Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

So many bastards, so little time.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

The willow is too close to the house.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

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

Let there be snark.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

Washington Post’s Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

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

You are here: Home / Fifteen Minutes of Shame

Fifteen Minutes of Shame

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So looking at the GOP instant heroes of the last year, Joe the Plumber has exposed himself as a crazy and ignorant fool, Carrie Prejean is involved in amessy and very public litigation with the pageant and now has unpaid for breast implants and a sex tape, Doug Hoffman proved that you actually can lose NY-23 to Democrats, and Sarah Palin quit her job to suck up some of that wingnut welfare while paying someone to write stupid shit on her Facebook page, all while waging a public battle with the father of her daughter’s child, who is spilling all on every nightly gossip show and showing all on Playgirl. And I haven’t even gone into Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and many others.

You would think they would vet their instant celebs before making them the faces of conservatism.

All of this, of course, is excellent news for John McCain.

Reader Interactions

198Comments

  5. 5.

    scav

    nah, it’s entirely logical so long as you admit the premise that there’s no such thing as bad publicity. Blago and Delay being poster children of that persuasion. not to mention our local palindromic infestation.

  9. 9.

    licensed to kill time

    Gads, the list is endless. I was going to mention the GOP stalker guy and his 19 used condoms, but I see this is the “instant heroes” category.

  10. 10.

    R-Jud

    while paying someone to write stupid shit on her Facebook page

    FWIW, lots of people pay to have Facebook/Twitter updates written for them. I do it for a few of my more important clients. It’s pointless marketing wharrrgarble, though. Not stupid.

  13. 13.

    Roger Moore

    You would think they would vet their instant celebs before making them the faces of conservatism.

    Why would you think that? The Republican party has shown no willingness to spend effort vetting anyone for quite some time. This is the party where search committees routinely turn up their chairmen as the best qualified candidate for whatever position they’re searching for (see Cheney, Richard and Miers, Harriet). This is the party that runs on the “Holier than Jesus” platform but keeps turning out con men and sexual deviants as candidates. Why should they apply any tougher vetting standards to people who they expect to use and discard?

  14. 14.

    SiubhanDuinne

    And what ever happened to that young woman who was “mugged” and had the “B” carved carved the “B” into her face during the campaign last year?

  16. 16.

    Why oh why

    “Joe the Plumber has exposed himself as a crazy and ignorant fool”

    Well, maybe, but on the other hand but some GOP sources say there’s buzz about Joe running for president in 2012.

  17. 17.

    stevie314159

    And yet, recent polls have R’s over D’s in the generic congressional matchup.

    These blue dogs are killing us.

  19. 19.

    kommrade reproductive vigor

    @Zam: He’s now claiming (via his attorney) the vic. tried to grab his goolies. AND, he was dressed in suspicious attire (robe and sandals).

    So … yeah. I bet Red State’s planning a ticker tape poo-rade to honor this brave patriot for defending our shores from the menace of Kw33r Jihad.

  20. 20.

    scav

    This is getting to be like the golden oldies of advertising thread yesterday. giggly nostalgia you can sing to.

  22. 22.

    Keith

    This might explain why they’re pushing their traditional celebs (Jon Voight – the actor, not the dentist – Chuck Norris, and Cliff Claven, for example) more these days.

  24. 24.

    Tsulagi

    And I haven’t even gone into Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and many others.

    It’s a tap dancing chorus line of stupid.

  26. 26.

    Scruffy McSnufflepuss

    You fight IslamoCommuSocialiFasciDarwinism with the heroes you have, not the heroes you wish you had.

  27. 27.

    Napoleon

    @kommrade reproductive vigor:

    . . . AND, he was dressed in suspicious attire (robe and sandals).

    Good thing Jesus never dressed that way or the Christianist would have to ignore his teachings. Never mind, they really don’t follow them anyway.

  28. 28.

    Mike T

    The Pat Toomey ad running in the sidebar reminded me just how enormous Pat Toomey’s forehead is.

  32. 32.

    Egilsson

    What about Bobby Jindal and his coming-out party? You know, the one where the governor of a state pounded by a natural disaster sneered at federal spending “for something called volcano monitoring”. Yeah, the same guy who now poses in pictures where he’s giving out giant checks that he opposed funding. And that’s what passes as a “rising star” for republicans….

  33. 33.

    Scruffy McSnufflepuss

    I wish Beowulf were still around. He’d soon drive these Democrats from the Capitol.

    Achilles isn’t allowed to fight, though. No gays in the wingnut military.

  34. 34.

    Scruffy McSnufflepuss

    Achilles isn’t allowed to fight, though. No gays in the wingnut military.

    Well, except the ones in the closet, anyway.

  35. 35.

    SpotWeld

    Looking at the cavelcade of bloggers that the right-wing could be promoting to Palin-like status, I think they *have* been vetting thier celebs.

    Why else would the crew over at Red State be getting no love. (Just the occasional on-screen wink)

  36. 36.

    SiubhanDuinne

    This is just way off-topic (not that that’s anything new for me), but you know when you have one of those moments when you notice you’ve been conflating two people or places or books or memories, and you know how stupid you feel when you have the reverberating gong of realisation that you’re actually thinking about two entirely different people/places/etc.?

    I just realised that for FSM only knows how many years, I’ve been conflating Robert Greenwald (Brave New Films) and Glenn Greenwald (Glennzilla). Duh, and duh again.

  37. 37.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @SiubhanDuinne: That post was supposed to close with a gesture of slamming my palm into my forehead, but it done disappeared. Probably something to do with the fact that I put the text inside angle brackets?

  38. 38.

    Davis X. Machina

    The scary thing is that their poll numbers are rising in spite of this.

    The nutcases actually are making it easier for lapsed Republicans to return to the fold, and for recent ‘independents’ to uncloak.

    See No More Mister Nice Blog on the phenomenon, where Steve M opines:

    “[The Beckites et al.] [r]educing the many, many faults of the Bush-McCain GOP to two — too much pork, too soft on immigration — actually makes the party today look better in the eyes of GOP-persuadable voters than it would if they were looking at it realistically, as the same damn party of across-the-board failure it was then. So of course they’re going to come back into the fold.
    —
    By failing to deal effectively with unemployment and Wall Street’s crimes, Obama and the Democrats haven’t given them any reason not to. And the teabag leaders haven’t dissuaded them — their GOP critique is just too mild, and not really intended to drive voters out of the party at all.”

