Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

The lights are all blinking red.

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

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

If you are in line to indict donald trump, stay in line.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

Donald Jessica Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

Biden: Oh no. We’ve upset Big Pharma again.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Cole is on a roll !

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

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

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

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

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. don’t touch it.”

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

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

… gradually, and then suddenly.

I also would like a pony to improve my balloon juice experience.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

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114Comments

  5. 5.

    Zam

    Does anyone have any good links to climate change info? I’ve got this friend who apparently spends all his time looking into ways to push climate change denial.

  7. 7.

    John Cole

    @Zam: I have not spent one minute looking into it because of who is excited about it- Riehl, Malkin, and the wingnuts.

    I absolutely guarantee that what happened is that they read a bunch of emails in which the scientists use statistics terms and say things like “tease out the data” and shit like that, and the wingnuts think that means “making up data” when it doesn’t at all.

  10. 10.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @John Cole: lolz. That is apparently exactly what is happening according to one of my wingnut Faceborg friends.

    And then one of his wingnut friends comments on the “scandal” called Climategate:

    “Its about time the truth be known and these liars be brought to bare,American’s stand up !!! Lets put a stop to the climate liars,the economy liars,the health care liars, election day cant come soon enough for me . Term limits around the board 4 and out not to return .”

    That is comedy fucking gold and all I can do is laugh.

  11. 11.

    Moonbatting Average

    @John Cole: good point, they hear the word “trick” and think it’s deceitful (naturally), when what scientists mean is “elegant or practical solution”.

  14. 14.

    MR Bill

    Since I know (and generally care) dick about sports, I’ll run with the food item:
    My daughter has been making a cranberry relish that is great.
    It’s the standard cranberries-boiled-with-sugar relish, but made fresh and just before serving add one chopped up Asiatic persimmon (must be ripe!) and the seeds of a pomegranate. The flavors blend into something quite different, refreshing and able to cut thru the heaviest holiday meal.
    @Zam: Try Scientific American’s website for, well, real science…

  15. 15.

    zoe kentucky in pittsburgh

    A great simple, easy cranberry side– my family has been serving it at Thanksgiving for 15 years– is the following:

    Bag of fresh cranberries (typically 12 ounces)
    1/2 cup orange juice
    1 1/4 cups sugar
    2-3 ounces Grand Marnier (orange liquor)

    Set oven to 325, mix cranberries, orange juice and sugar in 8×8 baking dish, cover tightly with foil. Bake for 60 minutes, until cranberries are soft. Add Grand Marnier, put in fridge, preferably overnight, as many as 2 or 3 days ahead. Serve cold. (Although you might want to keep it away from teetotalers and/or kids.)

    Yum!

  16. 16.

    zoe kentucky in pittsburgh

    A great simple, easy cranberry side– my family has been serving it at Thanksgiving for 15 years– is the following:

    Bag of fresh cranberries (typically 12 ounces)
    1/2 cup orange juice
    1 1/4 cups sugar
    2-3 ounces Grand Marnier (orange liquor)

    Set oven to 325, mix cranberries, orange juice and sugar in 8×8 baking dish, cover tightly with foil. Bake for 60 minutes, until cranberries are soft. Add Grand Marnier, put in fridge, preferably overnight, as many as 2 or 3 days ahead. Serve cold. (Although you might want to keep it away from teetotalers and/or kids.)

    Yum!

  17. 17.

    gyma

    Happy Thanksgiving, y’all!

    I love this cranberry relish:

    Chop up one bag of cranberries in food processor. Add one cup of sugar and let sit an hour or two. Add one large box of soft set raspberry jello, one small can of mandarin oranges, some cut up green grapes and a bunch of chopped walnuts. NomNomNom!

  18. 18.

    The Grand Panjandrum

    @John Cole: @Zam: I read all the emails and the one email they wingnuts seem to be focused on is that about ten years ago a scientist tried to pretty up a graph of some data (something done quite often) and now we have irrefutable proof that climate change is a hoax. Basically he was “sexing up” his graph. Yes, he’s an idiot for doing it, but he did not manipulate any data, just the graph. His got egg on his face now but its hardly the scandal the denialists want to make it out to be.

