on specifically so he can spout his racist drivel) I’m very happy ignoring MSNBC all together. How can you rant and rave about Bill O or Hannity, or Beck or FoxNews in general (Keith & Rachel) and never seem to mention this snake in their own mix? It’s ridiculous and hyocritical. So MSNBC, ain’t on in my house.

  39. 39.

    martha

    More tears here. Just when I think people have lost their minds, I realize it’s only a relative few of them. They’re just louder and shriller.

  42. 42.

    twiffer

    @ crashman06: tectonic theory contradicts young earth teachings, let alone the flood myth. moreover, believing the continents move around would conflict with the idea that god created everything where it currently is, so it should stay there. damnit!

    or, shorter: it’s science.

  45. 45.

    BFR

    @Crashman06

    If you’re a Young Earth Creationist, then plate tectonics has to be false because any theory that requires the passage of more than 7000 of years can’t be true.

    Basically you can’t have Biology or Physics if you’re a creationist – and Physics knocks out math to some extent. History is out because it ties to closely to Anthropology, which also has to be false because of the 7000 year issue. I guess that leaves bible study and not much else.

  47. 47.

    Martin

    When we hippies in Berkeley say the same exact thing in support of gay marriage rights, we get dismissed.

    That’s because you are the center of the homosexual agenda. Like Hitlers march on Czechoslovakia, the DFH army organized out of Berkeley seeks to overthrow Jesus in our great 48 or so states, where straight couples will have to wear the badge of cheesy wedding receptions and poorly designed kitchens. Style will be concentrated among the gay elite, and straight Americans will be denied such fundamental liberties as the ability to own a Land Rover or a Mini with a Union Jack on the roof. This hemp menace must be stopped, and must be stopped now, or the ever-crushing tyranny of observing same-sex couples hold hands at football games and NASCAR races will soon be upon us.

  48. 48.

    inkadu

    This guy has moral standing with people because he fought in WW2, was a rural potato farmer, and is old.

    I find that annoying.

    But I still loved the speech.

  49. 49.

    gwangung

    @BFR:

    If you’re a Young Earth Creationist, then plate tectonics has to be false because any theory that requires the passage of more than 7000 of years can’t be true.

    Too bad we can actually measure the plates moving.

  50. 50.

    Martin

    I guess that leaves bible study and not much else.

    Political Science and Economics. No amount of reality can undermine their relevance either.

  51. 51.

    licensed to kill time

    @lamh31:
    Pat Buchanan’s Idea of a Victim

    As Buchanan sees it, “white working-class voters” just can’t catch a break anymore. For example, have you heard that public schools no longer endorse and promote Christianity? I know; it’s shocking. Did you realize that white working-class voters’ Christian faith is “mocked in movies and on TV”? I don’t know what channel Buchanan is watching, but the Baseless Victimization Channel isn’t part of my cable package. Did you know that “illegal aliens” are routinely “rewarded with free educations and health care”? Sounds like a pretty sweet deal.

    I don’t know why Rachel has him on all the time. He’s a crusty old racist dinosaur who occasionally crinkles up his beady little eyes and laughs to take the sting out of his words. But I won’t not watch her because of him.

    (that was an awkward last sentence…)

  52. 52.

    Martin

    Too bad we can actually measure God moving the plates moving.

    Magic fairy dust fixes everything.

  53. 53.

    BDeevDad

    On a related note, activist judge!!

    The judge not only refused but signaled that when the case goes to trial in January, he expects Cooper and his legal team to present evidence showing that male-female marriages would be undermined if same-sex marriages were legal.

  54. 54.

    BFR

    @gwangung

    Too bad we can actually measure the plates moving.

    I think the mental gymnastics required to deny astrophysics are way harder than plate tectonics.

    You can always claim that the plates just started moving or some such thing, but if you insist that the universe is 7000 years old, then you basically can’t have stars or galaxies unless you claim that the speed of light in a vaccuum is variable, despite the fact that it’s proveably not.

  55. 55.

    ellaesther

    @inkadu: I do hear what you’re saying — I wonder at this tendency in myself — but there is legitimate power in these things, I think.

    Soldier, farmer, elderly — these are all things that our society values. We have also come to expect certain kinds of politics from soldiers, farmers, and the elderly. Our expectations aren’t necessarily reality-based, but they are cultural tropes. We’re in turn surprised, and in the case of liberals such as myself, gratified and grateful when those we expect to say one thing, say something else entirely.