  40. 40.

    Brick Oven Bill

    Sarah Palin is smarter than Barack Obama.

    But Glenn Beck is smarter than Sarah Palin.

    Joe the Plumber has an intellect between that of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin. This is evidenced by his upcoming beer endorsement, and the taxes that Barack will levee upon him, proving Joe’s prescience.

    I was under the impression that Glenn, on the top of the intellectual heap, unleashed Barack’s first NCM, where Barack yelled, and Michelle cried. But this was incorrect, this was actually NCM2. I had forgotten Barack’s first NCM.

    NCM1.

    George Soros noticed NCM1 as well, and four days after NCM1, he crashed the economy, placing Tim in charge of the printing press.

  41. 41.

    gex

    @kommrade reproductive vigor: Okay, now. Even these guys might want to reconsider their go-to gay panic defense. Do these right wing dudes really want to set the standard that deadly force is an appropriate response to an unwanted pass from a dude?

  45. 45.

    Scruffy McSnufflepuss

    Sarah Palin is smarter than Barack Obama.

    My spoofdar just cracked. Damn it, these gauges are expensive!

  46. 46.

    Stooleo

    How bout Joe ” You Lie!” Wilson. Instant hero for the wingnuts. Raised over a million bucks in less that a week.

  47. 47.

    Col. Klink

    It really is pathetic isn’t it.

    There are now effectively four political parties in America. Progressive Democrats. Regressive Democrats. The Maine Sisters. The Wingnut, Know-Nothing Jamboree with special guest star Joe Lieberman and his sidekick Butters.

  49. 49.

    bemused

    Vetting would be the logical, common sense thing to do. The GOP doesn’t see any benefit in doing that because they know their gullible base will buy into anything. Vetting is sissy. To be a real conservative, you have to lie your ass off.

  50. 50.

    binzinerator

    It’s a great summation all right, funny too. It’d be even funnier if only we forget for the moment that these assholes want to fuck up and keep fucking up the lives of millions of people.

    Look at all the horrible things these nightmarish clowns have stood for, continue to support, and the demagoguery they use and the ideas they put into the heads of their followers.

    These are no ordinary clowns. These are clowns who kill.

  54. 54.

    Comrade Dread

    You would think they would vet their instant celebs before making them the faces of conservatism.

    Why would you think that?

    Anything bad that surfaces or any criticism feeds the martyr/victim complex many of these types love to wallow in and binds them closer together as a group against the hostile world.

    To do background checks before elevating media celebrities would mean losing the opportunity to engage in some good ol’ fashioned whining about the liberal media, the effete elites, and the Demonrats, and subsequently lose the opportunity to generate more unit cohesion.

  55. 55.

    Comrade Dread

    On a side note, I would encourage everyone to copy this quote and use it frequently if you feel the need to actually reply to BOB:

    “Mr. Madison, what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”

  56. 56.

    dadanarchist

    The Prejean situation will be another golden opportunity for Christianist hypocrisy, whereby they will “condemn the sin, not the sinner,” a courtesy rarely extended to those who hold liberal views.

    This will only be more proof of her sanctity, just like during the Ted Haggard affair.

  58. 58.

    licensed to kill time

    Oh, the Carrie Prejean thing reminds me I heard her on the teevee this morning explaining that her sex tape wasn’t a sex tape because she was all alone while fiddling with her sex. Is this a “depends on what the meaning of “is” is moment?”

  59. 59.

    forked tongue

    I actually did the math and figured out that Brick Oven Bill is saying not only that Palin is smarter than Barack Obama, but that Joe the Plumber is smarter than Barack Obama.

    This has grown me as a person.

  61. 61.

    Zifnab

    @Brick Oven Bill: Hey Bill.

    Suck. On. This.

    http://www.ecofriend.org/entry/eco-tech-spanish-wind-farms-outperform-11-nuclear-power-stations-with-record-output/

    Spanish wind farms with a theoretical maximum capacity of almost 18GW generated 11.5GW, providing about 53% of Spain’s total electricity needs. The output was a new record in a country that has the world’s third largest array of wind turbines.

    The new record, which beat a 44% level set earlier, came courtesy of strong winds that battered the Iberian Peninsula. The total output of the wind farms was equivalent to that of 11 nuclear power plants. The massive output also meant that the Spanish grid had more electricity than what it requires, and all that excess energy was used by hydroelectric plants to pump water back into their dams for future electricity generation.

    In other news, Francisco Franco is still dead.
    Al Gore still fat.

  63. 63.

    The Populist

    Sarah Palin is smarter than Barack Obama.

    Wrong, but not surprising coming from somebody who lied about Obama watching his own documentary like the little sheep you are. I guess you must be dumber than both huh?

    But Glenn Beck is smarter than Sarah Palin.

    Actually, she may be smarter. He’s just savvy.

    Joe the Plumber has an intellect between that of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin. This is evidenced by his upcoming beer endorsement, and the taxes that Barack will levee upon him, proving Joe’s prescience.

    He might be smarter than you, but I believe most mentally challenged kids are smarter than you.

    I was under the impression that Glenn, on the top of the intellectual heap, unleashed Barack’s first NCM, where Barack yelled, and Michelle cried. But this was incorrect, this was actually NCM2. I had forgotten Barack’s first NCM.

    Now you sound like a dumb troll.

    George Soros noticed NCM1 as well, and four days after NCM1, he crashed the economy, placing Tim in charge of the printing press.

    I’d trust a guy like Soros with the economy a lot more than I would any of your supply side heroes.

  64. 64.

    The Populist

    @Brick Oven Bill: Hey Bill.

    Suck. On. This.

    The military hating chickenhawk should also suck on the fact he was spreading a lie about the President. Suck on that Bob.

    Oh yes, sucking is something you do with regularity.

  65. 65.

    The Populist

    On a side note, I would encourage everyone to copy this quote and use it frequently if you feel the need to actually reply to BOB:

    We should also call him out for:

    The lie he spread about the president.

    His wrongheaded take on Nuclear energy.

    His unsubstantiated belief the President is dumb.

    His false patriotism towards our troops. I bet he thinks unless you fought in a war, you aren’t a veteran. BoB hates the troops, it’s very evident in many of his posts.

  66. 66.

    thomas

    I keep forgetting. Is it thick as a Brick Oven Bill or box of Bricks Oven Bill?
    Who has the answer?