    This is exactly the same thing most big corporations do when they have an off year. That doesn’t excuse the behavior, but that is the extent of the scandal. The data is still the data and we live on a warming planet, and a large percentage of the warming trend is because we drive too much and eat factory farmed food.

  21. 21.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    @John Cole:

    Yes, but from now on it will be etched in stone in Wingnut Land that scientists were caught lying about climate change and nothing will ever, ever be able to convince them otherwise.

  22. 22.

    The Dangerman

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    Can I just say how tired I am of hearing about the scandal du jour being called “somethinggate”; shit, how much better it would have been for all if the break-in had occurred at some hourly rates shit hole other than the Watergate…

  23. 23.

    beltane

    @Zam: My husband has a co-worker like this. He has successfully dealt with the issue by forcing this guy to reveal his sources of information, and then attacking them. Wingnuts respond better to ridicule than to reasoned argument and empirical evidence. It is a variation of the Golden Rule: treat others how they have treated you.

  24. 24.

    bago

    Wapo gets a lot of well deserved heat for their political branch, but can I say that their tech department rocks? Because they do. I just hit up wonkabout, found a listing for a Zero 7 show in fifteen minutes, added it to my calendar with a map link, all on my iPhone at the one place in downtown DC that is open.

  25. 25.

    PaulW

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    So sick of watching the Cowboys and Lions on Thanksgiving and the Redskins every week.

    Actually, it’s quite nice that bad teams get to play for national audiences from time to time. The underdog factor, of course, also the egalitarian concept that even bad teams in the NFL get their day in the sun. Even under the guise of decades-old tradition that allows Detroit and Dallas to keep hosting Turkey Day games. Would you prefer the traditions be dropped and Turkey Day games rotate? I guarantee you then all we’ll get will be the “great teams” of large market cities like New York and Washington over and over and over again as well. And then you’ll get bitching about that.

    Let the turkey teams play.

  26. 26.

    demkat620

    Sometimes I worry that Americans will decide to put wingnuts back in power just so they can get a little peace and quiet. They always seem to bring screeching about something or being oppressed by somebody.

    They are such ignorant babies.

  27. 27.

    PaulW

    @John Cole:

    I absolutely guarantee that what happened is that they read a bunch of emails in which the scientists use statistics terms and say things like “tease out the data” and shit like that, and the wingnuts think that means “making up data” when it doesn’t at all.

    These are the same wingnuts who, when the Downing Street Memo came out with the Brits saying the Americans in Cheney’s office were ‘fixing’ the data regarding Iraqi WMDs, claimed we war critics were ‘misinterpreting’ what that memo stated. I just love the hypocrisy of that, don’t you…?

  28. 28.

    PaulW

    @demkat620:

    Sometimes I worry that Americans will decide to put wingnuts back in power just so they can get a little peace and quiet. They always seem to bring screeching about something or being oppressed by somebody.

    We didn’t have any peace and quiet when they were in charge! Sheesh!

  30. 30.

    MikeJ

    We didn’t have any peace and quiet when they were in charge! Sheesh!

    I’m ready to open the FEMA camps if we can finally get them to shut up.

  31. 31.

    General Winfield Stuck

    I think it is useless to try and convince wingnuts of basic climate science and the delicate equilibrium the planets weather depends on to give us stable weather patterns.

    Like what havoc only a few degrees of warming can start a cascade of change for other interrelated natural elements of the current status quo of our ecology.

    Such as permafrost starting to melt and all the organic matter starting to decay and the add on effect of spewing much more Co2 into the atmosphere, or slight changes in ocean salinity and temp and interaction with the atmosphere.

    Not to mention rising ocean levels and the calamity that would cause from so many folks living at or near sea level.

    They hate science to begin with and their belief system and paranoia of intellect won’t let them consider anything other than the right wing thinking that gets them thru the day.

    We just have to fight the ignorance without hope of many converts joining in, at least until you can skinny dip comfortably in Chicago during the month of January.

  32. 32.

    burnspbesq

    Apropos of not much of anything and completely OT, can I just say that I am in awe of Elliott Carter? Man is going to be 101 years old in two weeks, and he is still working.

  33. 33.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @demkat620:

    Sometimes I worry that Americans will decide to put wingnuts back in power just so they can get a little peace and quiet. They always seem to bring screeching about something or being oppressed by somebody.

