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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread

Open Thread

by John Cole|  February 24, 20106:17 pm| 68 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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I’m out to eat and not interested in the news, so you won’t have me to kick around tonight.

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Previous Post: « For Those of You Claiming Ed Did Not Become a Hack
Next Post: If not for you »

Reader Interactions

68Comments

  1. 1.

    Chuck Butcher

    February 24, 2010 at 6:18 pm

    Sure we will, you’ll just get feeling insulted a bit later…

  2. 2.

    Midnight Marauder

    February 24, 2010 at 6:20 pm

    I’m out to eat and not interested in the news, so you won’t have me to kick around tonight.

    Dubious.

  3. 3.

    Tzal

    February 24, 2010 at 6:23 pm

    I am reposting this link because it brought me such joy.

  4. 4.

    eastriver

    February 24, 2010 at 6:23 pm

    Swing. Miss. Damn.

  5. 5.

    AkaDad

    February 24, 2010 at 6:23 pm

    And I just freed up my schedule too. Also, as well.

  6. 6.

    JeremyH

    February 24, 2010 at 6:24 pm

    Is Tunch really watching me?

  7. 7.

    Origuy

    February 24, 2010 at 6:27 pm

    What’s the over/under on the number of threads John starts tonight?

  8. 8.

    schrodinger's cat

    February 24, 2010 at 6:28 pm

    @JeremyH: Yes, he watches and he is always there.
    **cue the scaree music**

  9. 9.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    February 24, 2010 at 6:28 pm

    Ok tricky John.

  10. 10.

    gwangung

    February 24, 2010 at 6:29 pm

    Well, darn….I found this fascinating:

    The Republican Party Platform for 1956.

    Methinks the current Dems are slight right of THAT.

  11. 11.

    Omnes Omnibus

    February 24, 2010 at 6:35 pm

    @JeremyH: Yes. Yes, he is.

  12. 12.

    JeremyH

    February 24, 2010 at 6:36 pm

    What does Tunch want from me, then? How do I appease an arbitrary, capricious cat if I don’t know what he wants?

  13. 13.

    paradox

    February 24, 2010 at 6:38 pm

    Clam fettuccini with broccoli. Chardonnay for her. Hawaiian coffee and chocolates. Lavender sex oils. (Har har, eh?)

    I get an odd burrito or box of Chinese takeout, but it’s been a very long time since I got dressed decently and dined. Casualty of frugal living, but damn I love a good restaurant, seeing all the little people.

  14. 14.

    jeffreyw

    February 24, 2010 at 6:40 pm

    I’ve been looking at this all day, and am starting to think it was the result of a dare.

    He got away clean.

  15. 15.

    jeffreyw

    February 24, 2010 at 6:41 pm

    Damn you Word Press! grumble, 2 linky comment eated

  16. 16.

    schrodinger's cat

    February 24, 2010 at 6:42 pm

    @JeremyH: Tunch is like the ceiling cat of Balloon Juice, he wants you to obey, or else he will eat your comments.

  17. 17.

    schrodinger's cat

    February 24, 2010 at 6:43 pm

    @jeffreyw: Is it wordpress or is it a hungry Tunch?

  18. 18.

    jeffreyw

    February 24, 2010 at 6:45 pm

    OK, Tunch, sire, he who must be OBEYED, I will offer the links one at a time.
    On a dare? Or unaware? I’m undecided now after several reviews.

  19. 19.

    skippy

    February 24, 2010 at 6:45 pm

    ok, sign the petition telling the nytimes to print a retraction to their insistence that their ‘james o’keefe appearing as a pimp in acorn offices’ story was factually correct.

  20. 20.

    jeffreyw

    February 24, 2010 at 6:47 pm

    He got away clean.

    Can bluejays do a high 5? There may have been some cackling.

  21. 21.

    JeremyH

    February 24, 2010 at 6:47 pm

    @Schrodinger:

    Oh god… Tunch and Ceiling Cat are in league? This is much, much worse than I thought.

  22. 22.

    Citizen_X

    February 24, 2010 at 6:51 pm

    Ding-dong, the Hummer is dead.