    I will, however correct my earlier statement, above @ellaesther: It is not necessarily more “quintessentially American” to have been raised on a potato farm than to have, say, grown up in New York City. It truly isn’t, in no small part because more Americans have grown up in our cities than on our farms.

    But it is a cultural trope, and one I enjoyed, as the tears gathered in my eyes, not least because of the upended expectations. I fell into a feel-good trap!

  56. 56.

    Mnemosyne

    It reminds me of a story I read years ago about a woman who was teaching at a special high school in New York for gay kids who had been so bullied by their classmates that they were about to drop out. She was from a very conservative Orthodox Jewish family that was horrified that she would work with gay kids. They pressured her and pressured her until she finally agreed that they would go talk to their elderly rabbi and if he disapproved, she would find another job.

    So they went to the rabbi and explained the whole situation. He listened and said, “Of course this is a good thing that she’s doing! What’s wrong with you people?”

  58. 58.

    freelancer

    @BFR:

    No, no. I’ve actually debated this and used it as a main point. Forget evolution, forget geology, what about STARS?!

    “Uh, Gawd created the light from the stars on the way here so that it only looks like it’s older than 6 thousand years.”

    Apologetics Pretzel.

    and you’re done talking.

  60. 60.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    the sanctity of marriage

    Yeah, our country really values marriage. That’s why, in some states, if you share a hotel room with someone, you are considered married to them. A very precious institution to our society.

  61. 61.

    BFR

    @Freelancer

    No, no. I’ve actually debated this and used it as a main point. Forget evolution, forget geology, what about STARS?!
    “Uh, Gawd created the light from the stars on the way here so that it only looks like it’s older than 6 thousand years.”

    That’s awesome. I think I’d go with gawd made it so that the speed of light decreased a whole bunch right after the creation of the universe, such that it while it seems constant right now, it was infinite right after creation.

    I don’t think that gets you around some of the gravitational distortion effects but it sounds more scientician.

  62. 62.

    Martin

    You can always claim that the plates just started moving or some such thing, but if you insist that the universe is 7000 years old, then you basically can’t have stars or galaxies unless you claim that the speed of light in a vaccuum is variable, despite the fact that it’s proveably not.

    Dude, God creating the firmament is 10 seconds into reading the Bible. It’s covered before people are. You just project all that star shit on the firmament and you’re set. Because God has infinite resolution projectors, scientists with their silly telescopes will never reveal the truth.

  63. 63.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    Yeah, our country really values marriage.

    Nothing more than a conservative dog whistle. Half our problem in combatting this kind of shit is that we don’t constantly call them out on it.

    Oh wait, we do. It’s the Corporate Media Fucktards who don’t.

  64. 64.

    Little Dreamer

    @gwangung:

    Too bad we can actually measure the plates moving.

    Well, that’s debatable, because if the distance a plate moves in a person’s lifetime is so miniscule that it happens to be merely inches, a creationist has a much easier time believing that there is really no proof that said movement occurred. If these plates would just move, say, 12 miles in five years, that would be a lot harder to ignore.

    just kidding, but unfortunately I don’t think I’m too far off the mark there.

  66. 66.

    lamh31

    No need to “unclutch my pearls”, other than Rachel’s last interview with pat over Sotomayor, Keith and Rachel don’t counter any of his “drivel”.

    Ask yourself this, how many times has Keith O had Bill O or Hannity or any other RW idiot as his “Worse Person In The World”? And then ask yourself how many times has he included Pat Buchannan? The answer is never.

    So who challenges Buchanan? Other than Rachel’s last interview, please tell me who challenges it. Pat just gets to spout off his bigoted remarks and NO ONE on MSNBC challenges him. When Eugene Robinson is on with Pat how often does he “challenge” some of the most obviously bigotted staetment by Buchanan.

    Maybe I missed it, but MSNBC has never ever “challenged” Pat’s assertions. What they do is take him off the air for a while, to let things “cool down” but then BAM!!! He’s back. Where was the challenge?

    I could care less what “choir” they are preaching too. If I’m gonna lecture Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer, and CNN on that rat fink Lou Dobbs and them not challenging his xenophobic assertions, I can’t be upset with the resident libs on MSNBC for just letting Buchanan just spout his nonsense with a “oh…Pat” smile, and a “you rascally dog you…” shrugs cause I like them. Naw, that just makes me a hypocrite too

  67. 67.

    slippy

    @Little Dreamer: You could never have the continental plates move fast enough or far enough to outdistance the goalposts that fundies routinely shift Heaven and Earth in order to avoid concluding that they are WRONG.

  68. 68.

