Comcast has decided I am worthy this week.
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard
Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.
In my day, never was longer.
The worst democrat is better than the best republican.
The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.
The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.
if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.
Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.
Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.
Nothing worth doing is easy.
Republicans in disarray!
You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.
It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.
The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.
Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.
But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.
Hot air and ill-informed banter
You cannot shame the shameless.
A Senator Walker would also be an insult to reason, rationality, and decency.
Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?
Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.
“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”
It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.
When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.
JGabriel
My sympathies?
.
geg6
I am particularly interested in the profile of Mo’Nique. Saw “Precious” and she is simply amazing in it. As for the Oscars themselves, I will now admit that I find Steve Martin incredibly attractive. And funny. So he is my sole motivation to tune in tonight.
Brian J
Anyone outside of the New York area probably doesn’t care, but there’s a big problem between ABC and Cablevision over fees. ABC has actually been pulled from the air, like HGTV and the Food Network were a couple of months ago. I don’t particularly care that much, simply because I don’t watch much on ABC. But my mother is ready to switch providers if she misses the “Bachelor” wedding tomorrow. And if “Dancing with the Stars” goes on the air before this is resolved, she might take hostages.
Which just goes to show you that you can threaten the long term economic security and civil liberties of people, yet they probably won’t care because they might not notice. But mess with their TV? You’re in for a world of trouble.
Starfish
@geg6: I saw Little Shop of Horrors for the first time ever yesterday. I didn’t know Steve Martin could almost sing.
Steeplejack
@geg6:
I have been going the other way. I can’t remember the last time he was funny in anything, and he should have his comedy license revoked for doing those two Pink Panther movie remakes. Cheaper by the Dozen, fine. Father of the Bride, okay. You’re just riffing on old Hollywooden junk food. But please don’t screw around with genius.
I will say that his album The Crow is very good–if you skip the couple of goofy vocals and concentrate on the instrumentals.
Brian J
@Steeplejack:
I don’t think anyone doubts that Steve Martin can be funny. People just seem to be questioning his choices of what projects to appear in. Do you think after a certain point, people who act just do what makes them happy?
I remember one television critic making this point about Betty White. She’s obviously proven her comedic chops over her long career, but as she’s gotten older, people question the movies she makes and television shows she stars in. But as this critic said–I want to say Matt Roush or Michael Ausiello, but I am not sure–we should just let her do what she wants, because she’s earned it.
WereBear
@Brian J: There’s also the fact that getting a vehicle off the ground can take a long time. Actors tend to do what they are offered, after all.
R-Jud
God, yes. While I was in college I did some bartending during the summer of 2000, and remember having a conversation with a lady who really wasn’t interested in the presidential election at all. But she got talking about “Survivor” and got really worked up about how people were voted off the island without public input. “We, the viewers, should have a say!” she said.
“We, the people” to “we, the viewers”. That explains a lot.
John Cole
Sean Penn is a mensch.
Joey Maloney
Did the Neil Gaiman profile get broadcast?
Brian J
@WereBear:
That’s true.
@R-Jud:
I always like to mention Howard Stern when talking about this. I’ve never been a big listener, even though I’ve found him funny, because during his hey day I was a kid and he’s since moved to satellite which I don’t really want. But one of my older brothers bought his book Miss America home from college. I read whatever I could get my hands on then, and since there were lots of dirty words and a couple of naked chimichangas (a.k.a breasts) in their, I read it many times.
Anyway, he talked about his experience of possibly running for governor of New York on the Libertarian ticket. And while he was no doubt being somewhat sarcastic, he pithily described his platform of killing all the criminals, fixing potholes (possibly with the remains of the criminals), and getting the problems with television straightened out, specifically with Cablevision. He said he’d do all of that and then resign. He claimed he’d be the most popular governor in history, and I’m not sure he’d be wrong.
Randy P
@Steeplejack:
I’ve admired Martin as a writer in addition to being a performer. I thought Roxanne, his adaptation of one of my favorite plays, Cyrano de Bergerac, was brilliantly done. On the other hand, I thought The Jerk was trying a little too hard though it had some nice moments, like the cameo by another comedy great, Carl Reiner. I’ve heard his play Picasso at the Lapin Agile is really wonderful though I’ve never had a chance to see it.