    I think about this exact thing about everyday. Like petulant and persistent children wanting what they want and making you miserable until you just give in.

  34. 34.

    Zam

    @The Dangerman: I have been bitching about this for a very long time. I can’t stand it, it makes all this kind of shit seem completely trivial. The media will name anything that some asshole brings up as controversial. Obama is taking too long to pick a dog? Poochgate! Michelle is doing something with her garden? Tomatogate! This completely kills the significance of watergate and any of the actual scandals that warrant serious coverage should deserve to stand on their own fucking name, instead of drawing lines between two completely different things.

  37. 37.

    D-Chance.

    I think it is useless to try and convince wingnuts of basic climate science and the delicate equilibrium the planets weather depends on to give us stable weather patterns.

    You do realize this planet has NEVER had stable weather patterns… pre-, current, or post-homo sapiens? The only stable climatological pattern Earth has ever experienced is its constant instability. It warms, it cools, the land moves, the insides blow out and the outside sinks into its own bowels.

    So the planet is warming up… meh.
    No, it’s cooling down… meh.

    Whatever. Fools who deny God thinking they’re as powerful as that which they deny by theorizing that they can overcome the sun, gravity, planetary evolution, etc… morons, one and all.

    If you think you know enough about “basic climate science” that you can go out and affect it with whatever feeble ideas you can imagine and implement, then you don’t know enough about climate science. This Earth was a-changin’ long before we came along, Sonny, and it will keep a-changin’ long after we all leave. We’re temporary. The Earth is here to stay. And it ain’t got a thermostat kept at a constant 72 degrees Fahrenheit for our personal convenience.

  39. 39.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @D-Chance.:

    If you think you know enough about “basic climate science” that you can go out and affect it with whatever feeble ideas you can imagine and implement, then you don’t know enough about climate science. This Earth was a-changin’ long before we came along, Sonny, and it will keep a-changin’ long after we all leave. We’re temporary. The Earth is here to stay. And it ain’t got a thermostat kept at a constant 72 degrees Fahrenheit for our personal convenience.

    Thank you Professor D Chance for weighing in with your expertise. I am sure the American Enterprise Institute and K-Lows house of crazy will be impressed with your sparkling treatise.

    Me. Not so much.

  40. 40.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @D-Chance.:

    Will you be proffering a paper at the upcoming symposium for the Tea Bag Institute of Gawd and Consequence? I’ll be sure to mark it on my calender.

  41. 41.

    burnspbesq

    @D-Chance.:

    So, then, man should not attempt to modify his behavior in ways that reduce the probability that our activities will render the planet uninhabitable by man?

    That’s a remarkably stupid idea.

  42. 42.

    Martin

    D-Chance’s Grand Unified Theory: God did it.

    Why even bother going to school? WWI? God did it. Great Depression? God did it. Fall of the Roman Empire? God did it. Black holes? God did it. Shit happened before and shit will happen again, and anyone who thinks they can affect shit happening denies God.

  43. 43.

    Mike in NC

    You do realize this planet has NEVER had stable weather patterns… pre-, current, or post-homo sapiens?

    Looking forward to pix from your trip to the Creationism Museum.

  44. 44.

    Martin

    @burnspbesq:

    What’s the problem? If you shit where you sleep, it’s God’s fault that it smells. If you pray hard enough, sooner or later it will stop smelling when you shit there.

    Perfectly good answer to every problem.

  45. 45.

    Josh

    @D-Chance.:

    The point about anthropomorphic climate change isn’t that the Earth doesn’t have naturally occurring climate cycles, but that the climate patterns of the planet and the relatively stable shifts of the climate rely on a delicate balance.

    This balance is represented by a system of negative and positive feedback cycles. A positive feedback cycle is destructive–for instance, human induced pollution that throws off the delicate balance of particles in the atmosphere. A negative feedback cycle, in climate science relating to global warming, is usually thought of as carbon sinks. For instance, trees and the oceans are both part of a negative feedback cycle because they work to keep the natural levels of carbon in check.

    The problem is that even though humans are responsible for a very minuscule amount of pollution, it is enough to overwhelm the negative feedback cycle and throw off the balance. The oceans cannot sink the amount of carbon we’re throwing into the atmosphere and trees, which are often cleared in deforestation, cannot process the carbon either.