    Also, this is excellent news for Preisdent McCain

  67. 67.

    kay

    @licensed to kill time:

    She makes the other dethroned beauty queens look like models of humility and grace, doesn’t she?

    Is this a smart way to kick off her career? Appearing on television and complaining about things?

    I thought, “Wow. What a completely miserable human being”.

    I’m not clear on who wronged her and what she’s owed, either. She seems to want redress. Money damages? From…us? An apology? For what?

    The other beauty queens showed some class under pressure, once the tape came out. She’s just whiny.

  68. 68.

    MacsenMifune

    How the hell did George Soros become the the Conservatives’ bogey man, he’s an near eighty year old Jewish capitalist. At least Dick Cheney looks the part.

  69. 69.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    Jon Voight – the actor, not the dentist

    I’m going to go put on my hat so I can tip it to you.

  70. 70.

    The Populist

    What about Bobby Jindal and his coming-out party? You know, the one where the governor of a state pounded by a natural disaster sneered at federal spending “for something called volcano monitoring”. Yeah, the same guy who now poses in pictures where he’s giving out giant checks that he opposed funding. And that’s what passes as a “rising star” for republicans….

    Oh yes, the hypocrisy of the right. Further reason why I want to end all “social” programs just to send a message to the rubes that this is what you wanted, right? I mean read the polls, watch the news and supposedly America is this far-right place regardless of the fact that a Centrist-Left Dem won the Presidency and Dems added two seats to the house.

    See, if I believe what BoB and other right wing idiots say, how come most people cringe when you say…fine, let’s do away with Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. While we are at it, the fire departments and police can be privatized (we know what will happen then!) and the roads can be as well.

    Why not? The news has us believing in this center-right nonsense so let’s do it? Let the poor starve because charity is so common right? Shoot, we are a big hearted nation regardless of what the facts say that we are not as generous as other nations in the world. Yep. End it all.

    While we are at it, pull abortion completely too. I bet the right dies and withers away because what will they have to tease their far right evangelicals with?

    BTW, I don’t want any of this but I am to the point of doing it on a dare. Why not? We can always put these programs and benefits back right? It’s time to call these rubes in red states on their very bullshit. IF this is what you claim you want, then have at it but DO NOT whine and do not rise up. You WANTED this right?

  72. 72.

    bemused

    @licensed to kill time:
    I’m starting to wonder how Prejean, raised in a supposedly evangelical family, grew up to make some ‘exposure’ decisions at odds with a strict religious background & her own words about women’s bodies/p0rn in her book. Something hinky about that family is my thought.

  75. 75.

    licensed to kill time

    @kay: Yes, she’s another one who is complaining that “she’s being targeted for her conservative views”, not what she actually did .

    I keep waiting for the beauty pageant people to ask for the breast implants back.

  76. 76.

    The Populist

    Is this a smart way to kick off her career? Appearing on television and complaining about things?

    Not only her but Kirk Cameron is running around on religious shows whining about public schools not teaching the word of JESUS. These idiots should just keep to themselves. Like many on the right like to say…who cares what celebrities think about anything (unless they are righties)?

    I mean, really, Carrie is a hypocrite and Kirk is an ass. Add to that the musings of Chuck Norris and these people want insane things. The founding fathers may have been christians, no question, but they did NOT want religion in government institutions. Read the fucking constitution idiots, NOTHING IN THERE argues for any one religion over another. NOTHING in there says government will sponsor or push any religion on the people.

    Idiots.

  78. 78.

    ericblair

    @bemused: Vetting would be the logical, common sense thing to do. The GOP doesn’t see any benefit in doing that because they know their gullible base will buy into anything. Vetting is sissy. To be a real conservative, you have to lie your ass off.

    I’m sure one of the problems with vetting in the Republican party is that it mainly serves to collect ammunition for the vettor against the vettee. How much dirt do you think Cheney dug up on the rest of the reptiles “considered” for VP, and how do you think he used this in the next few years? Of course if you were being vetted, you’d lie your ass off.

    Funny how individual self-interests lumped together make a paranoid backstabbing organization that is incapable of productive action. There might almost be a lesson in that.

  79. 79.

    ricky

    The premise of this post is very accurate. Conservatives should vet their instant celebrities. If they had I am sure Trent Lott would never have given Larry Craig the expsoure he recieved as a member of the Singing Senators.

  81. 81.

    Svensker

    @MacsenMifune:

    How the hell did George Soros become the the Conservatives’ bogey man, he’s an near eighty year old Jewish capitalist. At least Dick Cheney looks the part.

    Good question. At the time I went rogue (aka liberal) just before the Iraq War I didn’t know who Soros was, but had read something he’d said against the war that sounded very reasonable to me. Made the mistake of mentioning this good thing Soros said to my brother (aka The Beloved Wingnut) whose head still has not unexploded from my innocent comment. What IS it about Soros that drives them insane?

  82. 82.

    MBSS

    there can be no vetting. they would be left w/ a vacuum.

    they take what they can get and fluff em up.

  83. 83.

    licensed to kill time

    @bemused: She said she made the tape for her boyfriend when she was 17 and “she relied on his discretion” in not releasing it. (Relying on a 17 yr old boy’s discretion….well, that was well thought out.)

    Please don’t ask me how I know all this. (Ok, some “most stimulating show on television” was playing in the background). It’s too embarrassing for words that I know this stuff.

  85. 85.

    licensed to kill time

    @Incertus:

    Is that why Olbermann referenced the three-finger Girl Scout salute when talking about her the other night? Hmmmm.

    oh dawg! didn’t see that, but perfect!

  87. 87.

    Brick Oven Bill

    1. During the period when that wind was blowing Zifnab, these windmills were continuously backed up by operating conventional sources of electricity. This is because the wind stops, and people do not like it when the electricity goes out.

    2. I am the one calling for a removal of troops from the Middle East, Barack is the one putting more troops in the Middle East. I’ve got my medals. You are welcome, enjoy your paid day off government workers.

    3. The President’s spokesman stated that the President did not watch the election returns, and suggested that he watched a re-run on his campaign instead. This is all that has been revealed to us. Odds are that the President was watching himself on TV that night. This probability is 72%.

    Here are the IQs:

    Barack: 118
    Sarah: 124
    Joe: 127
    Glenn: 148

  88. 88.

    The Populist

    What IS it about Soros that drives them insane?

    Media Matters, funding of many pro-choice candidates, funding numerous liberal think tanks.