  23. 23.

    Maude

    February 24, 2010 at 6:53 pm

    @paradox: And the little people love seeing you too.

  24. 24.

    jah

    February 24, 2010 at 7:09 pm

    could be a new low for foxnews.com:
    comical
    i’m sure this signals obama’s muslim brotherhood takeover of the missile defense agency

  25. 25.

    burnspbesq

    February 24, 2010 at 7:11 pm

    The US men’s hockey team struggled but eventually found a way to solve Swiss goaltender Jonas Hiller for a 2-0. win earlier today. The Americans move into Friday’s semis.

  26. 26.

    Dave C

    February 24, 2010 at 7:14 pm

    Via Ezra, sometimes you just gotta get some steam out–even when you’re on the floor of the House of Representatives.

  27. 27.

    Incertus (Brian)

    February 24, 2010 at 7:15 pm

    Can I tell you how much I love it when wingnuts try to make literary allusions? They always fuck it up. Apparently, Obama is Captain Ahab and health care reform is his white whale.

  28. 28.

    Jim C.

    February 24, 2010 at 7:18 pm

    We still have DougJ to kick around though right? …. RIGHT? Tell me we can still kick around DougJ!!

  29. 29.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    February 24, 2010 at 7:37 pm

    @Incertus (Brian):
    Too bad they didn’t go looking for literary allusions in Finnegans Wake instead of Moby Dick. That could have been interesting.

  30. 30.

    skippy

    February 24, 2010 at 7:38 pm

    @Incertus (Brian): worse than wingnuts making literary allusions, is when they make biblical allusions and totally f*ck them up:

  31. 31.

    Annie

    February 24, 2010 at 7:52 pm

    We aren’t going anywhere, John. Just think of all of us as dessert….

  32. 32.

    Carrie

    February 24, 2010 at 7:53 pm

    you won’t have me to kick around tonight.

    Shitty, i was so looking forward to having someone to kick around tonight.

  33. 33.

    Annie

    February 24, 2010 at 7:56 pm

    @Carrie:

    LOL………..

  34. 34.

    Andre

    February 24, 2010 at 8:00 pm

    @gwangung:

    Holy crap. Despite the “Democrat Administration” quip, that’s a platform that could be picked up by most non-US right wing political parties in the West without changing a thing.

    The Eisenhower Administration will continue to fight for dynamic and progressive programs which, among other things, will:
    …
    Stimulate improved job safety of our workers, through assistance to the States, employees and employers;
    …
    Continue and further perfect its programs of assistance to the millions of workers with special employment problems, such as older workers, handicapped workers, members of minority groups, and migratory workers;
    …
    Strengthen and improve the Federal-State Employment Service and improve the effectiveness of the unemployment insurance system;
    …
    Protect by law, the assets of employee welfare and benefit plans so that workers who are the beneficiaries can be assured of their rightful benefits;
    …
    Assure equal pay for equal work regardless of Sex;
    …
    Clarify and strengthen the eight-hour laws for the benefit of workers who are subject to federal wage standards on Federal and Federally-assisted construction, and maintain and continue the vigorous administration of the Federal prevailing minimum wage law for public supply contracts;
    …
    Extend the protection of the Federal minimum wage laws to as many more workers as is possible and practicable;
    …
    Continue to fight for the elimination of discrimination in employment because of race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry or sex;
    …
    Provide assistance to improve the economic conditions of areas faced with persistent and substantial unemployment;
    …
    Revise and improve the Taft-Hartley Act so as to protect more effectively the rights of labor unions, management, the individual worker, and the public. The protection of the right of workers to organize into unions and to bargain collectively is the firm and permanent policy of the Eisenhower Administration. In 1954, 1955 and again in 1956, President Eisenhower recommended constructive amendments to this Act. The Democrats in Congress have consistently blocked these needed changes by parliamentary maneuvers. The Republican Party pledges itself to overhaul and improve the Taft-Hartley Act along the lines of these recommendations.

    And the healthcare stuff is just stellar, relatively speaking.