    It builds up. It causes very real changes in climate patterns that are highly unpredictable and very dangerous. Forget what stupid movies like “The Day After Tomorrow” show; we’re not talking about gigantic waves destroying New York and tornadoes sacking Hollywood. Drought. Mass displacement. Starvation. Wars over basic resources like water. These are very real problems that we can see are becoming more and more of a reality.

    Humanity MUST accept what it is responsible for and stop trying to place responsibility or blame where it isn’t warranted. The ecological system of the planet has always relied on slow changes so that it can adapt. Species will go extinct. Millions of people will starve or die of thirst. Many will die from probable futile wars over sparse resources.

    As advanced as we think we are, can we really accept this? Are we barbarians? Are we to really leave people to that fate? Or do we stand up and lead the world and take responsibility for what we have done?

    Carbon is only the beginning. Methane from rice paddies and cattle lasts longer in the atmosphere, and it is being produced in increasing quantities. Water vapor doesn’t last as long, but it is starting to become a larger problem because it functions as a greenhouse gas.

    What the global climate change problem really presents is a test for humanity: is our desire to survive as a species strong enough to overcome our ability to delude ourselves?

    I like to be optimistic about this question.

  46. 46.

    Brian J

    At every family gathering, I mentally prepare myself for the inevitable political talk. I usually don’t get heated, because (a) I think losing my cool makes my opinions look weaker and (b) I try to be respectful of my older family members. It works pretty well, mostly because while we don’t always agree, and while they make obnoxious comments–i.e. how stupid Nancy Pelosi is–they remain as calm as I do.

    Nothing out of the ordinary happened this year, except for when I kept on prodding one of my aunts for the source of her facts. One of my uncles, her husband, who is a pretty mellow guy, which is the opposite of his wife, and I were discussing a bunch of different things. I was getting annoyed because a lot of his questions were loaded and sort of pointless, but as we walked over to get the food that was being served, his wife started to join in. I don’t remember how it ended up at this point, but after starting to talk about how college professors are incredibly liberal and biased, she claimed, among other things, that 95 percent of Ivy League professors were Democrats. This was one of many times where I said, “And where did you hear that?”

    Her response? “Oh, fuck you!” I have to tell you, it was one of the funnier things to happen to me in a long, long time.

  48. 48.

    The Dangerman

    @Brian J:

    …that 95 percent of Ivy League professors were Democrats.

    Wouldn’t that make being a Democrat a good thing? If I said 95 percent of Astronauts were Republicans (disregarding one known Space Cadet from Alaska), would that demean either group?

  50. 50.

    bago

    So, funny DC story. I was trying to buy toiletry supplies at 10 PM or so out by Georgetown. I had google mapped the location of a Safeway and was looking for the Safeway branding. I was frustrated because some Watergate style building was at the address of the Safeway. Turns out it WAS the Watergate, and the Safeway is in the basement.

  51. 51.

    Brian J

    @The Dangerman:

    You’re probably right. But I’m not going to accept a statistic like that unless I hear it from a reliable source, particularly when it’s used as part of what amounts to little more than a smear.

    To be honest, it wouldn’t surprise me if the vast majority of Ivy League professors were Democrats. College professors overall tend to be more liberal than the general population, but that doesn’t mean they are propaganda artists.

    And as I asked this aunt and uncle, even if they are doing it, what do you care? About half the country doesn’t vote for the Democrats, so if they are trying to indoctrinate, they are pretty ineffective.

  55. 55.

    The Dangerman

    @Brian J:

    But I’m not going to accept a statistic like that unless I hear it from a reliable source, particularly when it’s used as part of what amounts to little more than a smear.

    No, you are right to challenge it; my gripe was with the claim that was appeared intended to be a smear. I don’t understand how that person could think that claiming 95% of people proven to be smart are also Democrats is a smear as intended. Sounds like a compliment to me;-)

    Unless it is actually a complaint against smart people; eggheads are the ruin of us all, doncha know. Wasn’t Bush edumicated at Yale? Shit, give me some Sarah, who went to half a dozen schools for a Journalism degree. That there’s bein a reihl American.

  56. 56.