    BFR

    @Martin

    Dude, God creating the firmament is 10 seconds into reading the Bible. It’s covered before people are. You just project all that star shit on the firmament and you’re set. Because God has infinite resolution projectors, scientists with their silly telescopes will never reveal the truth.

    Yeah, but you’re still left with saying that stars aren’t real – they’re just light little LEDs on the firmament. This, despite that it’s provable that the sun is a big round ball of gas and stars appear to have all of the same properties as the sun.

    I think you’re better off monkeying with the speed of light.

  69. 69.

    slag

    @Little Dreamer:

    Well, that’s debatable, because if the distance a plate moves in a person’s lifetime is so miniscule that it happens to be merely inches, a creationist has a much easier time believing that there is really no proof that said movement occurred.

    Exactly. And the fact that it’s cold outside today is how I know there’s no such thing as global warming. I believe in God’s yardstick. And thermometer.

  70. 70.

    Little Dreamer

    @Mnemosyne:

    That’s because Jews understand that the story about God’s anger towards Sodom and Gomorrah didn’t have anything to do with homosexuality at all.

  73. 73.

    RememberNovember

    God Bless that man, I wish there were more like him speaking out. Unfortunately those who gave everything so their grandchildren could grow up to be spoiled prats are prolly rolling 6 feet under now.

  76. 76.

    Little Dreamer

    @slag:

    There’s only one problem with that – the writers of the Old Testament (read that as “before Jesus”) knew that the earth was created through a Big Bang. The terminology describing the Big Bang as God “stretching…” or “stretched forth the heavens” (and various other combinations of words using “stretch”, “spread”, “bow” and some descriptive of the universe, world, etc… is recounted numerous times in the Old Testament writings. You can find a list of them here about a third of the way down the page.

  77. 77.

    Little Dreamer

    @lamh31:

    My problem lately is that Tweety doesn’t call out Buchanan on his crap. I recently saw Hardball listed as a liberal commentary show (Scarborough was the only conservative commentary show listed on MSNBC) and I don’t think Hardball is very liberal at all.

  78. 78.

    Cat Lady

    He had me at “Biddafid”. Being from Boston, that’s just pure Yankee win right there. We used to have a lot of Republicans like him everywhere around here – hell, they were the “grown ups”. Now, they’re all independents because they’re sane, and Americans first. See “Snowe, Olympia”.

  79. 79.

    freelancer

    OT: Linked at C&L this morning, this is the funniest blog I’ve stumbled upon in a long damned time.

    http://mudflapbubbas.blogspot.com/

    Take one of us and stick us in Bumfuck, KS. Hilarity ensues.

    Damned near makes Omaha sound like the Northeast Corridor:

    She had bought a t-shirt at a sportswear shop and needed to return it. Since we had the same store, I suggested that she try it here. I snickered to myself, because I was fully cognizant that this would be the nail in the coffin for her. I learned very quickly that any simple task that would go without a hitch in the outside world…say…returning an item at a retail store…..can rapidly turn into a huge catastrophic disaster in under ten seconds out here.
    …
    Besides that, I knew that within a short amount of time her brain would turn on itself and start self destructing, thus rendering her entirely futile “positive” attitude bullshit speech useless. Then I could yell at her with that condescending I-am-the-big-sister-I-know-more-than-you smug tone I always use with her…“SEE? SEE? SEE WHAT I MEAN?”
    …
    As we drove further away from reality, she kept saying “Where are the trees?”, “There is nothing to look at”, “There are only two lane highways?”, “Wow. Does everyone out here drive a pickup truck?”…things of that nature, I gleefully waited for the full effect to sink in. “Geeze, does everyone drive that slow?” I explained to her that people drive slow out here, because they have nowhere to go…so what’s the point of being in a hurry?
    …
    When we finally arrived, I immediately took her to exchange her shirt. I sat in the car and let nature take its course.
    …
    After about twenty minutes, she came stomping out of the store. “Jesus H. Christ. First of all, the chick helping me couldn’t sign on to the cash register. Then she couldn’t figure out how to reimburse my credit card. Then, the manager, who was the rocket scientist of the group, was called in from the back. He didn’t know how to do a return on a credit card either. So I thought I could just exchange it. Well, those morons couldn’t figure out how to exchange it, because the tax is different here. I finally gave up. I will have to do it at home.” I burst into hysterics and the bitchy big sister…. “SEE? SEE? I TOLD YOU!!”

    EDIT: Ellipses FTW! Tx RedKitten! (or whoever it was that figured it out from the gass thread)

  80. 80.

    edsaid

    This guy has moral standing with people because he fought in WW2, was a rural potato farmer, and is old.