The problem I have with these tiresome remakes is not just that he chose to appear in them, he chose to write them. So in my book he gets a great deal of the blame. I haven’t seen his Pink Panther movies and have no plan to. And I’ve been a big-time Steve Martin fan over the years.
Looking over his IMDB page it looks like the movies I remember as being his funniest were in the 80s. I see one recent writing project I liked a lot though, Shopgirl (not a comedy). He wrote the novel and also chose to appear in the movie.
gbear
@Starfish:
Did you know that he’s also a pretty good banjo player?
Annie
@John Cole:
And, he has great tchochkes…
gbear
If Comcast or the other cable suppliers ever deemed their customers ‘worhty’, they’d send them an apology and a refund for all the time they’ve spent watching shitty programs.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
The Kentucky Wildcats finish their regular season games today playing Florida. So Go Cats! Can’t wait till they mop the floor with The Dukers in the NCAA tourney.
I am feeling strong urges this morning to turn on my teevee to FNS and feed the Lynn Cheney hate. I now think she is a worse person than her pappy, something I thought not possible to think.
Randy P
@gbear:
I knew that. First time I saw the guy was on an HBO special in the 70s, either just before or right about the time he broke out on the new show Saturday Night Live. His stand up act was so funny I could hardly breathe. And the banjo was a big part of it. He had a routine about how Nixon should play the banjo (OK, it was funny in the 70s).
So was juggling. He’s not the world’s best juggler, but he can do it.
Funny thing about the stand-up act, apparently it was pretty experimental. I’ve read his autobiography talking about the stuff he was trying out and how badly it flopped. He managed to get himself banned from the Tonight Show for awhile.
geg6
To defend my attraction to Steve Martin, it’s not just his comedy that I love. Though that is good in “The Jerk” and his many and brilliant SNL appearances. And his original standup stuff was revelatory back in the ’70s. His writing is wonderful a lot of times, too. “Roxanne” is simply a masterpiece of an adaptation. “LA Story” is pretty damn good, too. And his books are completely a different animal. And in his personal life, he is apparently quite the renaissance man with a reputation as a very serious art collector and musician. When younger, he was quite good looking and as an older gentleman, he is still handsome in a distinguished way. Don’t be hatin’ on Steve!
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@geg6: You don’t have to defend him. He is a great and versatile entertainer and always has been. And a nice person to boot.
Steeplejack
@Brian J:
I think acting is like any other job in the sense that a small percentage of people have the luck, talent and/or drive to “just do what makes them happy” and the rest find the best job they can in their current circumstances.
I don’t doubt that Steve Martin can be funny; I was observing that (for me) he has not been funny in a while. And a lot of that is because he has chosen to star in bland remakes of old Hollywooden “classics” that were bland to begin with. He has been funny in some of his cameos and small supporting roles. But the Steve Martin “brand” has taken a hit, in my opinion. He is on the slippery slope to the Jim Carrey zone.
Betty White? Other than The Proposal and a commercial during the Super Bowl–and she was very funny in both of those–I can’t remember the last movie she was in, much less one in which she was the star. And I must have missed the whole debate about “Let Betty White do what she wants.” She is an 88-year-old TV actor who keeps her hand in with guest shots on various shows. I don’t see that as giving her carte blanche because she’s earned it.
Max
@Brian J: Big Howard fan here. I’ve had satellite radio for about 5 years. I could not live without it and I haven’t listened to terrestrial radio since the day I got it.
Besides Howard, there is so much on satellite that makes it worth the $13/mo.
Plus, you can get it on your iphone, or online with the monthly subscription.
I agree with you that Howard was probably right about the governorship. People really are that simple.
geg6
Thanks, Stuck. I adore that wonderful man who was born a poor, black boy. That said, it is stunningly gorgeous day in Western PA, with sunshine everywhere. About the only snow left is that which was piled up as tall as me from plowing. I have to get one more load of laundry through a drying cycle and then I’m taking the car to the car wash to wash winter off it, get some Mexican at the great stand down the road, and stop at the stand next door for some chocolate frozen custard to eat while watching Steve tonight.