    See in rightwingnutsoland, these rubes need enemies. They pick on the guys like Soros who in a way are saner versions of rightie nutjobs who do a good job of staying in the background (Scaife, Rev. Moon, even Murdoch sometimes).

    So to them, it means little he is a billionaire capitalist. To them he is NOT one of them and therefore is the enemy.

  89. 89.

    MBSS

    What IS it about Soros that drives them insane?

    the right has always had corporate money backing up their ideas. the idea that the left now has all the good ideas, and the money to promote them, is unacceptable.

  90. 90.

    Zifnab Bites Brick Oven Bill

    You know, considering all the legitimate issues surrounding the Obama Administration, I seriously wonder why no conservative has paused and thought “Hmmm, perhaps it’s better if we attack the Dems on substantive issues?”

    Sure, that would mean admitting that they were wrong about stuff in the past but the fact is, people have short memories. Apologize for past mistakes or positions, lay low for a while as opposed to making tons of distracting noise, then start going after the Democrats. That, to me, seems like a heckuva lot better strategy to pursue for electoral gain as opposed to silly theatrics and rhetoric of “Death Panels!” and “Sockalism!” Hell, it may even result in some sensible government policy.

  91. 91.

    The Populist

    Here are the IQs:

    Barack: 118
    Sarah: 124
    Joe: 127
    Glenn: 148

    Bull. Beck is not 148 and Joe is NOT 127. Guess you proved IQs are meaningless.

  92. 92.

    Dave C

    Cleek’s pie filter + BOB = improved levels of mental health and personal well-being. I’m serious, people. It works. Give it a try.

  94. 94.

    kay

    @licensed to kill time:

    Beauty pageant winners don’t have real long careers. Hers was over when she got fired for not showing up. She lost before the release of the (by now standard) sex tape scandal, but the sequence doesn’t really matter, does it? It was inevitable anyway. They last about six months. Why would anyone bother to target her for anything?
    I think it’s a function of the HUGE EGOS of these unelected conservatives that they constantly think they’re being “targeted”.
    I thought her performance was particularly insane because of how petulant and pissed off she was, while she’s selling some sappy religious tripe. I felt as if she’s angry at every single one of us.

  95. 95.

    The Populist

    So let’s see. My IQ was about 120 when I took a real test a year ago (not an internet one like BoB and Sarah probably took).

    So basically, I own a business, I make six figures a year and I don’t lie nor do I buy into partisan bullshit.

    Hmmm, I just do not believe the IQs here. No way in hell an idiot like Beck is a 148.

  96. 96.

    El Cid

    There is no public evidence whatsoever on what Barack Obama’s IQ is outside of stuff-pulled-out-of-right-wing-asses.

    Kiss the BOB troll’s rear at your own leisure.

  97. 97.

    The Populist

    Here are the IQs: Barack: 118, Sarah: 124, Joe: 127, Glenn: 148, BoB: 69

    Funny one. So if Barack is so “dumb”, how come he graduated Harvard at the top of his class? How come he can speak in coherent sentences? How come he can think through a problem?

    Sarah went to a crap college, Joe is a dumbass, Glenn is useless. How come they aren’t smarter or as thoughtful? IQ ratings are useless I guess.

  100. 100.

    dfd

    @Svensker: As a billionaire, he’s supposed to be one of them. But instead he hangs out with the dirty fucking hippies. He’s Judas Iscariot of the 21st century.

  101. 101.

    The Populist

    Kiss the BOB troll’s rear at your own leisure.

    Nobody is kissing his rear, El Cid. What this is pushing the facts out there to make that troll understand he isn’t in control of anything. I am betting he can’t even control his bowels since he talks shit more than most rightie trolls.

  102. 102.

    Julia Grey

    I’d like to see Sarah Palin go to Havard Law. Really.

    Just imagine her summations.

    :: Howling ::

  103. 103.

    The Populist

    I think it’s a function of the HUGE EGOS of these unelected conservatives that they constantly think they’re being “targeted”.

    Kay – you nailed it here. EGO is what drives these people, not concern or caring for others. Greed and ego is what they run with.

    Didn’t Jesus and even GOD HIMSELF say something about people with massive egos and selfish motives?

  104. 104.

    bemused

    @licensed to kill time:
    She says she was 17 but considering her track record with honesty, who knows. Many teens have under developed decision making brain cells at that age but it seems strange to me that a evangelical christian girl would make a tape like that. Teen girls taking pics of themselves topless & sending them to friends is one thing…a tape like that is another.

    Reading this post & John’s “Red, red whine” post has the old song
    “Why’s everybody pickin’ on me?” song running through my head. Needs up to date lyrics though.

  107. 107.

    licensed to kill time

    @kay: See, I don’t think her answer was very well thought out – she says when the question came, she was “inspired by God” to answer the way she did. I think after the fact she was seized on by conservative types and egged on to become the poster child for yet another “victimization target” and she ran with it. Now she is milking it for all it’s worth and showing us her Righteous Anger. It’s all perfectly silly but plays well with the War On Christians folk.

  108. 108.

    RememberNovember

    @Brick Oven Bill:

    silly BOB, IQ tests are enviro-specific. Obviously Beck, Palin, and McCain got all the buzz-cut white bread Dick and Jane questions.
    ..and you got these numbers from where?

    …and Palin was leading the Harvard Law review when?
    IQ ratings have been continually debunked, and are no indication for other forms of intelligence.
    So I guess you about a 140, BOB.

    Palin is not smart, she may be adept at manipulation, and climbing over peoples backs to get what she wants- that’s just base Machiavellianism, tho I doubt she could even articulate that.

    Some people are good test takers and have lousy applied knowledge skills.

  109. 109.

    Incertus

    @Colette: The part you quoted said all that needed to be said–it’s all about brand for these people. Not substance–brand. Public relations. Perception. When it comes to dealing with one of the biggest challenges humans face, period, South Carolina Republicans are more worried about branding.

  110. 110.

    The Populist

    ..and you got these numbers from where?

    Most likely the same place he tried to sell us on Obama watching his own documentary.

    He made it up.

  113. 113.

    The Populist

    Some people are good test takers and have lousy applied knowledge skills.

    Yep, it’s the booksmart vs. street smart/common sense argument.

    Some are booksmart AND brilliant like Einstein. He had no common sense and no concept of social cues.

    Some get through college one test at a time but never retain anything.