    Yutsano

    To be honest, it wouldn’t surprise me if the vast majority of Ivy League professors were Democrats. College professors overall tend to be more liberal than the general population, but that doesn’t mean they are propaganda artists.

    And note the overwhelming number of college graduates who voted for Obama. The simple fact is the more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know jack and you need to learn more and there are people in the world a whole fuckton smarter than you. But if your values say that hard work with your hands is the only valuable work, spending your time bothering to booklearn puts you out of touch with those values, so the possible disconnect exists between the blue collar and white collar worlds, even though they really do have common interests. I could be wrong and I often am, but if you get back to basic value systems the reason why blue collar folks go for more conservative candidates becomes clearer. It is shooting themselves in the foot, but conservatives have learned to make that argument.

  57. 57.

    Montysano

    The anti-AGW thing is beyond pathetic. It’s an attempt to marginalize and dismiss all environmentalism, and to create a rationalization to Do What The Fuck We Want, with no thought of consequences, no thought of future generations. It’s the epitome of the Moron Culture.

  58. 58.

    Brian J

    @D-Chance.:

    Just because we aren’t the only influence doesn’t mean we aren’t an influence at all. Why this is so goddamn difficult to understand is beyond me.

  59. 59.

    PanAmerican

    I don’t watch much NFL anymore. Jay Cutler for Kyle Orton and two first rounders will do that. The Bears front office has profound stupidity.

  61. 61.

    Brian J

    @The Dangerman:

    It wasn’t a complain against smart people. It was a premise leading up to the conclusion that because college professors think a certain way, it’s easy to understand why they try to indoctrinate, or something along those lines.

  62. 62.

    The Dangerman

    @Brian J:

    Indoctrinate … at College? No wonder the Democrats are screwed up, I can’t think of a worse place to try to indoctrinate people. Between the critical thinking skills and the mind altering, um, principles, picking a College to do one’s indoctrination is stoopid.

  63. 63.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @The Dangerman:

    Between the critical thinking skills and the mind altering, um, principles, picking a College to do one’s indoctrination is stoopid.

    Learning shotgun beer was pretty cool.

  65. 65.

    gwangung

    Maybe 95% of Ivy League profs in the humanities….But in the biz school? Engineering? I don’t think so…

    By the way…the Texas/Texas A&M game is a real barnburner.

  73. 73.

    Yutsano

    @gwangung: Even without any skin in the game this is shaping up to be one helluva game. Kinda spooked about the number of injuries tonight though.

  74. 74.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    My DH has always been a fan of the “slop out of the can” Cranberry Jelly, which has always given me the heeby jeebies cause it is so jelly like and well purple. Right now I am all into making stuff home made, cause I know what goes into it (as opposed to looking at labels on the back of cans and saying to myself “how the hell could there by 38% of a days worth of sodium in that?”) So this year I bought fresh cranberries, threw them into a saucepan with water and a reasonable amout of sugar and just boiled them down and reduced the liquid. I strained the mush to make the jelly (that he would normally really like) and kept the pulp for a sauce. The results were a) he loved the jelly, he said it was better than the canned stuff, but surprise surprise b) he adored the sauce, he said it was better than anything he has ever tasted. I also cooked up a whole bunch of chicken and rice for the animals and used the stock that I got from boiling the chicken to make a fresh chicken noodle soup, with just white meat chicken, fresh veggies, and whole wheat noodles. He also loved that. I am getting good at this. It is hard changing someones diet so completely while still keeping them interested in the food they are eating, so far I have had no complaints. The turkey breast was done on the rotisserie and was served with mashed potatoes made with Promise spread and fat free half and half, steamed green beans, home made stuffing, and honest to goodness gravy. We eat baked chicken quite alot and he enjoys the leftover chicken in sandwiches, my only problem now is going to be getting fresh cranberries “out of season” so to speak.

    WRT the other topic Watched “The day the earth stood still” tonight. Good remake, while the message changed (destroying the planet rather than nuclear weapons) I really enjoyed the story, one bitch though would have loved if the Keanu Reeves character would have given the hoomans a deadline. ie “Sort your shit out in a year or we will be back”. Good movie though.

  78. 78.

    Josh

    @General Winfield Stuck:

    Thanks! I try to ensure that when I do make comments here they are, in some way, meaningful.