Randy P
Here’s an odd thing about actors and crap movies. Gene Hackman and Michael Caine are both actors who have done some great stuff and some real crap. And in both cases, when asked about the crap they say things like “I just like to work”. They both have done lots and LOTS of movies. I admire that a lot, so for some reason in their cases I’ll see the crap stuff too and forgive them for it.
gbear
@gbear:
Ack. Of course I meant ‘worthy‘, not covered with worhts.
Steeplejack
@geg6:
I’m trying not to be a hater on Steve. I like a lot of the stuff he has done, but the trajectory over the last 10 years or so has been down. Presumably he is set financially, so why Cheaper by the Dozen (twice!)? Why Bringing Down the House (which is practically a rehash of Housesitter, a movie he made with Goldie Hawn in the ’90s)? Why, Steve, why? And words fail me on the Pink Panther remakes.
JD Rhoades
@Randy P:
That, and I imagine that a lot of projects looked better when they signed the contract, then turned to crap along the way.
MikeJ
Father of the Bride at least had Spencer Tracey in the original. It’s understandable why an actor would want to do that role.
Comrade Jake
Show me an actor who hasn’t worked on his/her share of crap movies, and I’ll bet you they’re out of work.
demo woman
Not sure why but I’m watching face the nation. For some reason I started humming an old childhood
tauntsong.. Lindsay and Evan sitting in a tree..If anyone is watching did you find it odd that Lindsay whined about please don’t do this?
cat48
Matthew Dowd is not ready to be host of This Week. Worst job by anyone so far with their revolving hosts since George left.
demo woman
@Comrade Jake: Sandra Bullock won a Razzie last night and could walk away with an Oscar tonight. Halle Barry has both awards.
IMO Streep deserves the Oscar.
Rey
@Brian J & Max
I’m a huuuuuge Howard Stern fan. God, I miss him so much on “free” radio. I bought a sirius satellite receiver but never had it hooked up. Now that I’m underemployed $13/mo can’t fit into my budget at this moment. Got really sad when Howard was not immediately offered the replacement position for Simon Cowell on American Idol.
Max- is Bettle (sp?) Juice still alive? is he still a regular on the show?
General Egali Tarian Stuck
A story for dog lovers, from my neck of the woods.
Max
@Rey: Yep. Beetle is still around and has an iphone app for $1.99.
Check out iTunes if you need a fix.
Elizabelle
No. Actually, McConnell is just sorry RNC got caught.
AP: McConnell Doesn’t Like GOP Pitch Based on Fear
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate’s top Republican says he didn’t like a recent GOP appeal to party donors that was based on stoking fear and negative feelings toward President Barack Obama and other Democrats.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky says he doesn’t understand why anyone thought such an appeal would help the GOP.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/03/07/us/politics/AP-US-GOP-Fundraising-McConnell.html?_r=1
Is a mystery.
ajr22
Orran Hatch just said he had to leave the the gang of six out of honor. I almost spit out my coffee.
mr. whipple
LOL.
demo woman
@General Egali Tarian Stuck: Where’s the happy ending?
WereBear
@JD Rhoades: That’s the crux of many of them.
You sign up with Martin Scorsese and Al Pacino, and when you show up it’s Alan Smithee and Charo. Sometimes, there isn’t anything you can do about it.
Like Christopher Walken, who “likes to work” and is in some terrible things. Yet he manages to look professional and tries to enjoy himself. Jeremy Irons is another actor who is too good to appear in most of his villain roles, but he does them and creates a bright spot in an otherwise unwatchable movie.
jeffreyw
Adventures in refrigerator spelunking.
PurpleGirl
I wasn’t sure about seeing “It’s Complicated” but I did enjoy it. Meryl Streep is very good and Steve Martin is a bit dorky but gets better as the movie goes on. I ended up liking the flick. (No comment about Alex Baldwin.)
PurpleGirl
jeffreyw @ 40: A science project ! Good picture.
Violet
@ajr22:
Saw that. I shouted, “Bullsh!t!” at the TV, then turned it off. The Republicans are doing their usual wronged-party shtick – “We tried so hard to work with the Democrats, but they just won’t be reasonable.” The Democrats should fight this kind of nonsense with chapter and verse of how the Republicans obstruct everything, but they never do. Ugh.
Rick Taylor
It appears perhaps Obama’s outreach is paying some dividends among centrist Democrats.
__
Ash Can
@jeffreyw: That oatmeal needs a haircut.