    Others work hard at reading up on things and knowing the score when it comes to a host of issues AND they can argue a point and LISTEN to others. These morons on the right aren’t smart. No way, no how.

  115. 115.

    The Populist

    I simply can’t harbor the belief anymore that BOB is sincere. He has to be a spoof.

    He’s a troll, no question. I think he supports rightie causes but he posts the stuff in a way that makes it clear he’s tweaking us.

    It’s still fun to attack idiots like him for the sheeple they are though.

  116. 116.

    Brick Oven Bill

    I will address The Populist.

    Half Sigma, usually a good analyst, estimated Barack’s IQ to be 150 during the campaign.

    “Harry, I have a gift.”

    The likely reason Half Sigma over-estimated Barack’s IQ is Barack’s gift. Half Sigma, a lawyer, wanted to believe that there is value, and proof of merit, in a law degree.

    In like manner, the New York Times types who called Barack’s IQ ‘off the charts’ on the Imus show, wanted to believe that there is value, and proof of merit, in attending Ivy League schools.

    Barack’s gift is that he can make people believe what they want to believe. He is pretty good at it.

    Only by mathematics, can one achieve true perception however. Mathematics, if rigorously applied, removes emotion and bias from judgment.

    Barack IQ = 118

    This is more than one standard deviation above the average white person and more than two standard deviations above the average black person, if the testing data is accurate, which it appears to be by my life observations. The average white person can articulate his own thoughts fairly well.

    Here is Barack.

  117. 117.

    Common Sense

    BoB is just a contrarian. He’s going to argue it solely because it seems so logical. He is a future author of Freakonomics type anti-establishment wankery. It’d be a winner: How cheese prices explain the DOW. How Chinese biker bars are just like the Federal Reserve System.

  120. 120.

    MBSS

    The average white person can articulate his own thoughts fairly well.

    you know this entire thread started with cole talking about joe the plumber, right?

  122. 122.

    Julia Grey

    >that school in hawaii isn’t half bad

    I know. I was indulging in exaggeration for effect.

    Where did this ridiculous “Obama’s IQ is 118” figure come from? Never heard it before.

    And when did Joe the Plumber take an IQ test?

    No, never mind. It’s pointless. No matter what Barack Obama’s IQ is, he’s where other those other people would kill to be.

    What’s that phrase? “Living well is the best revenge.”

  124. 124.

    kay

    @The Populist:

    Didn’t Jesus and even GOD HIMSELF say something about people with massive egos and selfish motives?

    Beats me. I don’t think the way to sell a book is to go on television and complain incessantly about how you, personally, have been treated, though.
    People have to pay professionals to listen to their boring tales of why they really got fired, and it wasn’t for not showing up, either!
    There’s a reason for that.

  126. 126.

    Scruffy McSnufflepuss

    Another great Republican hero? Charlemagne.

    http://omacl.org/Roland/r234-291.html

    Now very well strikes the King Charlemagne,
    Naimes the Duke, also Oger the Dane,
    3545 Geifreid d’Anjou, who that ensign displays.
    Exceeding proof is Don Oger, the Dane;
    He spurs his horse, and lets him run in haste,
    So strikes that man who the dragon displays.
    Both in the field before his feet he breaks
    3550 That king’s ensign and dragon, both abased.
    Baligant sees his gonfalon disgraced,
    And Mahumet’s standard thrown from its place;
    That admiral at once perceives it plain,
    That he is wrong, and right is Charlemain.
    3555 Pagan Arabs coyly themselves contain;
    That Emperour calls on his Franks again:
    “Say, barons, come, support me, in God’s Name!”
    Answer the Franks, “Question you make in vain;
    All felon he that dares not exploits brave!”
    AOI.

    CCLVIII

    3560 Passes that day, turns into vesper-tide.
    Franks and pagans still with their swords do strike.
    Brave vassals they, who brought those hosts to fight,
    Never have they forgotten their ensigns;
    That admiral still “Preciuse” doth cry,
    3565 Charles “Monjoie,” renowned word of pride.
    Each the other knows by his clear voice and high;
    Amid the field they’re both come into sight,
    Then, as they go, great blows on either side
    They with their spears on their round targes strike;
    3570 And shatter them, beneath their buckles wide;
    And all the folds of their hauberks divide;
    But bodies, no; wound them they never might.
    Broken their girths, downwards their saddles slide;
    Both those Kings fall, themselves aground do find;
    3575 Nimbly enough upon their feet they rise;
    Most vassal-like they draw their swords outright.
    From this battle they’ll ne’er be turned aside
    Nor make an end, without that one man die.

  127. 127.

    dfd

    Hey BOB, since you seem to have purchased an introductory psychology book at some point in the recent past, could you calculate what percentile Glen Beck falls into?

  129. 129.

    Brick Oven Bill

    Successful interpersonal communications require high intelligence. Joe was more successful at eliciting the truth of Obama’s agenda than all of the smart people in the media. For this, he is awarded nearly two standard deviations, yielding an IQ estimate of 127.

    This estimate could be high, as Joe might have deeply intimidated Barack with his commanding stature, and iron gaze. The possible error is a function of Barack’s personal confidence, which is hard to estimate.

    You could see Barack’s shoulders slump, exhibiting Beta behavior before Joe. Therefore, maybe Sarah is smarter than Joe.

  133. 133.

    noncarborundum

    @MacsenMifune: He’s a rich liberal, which causes them no end of cognitive dissonance. Also he funds a thing called the “Open Society Institute”, whose very name contradicts everything they stand for.

  135. 135.

    Rick Taylor

    For years, Democrats have been excoriated for being in thrall to the left wing of their party. We were constantly told what a mistake it was, how it would turn off moderate voters to see someone Michael Moore actually invited to the Democratic convention. And yet on the Democratic side, I’ve never seen the fear of the extreme wing of the base that now defines the modern Republican party. On the contrary, Democrats have never had any problems voting to censure MoveOn for being mean to a great general, to cut funding to Acorn, etc.

    I’d been horrified for years at the direction of the Republican party, but for me, it was when McCain chose Sarah Palin to be his running mate and Joe the Plumber to be the face of his campaign that the Republican party jumped the shark.

  136. 136.

    El Cid

    Using several plumbing tools, which are the true science, I have reconstructed a reflection upon a cave wall, and this indicates that Sarah Palin has a combined IQ and credit score somewhere between 140 and 750.

    Barack Obama, because of his natural rhythmic and offensively lurid cadence, is therefore of a more crystalline angle, and thus has an IQ color rating of between orange and yellow.