    How far they’ve fallen, yet they think it’s progress…

  35. 35.

    freelancer

    February 24, 2010 at 8:07 pm

    @Andre:

    So take me away, I don’t mind
    But you better promise me, I’ll be back in time

  36. 36.

    mcd410x

    February 24, 2010 at 8:07 pm

    Oh, Canada

  37. 37.

    jibeaux

    February 24, 2010 at 8:11 pm

    Well, I watched curling for the first time in my life tonight. There wasn’t any sound. Couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Looked like bowling on ice, if two guys were, say, frantically accompanying the bowling ball and blowing on it or something. Weirdest damn thing I’ve ever seen.

  38. 38.

    Xenos

    February 24, 2010 at 8:12 pm

    There is finally some worthwhile programming on CNBC. Canada 3, Russia 1, and the first period is not even over yet. The Canadians are out for blood. No nuclear power five times their size is going to get in the way of another chance to take down the Americans. Some beautiful hits out there.

  39. 39.

    DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio

    February 24, 2010 at 8:20 pm

    @jibeaux:

    I really enjoy watching curling. It has a sort of elegance to it, and it’s an activity where things happen in the fullness of time. It reminds me of a grown up form of marbles.

    A nice change of pace from the sturm und drang of events that, say, J Michael Neal would like.

    Heh.

  40. 40.

    Omnes Omnibus

    February 24, 2010 at 8:32 pm

    @Dave C: Brilliant!

  41. 41.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    February 24, 2010 at 8:38 pm

    Fresh Charlie pics

    #1

    #2

  42. 42.

    gwangung

    February 24, 2010 at 8:39 pm

    @Andre: Actually, what I think is worse is that these bozos think they’re clearly embodying these principals….

  43. 43.

    mr. whipple

    February 24, 2010 at 8:42 pm

    @gwangung:

    Thanks a ton for the link. Unbelievable.

  44. 44.

    Anne Laurie

    February 24, 2010 at 8:44 pm

    @jeffreyw:

    Can bluejays do a high 5? There may have been some cackling.

    I think the very existence of bluejays constitutes a high-five… or possibly a middle finger!

  45. 45.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    February 24, 2010 at 8:45 pm

    Fresh Charlie pic

    more

  46. 46.

    demkat620

    February 24, 2010 at 8:46 pm

    Wow, Canada is beating the crap out of Ovechkin and the Russians.

    7-2 is almost a football score.

  47. 47.

    SixStringSlingr

    February 24, 2010 at 8:46 pm

    7-2 Canada over Russia, exactly halfway through the game. Wow. THIS is the team everyone expected to see from the host country.

  48. 48.

    freelancer

    February 24, 2010 at 8:48 pm

    Also, did anyone watch this GMA segment with the daughter of Joseph Stark calling her father a hero, and catch this nice little tidbit?

    Stark was an anti-tax psycho, and his daughter is rationalizing his insane demise by agreeing with his positions on the oppression of the IRS and taxes, but she flees and emigrates to Norway out of these same fears. That’s right, Norway, that shining igloo on a hill of Scandinavian tax havens.

    facepalm.

  49. 49.

    demkat620

    February 24, 2010 at 8:51 pm

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck: That is so totally an “I am not moving look”

    He gets his way alot doesn’t he?

  50. 50.

    Anne Laurie

    February 24, 2010 at 8:51 pm

    I’m out to eat and not interested in the news, so you won’t have me to kick around tonight.

    If you’re not gonna discuss Lily’s respectable cloth coat booties, John, you should’ve at least announced that you were changing Tunch’s name to Checkers for the evening…

    (Yes, I am old. Not quite old enough to have witnessed Nixon’s original meltdown, but old enough to think of Tricky whenever the you-won’t-have-X-to-kick-around flag is waved.)

  51. 51.

    Carrie

    February 24, 2010 at 8:51 pm

    @Annie:
    Lol, can’t seem to get this song out of my head for a reason.

  52. 52.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    February 24, 2010 at 8:52 pm

    @demkat620: almost always. it’s his apartment, I just bunk here.