    I’ve been an avid reader of this blog for a while now, but I comment rarely.

    I’m actually in the process of being indoctrinated at one of the most liberal colleges in the country as an English major, so in more ways than one I connect to the current thread here (tongue planted firmly in cheek).

    Speaking of which, funny story. When George W. Bush was still President, I had a Communications professor that bashed him during class a few times. A person actually threw a fit about it and wanted to know why he was so hostile, and if his personal politics had a place in the classroom.

    His answer stuck with me: “His policies slashed my department’s research budget by more than 33%. I’m sorry if you find my comments offensive, but I find his anti-science policies offensive.”

    Oh no. I must be a sochulist.

  79. 79.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    @Moonbatting Average:

    I use the word “trick” to describe some of the ideas that I come up with to get things done mechanically, such as making my own type of bearing press to get something done that I would ordinarily have to go to a machine shop for or any other numerous ‘tricks’ like that. Now if my ‘trick’ ends up screwing everything up then it really ain’t a trick, is it?

    Simple minds can have problems with simple words and the wingnuts prove this daily.

  80. 80.

    Yutsano

    @gwangung: Poor Bullock. I hope he doesn’t get made out to be too much of a scapegoat tonight. The Aggies really hung in there, they don’t have much to be ashamed of.

  81. 81.

    Jennifer

    @Brian J:
    Yeah, but that’s the whole crux of it. The half of America that doesn’t vote for the Democrats is, roughly, the half that didn’t go to college. At least among white people.

    The notion that it would be easy to “indoctrinate” young adults via professorial lecture would never even occur to an educated person, for the simple fact that they are educated. Those who aren’t and have never learned that the entire purpose of an education is to learn how to think rationally for oneself find opposing ideas and opinions threatening. And so naturally, they miss the connection – people who go to college aren’t more liberal because they’ve been indoctrinated, but because they’ve learned how to think for themselves and have decided that liberal ideas are better than conservative ones. Your average wingnut looks at a college and sees a liberal mill – and it just has to be because someone has told those kids what to think. Because that’s the only way your average wingnut has ever known what to think – from what someone told him.

    The complaint here is a general one, at heart, against the educated “elite”. They make the uneducated feel inadequate, and to add insult to injury, they generally make more money. It’s just not fair that they get to be both smarter and wealthier, so since the wingnut can’t get ahead of the smartypants financially, he’ll try to maintain standing by denying that the smartypants is actually smarter than he is … this has the further advantage of heightening his victimization, because then those alleged smartypantses who are actually dumber than he is are making more money than he is … NO FAIR!!!

    So you see, by refusing to just believe whatever we are told, we are actively oppressing wingnuttia.

  84. 84.

    MikeJ

    @Jennifer:

    the entire purpose of an education is to learn how to think rationally for oneself

    The people who don’t understand this also don’t understand that if you could disprove something that’s accepted as fact, say, general relativity, you would not be silenced, you’d be given every prize that the physics world has to offer.

  86. 86.

    Brick Oven Bill

    On Obsidian Wings, the day of someone’s banishment, 31JUL08, somebody said at 4:53pm:

    “Update: His RealClearPolitics lead is now down 1.6% since he left for his Eurotour. The most recent poll has the lead down 3.5% since he left for his Eurotour. There is a ring to 3.5%. If this keeps up, we will be seeing JNMs within six weeks.”

    Exactly six weeks later, an undisclosed group withdrew $500 billion from the money markets and Lehman was allowed to fail (Geithner call). Then the stock market tanked, people with undisclosed short positions made billions, and Geithner was installed to oversee the printing press.

    Spooky.

  89. 89.

    Yutsano

    @General Winfield Stuck: Not a fun way to go through life. Though I guess when your world view is exposed as more or less of a fraud, you grab onto what you can.

    Is it normal to have a massive craving for sweet potatoes after Thanksgiving?

  93. 93.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Yutsano: Thanks, it really is a lifestyle change, and so far he is going for it, he is all for everything that will keep him alive, to be honest if I told him that the only way that he could survive right now is to eat raw snails three times a day he would do it. He is that spooked. He told me that he is “paranoid” about everything that passes his lips. Luckily he has a wife who likes to cook, and I am now unleashed, able to cook the way I have wanted to cook for these many years and yet not able to cause of his rigid needs for bullshit roast beef sandwiches and cheese fries.