    I find that annoying.

    inkadu, I do hope you are finding 6th grade enjoyable.

  81. 81.

    phoebes-in-santa fe

    That wonderful old man sounds a lot like my father – except my father’s dead now and none of his four kids are gay. And, my father, a veteran of the Pacific Theater, was a life-long liberal Democrat and a political-junkie.

    He died, at the age of 91, in 2007. Alert up to the end, he loved nothing better than discussing – in minute detail – political campaigns of the past with my two sons. I can only guess how much he would have adored this past campaign season.

    To those who loved the Mainer’s speech but questioned whether he had to bring in his military service so strongly, I say that was the basis for his speech, and for his views.

    I also look at these Tea-baggers and agree that they have lost “their” country. “Their” country will never return – thankfully – because we are now a country of “mutts”. One of the reasons I supported Obama was because his face is the face of the New America.

    It’s a fact that white America is gone forever. The “Tea-baggers” (I bet none of them know the real meaning of the term – heh heh) are already “outnumbered” by we “mutts”. We must move forward with “New America” and provide health care for all and tolerance for all. If gays want to get married and share our joys (and miseries) – great.

  82. 82.

    lamh31

    Laura W,

    I forgot all about Lawrence O. I stand corrected, but his put down of Pat is far and above the few times that anyone attempts to put Pat in his place. Notice though, that Lawrence does not yet have a show on MSNBC. If he does get one, here’s hoping he doesn’t stop callin Pat out on his bullcrap.

  84. 84.

    SGEW

    Jumpin’ on to say a couple o’ things:

    1) Watched this video earlier. Unbelievably moving; just the most quintessentially American testimony. Moved to tears.

    2) Is B.O.B. fucking banned now, or what? What does it take?

  85. 85.

    Terri

    About 16 years ago right before my daughter was born, my partner and I marched in Atlanta’s Pride parade. Somewhere near the end, we had to pass by the very politically active, very homophobic 1st Baptist Church. There was a group of dour looking old men who were the church elders standing out on the sidewalk. As we passed by, me and my 8 month pregnant self, one of the old men threw a Coke on me and screamed that he hoped my child would be born dead, and, that there was a special place in hell for me. Had I not been pregnant, I would have kicked his evil, old ass. A little farther down the street was St Mark’s Methodist church where the congregation was passing out bottled water, and telling us how welcomed we would be at their church. I stopped and asked a woman if she had some towels or napkins to clean myself up. When I told her what had happened, she hugged me through her tears, and asked me not to hold against her, what he had done. I remember crying like a baby at the kindness shown by these people, in contrast to the hatred I had just experienced.

    Watching this video, the same feeling came flooding back, with tears streaming down my face. I wish I could give that man a hug, and tell him thank you. Thanks Doug, for posting that. You just made my day.

  86. 86.

    John O

    Thanks for that video. I loved it.

    That was my grandfather’s GOP right there, FSM rest his soul.

    He hated taxes, and he hated “government,” but he was fabulously consistent about it, was pro-choice on just about everything, and I know would find it reprehensible that the GOP was wallowing in issues like gay marriage.

    Granpa was a helluva guy; early onset diabetes whose ass he kicked like a rabid yard dog; union organizer in his youth, town alderman in his older years. Never had the money to get a formal education after marrying grandma at 19, but read so voraciously and was so natively smart he was an intellectual joy, and by virtue of his medical condition a strong believer in that crazy thing we call “science” these days.

    We used to sit and watch McNeil-Lehrer and argue a lot. But I loved him, he loved me, and we both knew it.

    May Philip and his story be forever enshrined in the YouTube annals of history.

  88. 88.

    Mnemosyne

    @Michael D.:

    Yes, because there’s absolutely no difference between whinging in the comments sections of websites and testifying in front of the state legislature. In fact, whinging in the comments sections of websites is actually better than letting legislators know what you want since there’s no danger that they might actually listen to you and not give you anything more to complain about.

    So, yes, let’s encourage people to only talk to the echo chamber and never actually express their opinion to the people who can actually change the laws — there’s no possible way that could go badly!

  89. 89.

    FLRealist

    What a powerful video. Thank you, sir, for 1) fighting for our country in WWII and 2) fighting for equality in 2009. Bravo!

  91. 91.

    Mnemosyne

    @Michael D.:

    Psst. It turned out that Aravosis’ report was not correct and Harwood’s contact never said that GLBT activists should shut up. This is kind of what John was talking about — people taking manufactured controversies and claiming that the mere fact that people believed them to be true means that they really are true even if the, you know, actual facts say the opposite.