  53. 53.

    area man

    February 24, 2010 at 8:55 pm

    @Dave C:

    I was wondering if anyone was gonna mention that rather tasty bit of Repub schooling. Just watched it on Olbermann. Loved the little procedural thing where Lungren demanded withdrawal of the remarks and Weiner agrees, only to see Lungren object to the withdrawal thus allowing Weiner to repeat himself in no uncertain terms. The “deal with it” and podium slam at the end was wicked. That’s how legislators drop the mic, I guess.

    Two thumbs way up! I would recommend this Congresscritter to a friend!

  54. 54.

    Peter J

    February 24, 2010 at 8:58 pm

    In mother Russia, puck owns you.

  55. 55.

    kommrade reproductive vigor

    February 24, 2010 at 8:59 pm

    Your attention please. Please add the NCAA to the big book o’ things fReichtard’s hate.

    And I bet at least one dumb fuck goes on a prolonged rant about the NAACP.

  56. 56.

    RedKitten

    February 24, 2010 at 9:04 pm

    The Canadians are out for blood.

    That phrase alone just somehow seems so…out of place.

    I’m impressed with our boys, though — it’s like someone finally lit a fire under them. They’re hitting hard, often, and cleanly, and I’m really not seeing any stupid mistakes so far.

  57. 57.

    Xenos

    February 24, 2010 at 9:19 pm

    @freelancer: Norway has a shortage of black people undeserving poor, so the taxes are, like, totally cool. Shes down with social welfare for people whiter than she is.

  58. 58.

    Annie

    February 24, 2010 at 9:28 pm

    @Carrie:

    You are awesome…LOL…thanks!

    PS. John knows we are all lurking behind the bushes waiting from him to return from dinner. I bet when he exits the car, he looks both ways and runs into his apartment. Tunch is probably on the porch holding the flashlight so he doesn’t fall again, and Lily is inside with the leash in her mouth, and her legs crossed.

  59. 59.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    February 24, 2010 at 9:33 pm

    @RedKitten:

    They’re hitting hard, often, and cleanly,

    Cleanly? slugfests in Hockey are the only thing I understand about the game. The best is when two dudes stand toe to toe strip off their masks and pound on each others noggin like forever in an epic embrace, though, of course, a very manly one. It has : symmetry and choreography and a kind of primal thuggish ballet quality to it.

  60. 60.

    Annie

    February 24, 2010 at 9:44 pm

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck:

    Charlie: I hide it and I am not giving it back…

  61. 61.

    RedKitten

    February 24, 2010 at 9:44 pm

    “Cleanly” as in “within the rules”. We’re not racking up penalties, anyway.

  62. 62.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    February 24, 2010 at 9:56 pm

    @RedKitten: Well, it is the Olympics after all. So cleanly it is.

  63. 63.

    RedKitten

    February 24, 2010 at 10:25 pm

    w00t! Gold AND Silver in women’s bobsleigh! We now have just as many gold medals as you guys do. :)

  64. 64.

    DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio

    February 24, 2010 at 10:34 pm

    @RedKitten:

    Sure, but we still have real bacon.

  65. 65.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    February 24, 2010 at 10:48 pm

    @RedKitten: Congrats!! Oh Canada. but I am a big Canuck fan, always have been. I loves the Scots Irish and Frenchies too.

  66. 66.

    Comrade Mary

    February 24, 2010 at 10:54 pm

    @DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio: I think you’ve been misled by that vile little ham called Canadian bacon, which is neither Canadian nor bacon.

    What we treasure up here is peameal bacon and its kissing cousin back bacon. Luscious, salty heaven on a bun.

  67. 67.

    D-Chance.

    February 24, 2010 at 11:31 pm

    Looks like the Democrat House passed another bill that the Democrat Senate will bury… this one, insurance.

    But it got some guy named Weiner a chance to get some face time. Whoop-dee.

  68. 68.

    OriGuy

    February 25, 2010 at 2:00 am

    @RedKitten:

    The Canadians are out for blood.

    That phrase alone just somehow seems so…out of place.

    Yeah, it seems like cookies and juice would be involved.

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