  94. 94.

    bedtimeforbonzo

    “Watched ‘The day the earth stood still’ tonight. Good remake, while the message changed (destroying the planet rather than nuclear weapons) I really enjoyed the story, one bitch though would have loved if the Keanu Reeves character would have given the hoomans a deadline. ie ‘Sort your shit out in a year or we will be back’. Good movie though.”

    Speaking of good remakes, the wife and I watched “The Taking of Pelham 123” the other day and, having been dismayed when I heard they were remaking it, I was surprised that I really liked it.

    The original was one of the first “adult” movies I saw in the theatre as a teen and I always loved Walter Matthau as the downtrodden, lifer NYC transit authority supervisor. Robert Shaw, as his nemesis, was characteristically sharp and bad to the bone.

    But Denzel Washington gets a smart new backstory in the Matthau role and, as usual, DW delivers as the movie’s Everyman. And the remake was wise to put a whole new twist on the Shaw character, no longer reserved but a total whack job — and John Travolta, whose overacting I usually do not enjoy, is great as the wild-eyed crazy.

  95. 95.

    bedtimeforbonzo

    @Yutsano: President Obama is a paradox. He makes the wingnuts go bat shit because he is too liberal. He makes the liberals, like myself, unhappy because he is a poor excuse for a liberal. I am no fan. And digusted that he has coddled Wall Street and shown no backbone on social issues.

  96. 96.

    Dan B

    @ John:

    My aunt, sells her jams and chutneys at the farmer’s market in Union Square in NYC, brought a cranberry/horseradish/wasabi chutney to dinner this evening. It was pretty phenomenal on the plate but I’m hoping it tastes even better in sandwich form. Just enough kick to work with the tartness of the cranberries without getting out of hand. Highly recommended combination.

  97. 97.

    Yutsano

    @bedtimeforbonzo: You see a paradox, I see more or less what I voted for: an alternative to the way things had been done for the last eight years. Although he may be a personal liberal, he is ultimately a pragmatist, and even if you don’t like all he has done he has done quite a bit in a very short amount of time. I knew he’d do things I wouldn’t like. I knew he would possibly piss me off to no end. There are quite a few things I’d do differently. But I can’t say yet he’s let me down.

  99. 99.

    gwangung

    I knew he’d do things I wouldn’t like. I knew he would possibly piss me off to no end. There are quite a few things I’d do differently. But I can’t say yet he’s let me down.

    Hm. When was it ever promised (let alone, ever occurred) that we would have leaders that we would always agree with? (And is it ever natural to have leaders that we ALWAYS disagree with?)

  100. 100.

    Anne Laurie

    @Litlebritdifrnt: Glad to hear that your DH — and you, and the critters — are all doing well!

    Anybody here know anything about lingonberries? I tried Ikea’s lingonberry juice several years ago and was thrilled to find something that actually tasted like cranberry juice would if it were actually drinkable. But I’ve never seen actual lingonberries for sale, although I may just not shop in the right places. I’ve assumed they were too seasonal to be interesting to American palates, but I wondered if they can actually substitute for cranberries in recipes?

    I did go so far as to mail-order a couple of lingonberry bushes last spring (since I was ordering half a dozen blueberry bushes anyway), but our dreadful NE Summer of No Sunshine may have killed them all — the little bushlings dropped all their leaves in September, long before any of the established plants around them even turned color.

  101. 101.

    Yutsano

    @Anne Laurie: OMG lingonberries are one of the greatest contributions to world cuisine Scandinavia has ever offered. They usually mix them in with butter and put it on pastries. Did you check the life cycle for growing them? They should be used to less than normal sunlight being native to such a northern region.

  102. 102.

    San

    The turkey turned out SPECTACULAR this year. Dry brine! It works wonders. I was skeptical but now it’s the only way I will ever do it.

    Dry brine — rubbing the bird inside and out with kosher salt and keep it in the fridge for two days. After that I used a stick of butter to coat it all over (including under the breast skin) and I put a bunch of herbs in the main cavity (rosemary, thyme, sage) and cut up sourish apples and onions. The bird was heavenly. Moist and super tender.