  92. 92.

    inkadu

    @ellaesther: I’m a sucker for the Real American schtick, just like you. I hate it when Republicans dunder heads talk about “The Real America,” and realize I start throwing apple pies just as soon as a stereotypical Real American agrees with my views. It doesn’t make it right… it just makes it primal.

    After I was done wiping the tears from my eyes, I started thinking about it a little more about what was happening… I think what got me going was that this veteran Republican tax cutting codger was going against his cultural grain because he loved his son. He’s not any more a real American than anyone else, but it takes a bit more bravery for him to publically support gay rights as an elderly man in a conservative area than it would for me, and that is touching and admirable.

    @edsaid: I guess “moral standing” was exactly the wrong word to use, because it’s all those things I listed upon which moral standing is based. I think the above captures the my annoyance a little better. I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s exercise in narcissism.

  93. 93.

    inkadu

    Sorta OT, but I like Maine because it’s one of the few rural places that finds cowboy hats ridiculous.

  95. 95.

    LD50

    If you’re a Young Earth Creationist, then plate tectonics has to be false because any theory that requires the passage of more than 7000 of years can’t be true.

    I’ve seen Creationists who concede plate tectonics, but who say the continents did ALL their moving in 6,000 years. Seriously.

  96. 96.

    Anne Laurie

    “I was raised on a potato farm… where I was raised to believe that all men are created equal, and I’ve never forgotten that…”

    “… Also, the sun-shocked green spuds are not only bitter, they’re poisonous. All you can do is compost their wrinkly remnants somewhere they won’t contaminate future spud generations.”

  97. 97.

    Sanka

    Old folks crying about their gay children = real America

    Old folks crying about the inevitable takeover of healthcare a massive federal expansion into the healthcare industry = astroturfing right wing political terrorists obviously bought and paid for by some right wing conspiracy.

    I get it now…

  101. 101.

    Lesley

    Of course, every homophobic fundamentalist Republican douchebag will, if they haven’t already, find some way to denigrate this gentle man, including making fun of his war record. Such is the way of sociopaths.

  104. 104.

    Calouste

    @LD50:

    So do they say that no one noticed that land was moving at about a yard per day or that everything moved really fast before people started to write things down and then it slowed down to the current speed of a few inches per year?

  105. 105.

    slippy

    @Sanka: It’s hard to deny that the Teabaggers were astroturfing when we could read the instructional memos that were handed out for them, and actually had Fox News personnel ON TAPE leading the protests.

    Your assumption that we’re all so stupid we didn’t see that is insulting.

    Also, if you have a better idea on how to make America’s healthcare system function so that it takes care of Americans’ health, you can either PUT UP or SHUT THE FUCK UP.

  106. 106.

    lou

    I think the mental gymnastics required to deny astrophysics are way harder than plate tectonics.

    There’s a creationist who is trying to use the THEORY of Relativity to dispute the THEORY of Evolution. He postulates that there’s some hidden black hole somewhere near earth that has slowed down our time compared to the rest of the universe and that explains why starlight can be 20 billion years old while earth is 6,000. or some such nonsense. my brain hurts trying to understand their contortions.

  107. 107.

    twiffer

    @bfh: while we once thought the sun was a mass of incandescent gas, we now know the sun is a miasma of incandescent plasma.
    —————————————————–
    arguments against tectonic theory are patently silly. we can actually observe it and measure it. we’ve been to ocean ridges and can see the plates diverging. we know where the edges are and pretty much what happens there. we know the average rates of movement (for example, about 2.5 inches a year west for the north american plate). geology is primarily an observational science: we can go out and see this stuff happening. experimentation and modeling is to figure out the mechanics of observed processes (mostly).

    anyway, it was actually niagra falls that put the lie to young earth theory, nearly (if i remember the dates right) a 100 years before tectonic theory emerged. once they figured out the amount of time it would take to erode the gorge, young earth theory was dead in the water. now we have a better understanding of how geologic process work and the vast amounts of time most of them need. oh, yeah, and we can date crustal rocks. and meteorites. and moon rock.

    these people either just hate or/and do not understand science.

  108. 108.

    chrome agnomen

    awwww, i missed bob’s comment. i almost never read them because, frankly, they’re either not offensive enough, or are just poorly expressed. sorry to have missed this gem. every court needs its fool, to sharpen the senses that linger in the fireball heat./bob (not BOB)

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