    This is science, so that all of you will discuss me.

  139. 139.

    maus

    So why isn’t Prejean being arrested for distribution? Isn’t that what happens to everyone else?

  141. 141.

    Comrade Dread

    So why isn’t Prejean being arrested for distribution? Isn’t that what happens to everyone else?

    Well, technically, she should be arrested for production; TMZ should be raided and arrested for possession; and her boyfriend at the time should be slapped with distribution.

    Needless to say, these scourges of humanity should all be put on a Sex Offender’s list for the rest of their lives.

    It’s the only way to be sure…

  142. 142.

    Brachiator

    @bemused:

    She says she was 17 but considering her track record with honesty, who knows. Many teens have under developed decision making brain cells at that age but it seems strange to me that a evangelical christian girl would make a tape like that. Teen girls taking pics of themselves topless & sending them to friends is one thing…a tape like that is another.

    Yah know, if you’ve been watching the news, a small, but significant problem involves people, including teens, “sexting” cellphone vids and webcam shots of themselves to their boyfriends and girlfriends. This is what Prejean claims to have done. It was not a sex tape a la Paris Hilton or others.

    Some of this stuff that teens and others do is relatively innocent, some more explicit, and one problem occurs when it resurfaces in the future when the now adult person has to deal with teenage indiscretions.

    There is also an example of a mature woman mayor getting fired for bikini snaps on her MySpace page.

    The female mayor of Arlington, Oregon, Carmen Kontur-Gronquist gets recalled after posting her underwear photo on MySpace.

    Teens are teens, even evangelicals. And teens in love foolishly trust their boyfriends. Sadly, some of this stuff is not about hypocrisy, it’s about religious people believing that their faith can protect them from life and human nature.

    And Prejean may be telling the truth on this one, about being 17 at the time, because no news outlet which claims to have a copy of the material has even posted the tiniest snapshot or clip. To do so with respect to someone under 18 would immediately make them subject to all kinds of criminal prosecution.

  144. 144.

    Danton

    Has anyone noted that Prejean and Palin were both beauty queen contestants? Is there something about beauty queen contestants that makes them lie, misrepresent themselves, and con as much cash as they can from gullible right-wing rubes?

    Or am I reading too much into the comparison?

  145. 145.

    noncarborundum

    @Rick Taylor: Happened much earlier for me. It was 1992, when the choices in the Mass. Republican primary were GHWB, Pat Buchanan and David Duke. I walked right out of the booth and switched my party affiliation to “unenrolled”.

  147. 147.

    slag

    @Zifnab: Al Gore actually looked pretty good on The Daily Show the other day. He appears to be losing weight.

    But the wind farm thing is pretty exciting. I’m still hesitant about nuclear (for obvious, flame retardant reasons so no one bother to flame me until those reasons can be adequately resolved). I’d love to see a big push toward geothermal as well. It seems like a gimme.

  148. 148.

    licensed to kill time

    @Danton: Well, beauty queens are used to being judged for what’s on the outside; all surface and no substance. Makes them a perfect match for a certain brand of politics, anyway.

  149. 149.

    The Dangerman

    He’s got far more than his 15 minutes of shame, but easily the most STOOPID comment is Steele’s “cow on the tracks” remark. Everything else is fighting for 2nd place.

  150. 150.

    trollhattan

    What IS it about Soros that drives them insane?

    I dunno, but guess it’s that he’s got a gold-drenched automatic membership in the highest ranks of Klubb Wingnut–being a successful hedgefund fellow, which makes him totally awsome!–yet spreads his wealth among nothing but the unfit and undeserving.

    He should be attending National Review true believer cruises, damnit!

  151. 151.

    Colette

    @El Cid:

    Barack Obama, because of his natural rhythmic and offensively lurid cadence, is therefore of a more crystalline angle, and thus has an IQ color rating of between orange and yellow.

    Oooh, I think it’s Octarine! He really is the Magical Unity Pony!

  152. 152.

    John S.

    I’d love to see a big push toward geothermal as well.

    Hey, it works for Iceland.

    Here in Florida, I’d love to see some wave farms considering that we’re a peninsula and all. But there are still many challenges facing this technology, especially in storm prone places in addition to the unknown environmental repercussions.

    Still, if it’s one thing Florida has a lot of – besides old people and tourists – it’s water.

  153. 153.

    noncarborundum

    @The Dangerman: That’s got to be up there, but I really think Craig T. Nelson has the absolute winner with

    I’ve been on food stamps and welfare. Anybody help me out? No.

  154. 154.

    David Hunt

    Okay, I’m tired of reading IQ comments so I’m going to comment before I get to the bottom of the thread. Apologies if someone has made this point before me. To wit:

    IQ test are a very poor tool for measure the intelligence of smart people. That isn’t what they were designed to do. They are very good at measuring what they were designed to measure: mental retardation (or whatever the correct term for being developmentally challenged is today).

    If your score is above some point (100 IIRC), then it means that you aren’t dumb and you’re good at taking IQ tests.

    So would everyone lay off the IQ speculations. They have very little to do with how smart a person is and arguing about it is just feeding the trolls.

  156. 156.

    bemused

    @Brachiator:
    Still, if it was Prejean ma$turbating, she was wasn’t as naive or shy about ‘sinfulness’ as many evangelical teens seem to be. She may have gotten out in that wicked secular world more than her parents were aware of.

  158. 158.

    Bordo

    You have to accept that the Republican Party is a deeply lagging indicator of America. It’s entire constituency –older, white, less educated, more rural– is disappearing while party leadership continues on a kamikaze mission to piss off minorities, women, secularists, the educated, and the non-batshit crazy.

    This is still a party capable of great mischief. Even a dead rattlesnake can bite. These creeps do not have the nation’s best interests at heart, though they love to call themselves patriots. They are atavistic idiots, in love with a pass that never existed and will never come to pass. The only acts they can commit are those that thwart the will of the people.

    Republicans are strongest in the Old Confederacy –go figure– and the sparsely populated Plains states. They’re going the way of the buggy whip, but we must guard against their efforts to make trouble even as they travel the road of extinction.

  160. 160.

    Sanka

    Geez. Cole was right. The GOP is nothing but a party of jerks. Rude and obnoxious. Only the Democrats are the party of virtue and level-headed policy-making. Once again Cole is proven right.