    And the cranberry sauce was made with orange zest and orange chunks.

    The gravy had 3 pounds of chanterelle mushrooms and mucho calories.

  103. 103.

    Yutsano

    @San:

    The gravy had 3 pounds of chanterelle mushrooms and mucho calories.

    jeffreyw is gonna have a new bromance with you now.

  105. 105.

    Anne Laurie

    @Jennifer:

    Your average wingnut looks at a college and sees a liberal mill – and it just has to be because someone has told those kids what to think. Because that’s the only way your average wingnut has ever known what to think – from what someone told him… The complaint here is a general one, at heart, against the educated “elite”. They make the uneducated feel inadequate, and to add insult to injury, they generally make more money. It’s just not fair that they get to be both smarter and wealthier, so since the wingnut can’t get ahead of the smartypants financially, he’ll try to maintain standing by denying that the smartypants is actually smarter than he is … this has the further advantage of heightening his victimization, because then those alleged smartypantses who are actually dumber than he is are making more money than he is … NO FAIR

    Well, there are also very well-educated, high-earning wingnuts…. especially in science & engineering. Some of my best friendsmost long-standing acquaintances, including a couple of actual rocket scientists, are firmly convinced that us liberal DFHs are just not smart enough to understand “real” political economics, which in their views run the gamut from mild Social Darwinism to full-metal Hayek. And, from their point of view, the fact that they make at least 10 times as much as I’ve ever made on an annual basis proves they’re at least 10 times as right as I am, because NUMBERS DON’T LIE, right? Frances FitzGerald wrote some wonderful stuff about Falwell’s Liberty University, back in the 1980s, about how engineering was a “safe” major for the Moral Majority kids because engineering problems can be reduced to right answers and wrong answers, so if you just memorize the formulas there’s never a worry about indoctrination. Yeah, most wingnuts — especially the ones in the media, including our luvverly blogging medium — are gloriously, willfully, stubbornly dumber than my little lapdogs with their lemon-sized brains, but it’s not necessarily a requirement.

  107. 107.

    Yutsano

    @Chuck Butcher: We had several technogeeks volunteering to fix the WP platform. I’m hoping they’re willing to put in some holiday time so this crap stops happening.

  108. 108.

    MikeJ

    Oy. I’m off to go see if the all night toy store has zuzu the magic rat or some shit like that. Why oh why did they start closing the 24 hour starbucks at 9pm?

  109. 109.

    Of Bugs and Books

    @Anne Laurie:

    If your lingonberries made it through the summer, I would be patient. The Oregon State U. Ext. Service Plant Disease Handbook (not online) says few disease problems locally. Another source says few insect problems. Likes acid soils, avoid nitrogen, etc.. E.g.,:
    http://www.prairie-elements.ca/lingonberry.html
    The wet weather should not have been the problem IF drainage is good.

    Lingonberries should be evergreen, but shipping, transplanting, etc., can be cumulative stresses, so the leaf drop could have been (optimistically) protection of reserves and keeping branch buds alive for next year (but not normal).

    Some references to lingonberry in ‘Diseases of Trees and Shrubs’, Sinclair, Lyon, Johnson.

    If you’re still around, do you have the species and cultivar names?

  110. 110.

    Steeplejack

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    [. . .] my only problem now is going to be getting fresh cranberries “out of season” so to speak.

    Wouldn’t you be okay with frozen cranberries? No additives, I don’t think, and freezing doesn’t seem to harm the berries.

  112. 112.

    bedtimeforbonzo

    @Yutsano: Yes, there is plenty of time for President Obama to be more forthright on social issues, although I don’t see him going left of center as the 2010/12 elections draw near.

    The rub I have with Obama is that he has shown more interest and concern for Wall Street and the banking and mortgage industries than he has for working people and Main Street. I never thought I’d see the day that would happen under a Democrat. President Bush presided over the death of the middle class, President Obama is kicking dirt on our graves.

  113. 113.

    Teduardo

    Unfortunately, some of us are (Lions fans)! I wonder if I’ll ever know what’s it like to be disappointed with an 8 and 8 team…

  114. 114.

    Joe

    @burnspbesq:

    It doesn’t make much difference if the music isn’t any good.

    Fortunately, however, the music is every bit as awe-inpiring as the longevity.

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