    We need more Frank Rich to dissect this bit of bad news for the GOP because the “civil war” within the GOP is clearly scaring away moderates and turning the party into a mess:

    Roughly a year before the 2010 midterm elections, Republicans seem well-positioned to win back some of their congressional losses in 2006 and 2008. Independents are increasingly coming to prefer the Republican candidate for Congress, and now favor the GOP by 22 points.

    Republicans have moved ahead of Democrats by 48% to 44% among registered voters in the latest update on Gallup’s generic congressional ballot for the 2010 House elections, after trailing by six points in July and two points last month.

    This poll is not to be taken seriously of course, because everyone knows that Gallup is an astro-turfing, white supremacist, racist Southern polling outfit clearly intent on just saying no to the President is just one of many pollsters out there.

  161. 161.

    The Populist

    This is more than one standard deviation above the average white person and more than two standard deviations above the average black person, if the testing data is accurate, which it appears to be by my life observations. The average white person can articulate his own thoughts fairly well.

    Not always true. Not by a mile. Articulation is more than how you TALK. If we use YOUR view of articulation then WHITE people from the south have to be the most inarticulate of all.

    Speaking style does not make one articulate. It’s how you lay out your thoughts. I know many black folks who have issues with speaking articulately without an accent or a type of slang but they can lay out a thought as much as anybody. Wanna argue articulation, go talk to Cornel West. The man is extremely intelligent and can articulate a thought and lay it out better than most white folks.

    You can play the race baiting game all you want but your post highlights how wrong you are. YOU judge intelligence on speech patterns. Most people judge intelligence on how one articulates and lays out a point.

    As for your other point, we win again. YOU made up the IQ breakdowns.

    Bad BoB.

  162. 162.

    The Populist

    No, El Cid is right. You idiots that can’t resist BOB’s tantalizing trolling are helping him to queer every thread.

    Fair enough, I will go back to making points without calling out BoB so much. Ask and you shall receive.

  163. 163.

    LoveMonkey

    So, we have this apparent choice:

    A, we can let the Dems be in charge and we will fall victim to fas_cism, soci_@alism, economic bankruptcy, death panels, and terrorist attacks, seizure of our guns and distribution of condoms in kindergarten, forced abortions, and Abject Appeasement as the new core of our foreign policy … or ….

    B, we can sit around and fear the advent of the resurgent Republicans and their imminent takeover of the government again, owing to the their great political savvy and Fearsome Front Four of Cheney, Limbaugh, Beck and Palin, coming to take away our Social Security, our healthcare reform, our gay rights, our carbon emission reductions, our clean water and air, and our cool black president.

    Either way, we are just fucked and the American Experiment has failed.

    Welcome to the intertrons, where you can write anything and folks somewhere will line up to read it and will believe it.

  164. 164.

    bcinaz

    I was thinking about this very thing just yesterday; the opportunity to trade my integrity and self-respect, turn into a shorter older ann coulter and get free travel and wingnut welfare for as long as I could stand to be around those morans.

  165. 165.

    licensed to kill time

    @LoveMonkey: You know how you can type sociaIism w/o tripping the WP filter? Replace the L with a capital I – it looks just like a small L. (Though your spellchecker will think you’ve misspelled it :)

  168. 168.

    Leelee for Obama

    @John S.: More on Florida and energy here. How come, why for is the state of Florida not leading the country in solar power, or cellulosic ethanol, or sugar cane ethanol or making energy out of conservative politicians hot air and BS. For shit’s sake we have the raw materials for ALL of these things and one of the highest unemployment rates and KSC and NASA right here! Tell me I’m wrong?!

  169. 169.

    Julia Grey

    The average white person can articulate his own thoughts fairly well.

    So, wait…you’re saying Sarah Palin is below average?

    You can get more coherence out of a double margarita.

  171. 171.

    John S.

    @Sanka

    CONCERN TROLL IS CONCERNED!

    Yes, a poll 12 months out from an election really carries a lot of weight. Because according to polls way back in November 2007, Republicans would be voting for Rudy Giuliani or Mike Huckabee. Except it didn’t exactly turn out that way, now did it?

    By the way, you fuckers had better pray for some kind of catastrophe to befall America (not that you haven’t been already) because if things keep going the way they are and healthcare reform passes, you guys are FUCKED. And not just next year but for many years beyond.

  172. 172.

    John S.

    @Leelee for Obama:

    I’m totally with you.

    Anyone who has driven through this rather large state can see that any of the things you have mentioned (solar power, or cellulosic ethanol, or sugar cane ethanol) should be really big here, but they aren’t.

    I know that US Sugar sold off a shitload of their land to the government although it was for Everglades restoration, and the deal seems like it may be in jeopardy anyway. But I really don’t understand the lack of initiative around here on energy policies.

    Florida is an agricultural powerhouse and we have plenty of land left over for energy. There just doesn’t seem to be any will by our politicians to do anything about it.

  173. 173.

    Brachiator

    @bemused:

    Still, if it was Prejean ma$turbating, she was wasn’t as naive or shy about ‘sinfulness’ as many evangelical teens seem to be. She may have gotten out in that wicked secular world more than her parents were aware of.

    Evangelicals have intercourse, just like most other teens, and do the same stuff as most other teens. The only difference is that they may feel more embarrassed or guilty about what they do, and end up pregnant because they haven’t been taught about contraception, etc.

    And people are so hot to jump on Prejean for her awful wickedness (not being nice to the gays) that they lose sight of any other ethical issue. Do you really think it is fine for any teen to send explicit vids of themselves to their boyfriends or girlfriends?

  174. 174.

    noncarborundum

    @Brachiator: Let us not forget also that m@$turb@t10n is teh ghey because it is a single-sex activity. So she’s been producing, and her boyfriend distributing, gay p0rn. Well, I suppose gay folks need p0rn too, especially if we’re not going to allow them to get married and stuff.

  175. 175.

    General Winfield Stuck

    Good Christian girls do not fiddle with their sex. Making such charges requires proof, so links please, all of them.

  176. 176.

    Leelee for Obama

    @John S.: Thanks, John S. I’ve been completely confuzzled by the lack of initiative myself. I’ve been here almost 9 years and I cannot understand why all of the apartment and condo “communities” aren’t on solar power. Concentration of living spaces HAVE to make it more cost efficient, right? I even have an idea concerning bad weather issues, like say, Hurricanes. I wish I had money, I’d be buying a complex right now and setting up a solar plant right smack dab in the middle of it as a test case.

    And think of all the cellulosic ethanol that could be made in the entire South just from kudzu! And they hate that stuff like they hate Liberals, LOL! And in an area that worships fried everything-bio-diesel, no?

    Maybe Warren Buffet might be interested?

  180. 180.

    Chuck Butcher

    Without referencing BoB’s ludicrous claims of what some people’s IQ are, there is this. Three days into alcohol withdrawal I had an IQ test administered by a clinical psychologist and scored 140. That is probably as reliable a test as you’ll get and I may not have been at my best… (sure, you only have my word)

    But here’s the rub, I mentioned alcohol withdrawal? My ability to run my life or anything else would be open to pretty serious question on the simple application of fact of how it was going.

    Memory and the application of problem solving skill sets to abstract question have no bearing on intellectual blindness or dishonesty. Emotional drivers are completely ignored as are societal drivers. IOW, BoB shut the fuck up unless you have an idea of what you’re talking about.

  182. 182.

    whatsleft

    Anyone who has driven through this rather large state can see that any of the things you have mentioned (solar power, or cellulosic ethanol, or sugar cane ethanol) should be really big here, but they aren’t.
    __
    I know that US Sugar sold off a shitload of their land to the government although it was for Everglades restoration, and the deal seems like it may be in jeopardy anyway. But I really don’t understand the lack of initiative around here on energy policies.
    __
    Florida is an agricultural powerhouse and we have plenty of land left over for energy. There just doesn’t seem to be any will by our politicians to do anything about it.

    As one of my business professors at Florida Atlantic pointed out, a great many of our laws were made by gangsters in the 20’s and 30’s. It did not get much better from there.

    And, in case you haven’t noticed, we’ve been overrun with R’s in our legislature for many many years now. So no DFH solar power/wind power farms for us!

  185. 185.

    Brachiator

    @noncarborundum:

    Let us not forget also that m@$turb@t10n is teh ghey because it is a single-sex activity.

    Technically, I think that m@$turb@t10n is teh sodomy, but not teh gay. At least in some circles.

  186. 186.

    bemused

    @Brachiator:
    Not what I said or was trying to say. I didn’t say it was ok or not ok for teens to send explicit vids. My point was that it seems more unusual for a teen from an evangelical family to send a very explicit video at age 17.

  187. 187.

    kay

    @John S.:

    Well, I’m not a concern troll and I didn’t like to see them moving ahead in the Congressional generic ballot. I don’t like that poll, however, because it was taken immediately after the NJ-VA races, but we’ll see.
    Democrats took on a really ambitious legislative agenda. I know that isn’t the thinking among liberals, but I disagree with them. It doesn’t get much more ambitious that health care, energy and financial reform.
    They could easily have done nothing else this year but stimulus and financial reform, because of the massive implosion of the economy. But that wasn’t what they decided to do. I thought it was risky at the time, but was pleased they were going to try. So, I won’t second-guess that decision. The fact is I supported it, and fully appreciated the risk. I actually sat down in a chair when I heard the decision to go forward on all three. I was surprised. I had to think on that a little.
    Health care alone is like a Herculean lift, as we have learned.

  188. 188.

    kay

    @bemused:

    It’s not. They all film everything.
    I do not understand why they have to photograph themselves constantly, doing all kinds of incriminating things.
    Christ. Get a clue. Let’s leave a long photographic and written record of everything we did in high school on the internet. That’s goddamned smart. They’re all going to be unemployable.

  189. 189.

    debbie

    The average white person can articulate his own thoughts fairly well.

    A week’s worth of watching Judge Judy would cure you of that delusion.

  190. 190.

    bemused

    @kay:
    Of course it’s not ok. If our kids had sent anything remotely incriminating, they would have been grounded till they left home. I think most parents paying attention would be horrified too.
    So what was up with hers? Clueless?
    Ack, enough of the dimwit.

  191. 191.

    kay

    @bemused:

    I think they’re all doing it. I don’t know (exactly) when it happened, but they photograph and record everything.
    I think it might be reality tv? That influence?
    It scares me a little, not for the sexual aspects, or not exclusively that, but for the general disregard for their own privacy, and the rank stupidity of documenting things they do that are illegal, but are minor, and would not be pursued if they would stop taking pictures.

  193. 193.

    Little Macayla's Friend

    @licensed to kill time:

    I learned something on the intertrons – thank you!

    @kay:

    I know from your many comments that you are probably more aware than I am that there are many groups chomping on the bit for far more fights to push back on the Bush years, so at most Obama is probably somewhere in the middle of all the progressive’s agendas.
    Likewise, many of the issues obviously are questions of life or death in wars or health, or poverty, abortion, etc., for every day that goes by.

    SociaIism – there, I said it.

  194. 194.

    bemused

    @kay:
    Our youngest is 27 so this wasn’t an issue when he was in high school. Lots of new ways to communicate now. I was surprised that myspace didn’t come on the scene until 2006.

  195. 195.

    kay

    @Little Macayla’s Friend:

    Oh, I’m not bashing progressives. I’m just talking about the Democrat’s legislative agenda, so I’m not talking exclusively about Obama. Individual Democrats ran on health care, and energy, although not on financial reform.
    It’s a lot legislatively, and each piece has huge money at stake. This was not a timid agenda. We may end up with then less than stellar results, but the agenda was ambitious.

  196. 196.

    ruemara

    @Danton:

    All that taped boobage, vaseline on the teeth poisoning and pretending to care about the world when all you want is to be declared the prettiest.

  197. 197.

    Brachiator

    @bemused:

    Not what I said or was trying to say. I didn’t say it was ok or not ok for teens to send explicit vids. My point was that it seems more unusual for a teen from an evangelical family to send a very explicit video at age 17.

    It’s unusual only if you insist on stereotyping evangelicals.

    As kay noted, teens film everything. Because it’s easy. The cellphone or the webcam is always at hand. Capturing something on film is almost the same thing as texting. And teens, without regard to their religion, can be impulsive, give in to peer pressure, etc.

    And religion can’t always protect you from your desires. Isn’t it the Amish who recognize that their kids may need to rebel against their strict upbringing, and need to decide whether they will embrace it? Now that’s wisdom.

  198. 198.

    licensed to kill time

    WP shot a reply arrow into the air
    it fell to earth, I know not where
    I must submit a comment fresh each day
    to make that damn reply arrow stay

Comments are closed.