Bob K
What is is with conservatives and their has beens? Do they remind them of their “Glory Days” when the permanent Rethuglican Majority was in their hands? We have to be subjected to warmed over corpse Tom Delay spouting that Jim Bunning was right. “Unemployment benefits encourage unemployment.” These people are so far out of touch with reality. “We got ours – F**CK you.” is their motto. Their base has been swallowing their B.S. since St. Ronnie was in office, and would probably march in lock step off a cliff if it was for the good of the party. I’m so waiting for them to bring back Zombie Reagan for the good of the country.
John O
Creeping up on a year not watching the Sunday gasbags. Viva la blogosphere.
Parenthood is one of my all-time favorite movies.
Rick Taylor
Strange, I put the double underscores between paragraphs in my last post like I’m supposed to, but it still didn’t block quote the whole thing.
JGabriel
Steeplejack:
Probably to pay for his art collecting habit. Apparently Martin is a major collector.
.
Steeplejack
@WereBear:
I agree with all this. It’s a little different, though, when you’re not just showing up to act in something but you wrote it too (as Steve Martin did with the Pink Panther remakes).
Okay, I will step down from the bashing post. I don’t even dislike Martin; I’m just disappointed with some of his choices in recent years.
former_friend
Cole: “Sorry, but this is a hobby, not a job.”
I saw this statement on the recent post about spam filters … and boy am I glad you said that!
Now I’m visiting here on Adblock, and I have to say, what an effing relief! Bub-bye Project Wonderful!
JGabriel
@Bob K:
If you’re going to have a capitalist system that relies on maintaining a percentage of unemployed people as a cheap labor pool to draw upon and apply competitive pressure to keep wages low, then it’s necessary to provide unemployment benefits so they don’t starve and drive up your business costs due to labor scarcity.
It’s rather shocking how few Republicans get that.
.
WereBear
@Steeplejack: Well yes, so am I. He can’t so easily blame others, when he was in on the creative birth, so to speak.
Yet when it’s right (I nearly hurt myself laughing over Bowfinger) it’s wonderful. I guess it’s the risks of any highly cooperative endeavor.
Ash Can
I’ve never considered Steve Martin funny — but I have always considered him brilliantly intelligent, enormously talented, and simply a nifty, classy person. I may not laugh at his routines or go out of my way to see him in movies, but I still like him as a person, and believe he deserves all the accolades he gets.
Brian J
@Steeplejack:
As far as Steve Martin goes, I was just saying that if he has been funny in the past, he can probably be funny (funnier?) in the future. I think you’re right that it’s the projects he picks.
As far as Betty White goes, I think most people consider her a television actress, rather than a movie actress. She’s a very long and successful career in that regard. Again, I’m too young to have followed all of her shows, but I’ve seen her on “The Golden Girls,” among other shows, and she’s great. She was also hysterical on the roast of William Shatner. Part of that was certainly playing on her age. I mean, she’s in her 80s, and she’s saying things that would make most ladies half her age blush. But then you think, even if someone like Sarah Silverman or Lisa Lampanelli were saying it, or if someone else were saying it, it’d still be funny. I haven’t really followed the movement to let her host “SNL,” because I haven’t watched the show in years, but it’s based on the Superbowl commercial with Abe Vigoda. I didn’t watch the Superbowl and don’t remember the commercial, but a lot of people clearly liked it, so it’s easy to see where the enthusiasm for her hosting the show comes from. She’s pushing 90, yet she’s still making people laugh.
Anyway, the reason I brought her up was that she was on “Boston Legal,” which despite having a really talented production team and cast that won a lot of Emmys wasn’t always critically loved. I remember reading a comment that asked why she was on a show like that when she was so talented, to which the critic responded that she’s certainly talented and has earned the right to do whatever she wants, even if some people don’t like it. (Not the exact words, but something to that effect.)
patrick II
Steve Martin — the great flydini!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJCtOz32dnw
Brian J
@JGabriel:
I don’t know the research on this, although Paul Krugman has written that Larry Katz, who was cited by Michelle Malkin for believing what she claims about UI doesn’t actually agree with Malkin at all.
I’m not defending those on the right who make claims like Malkin’s or DeLay’s, but I don’t think the problem is that they are simply making stuff up. Instead, I think the problem is that they are taking an idea which is kind of, sort of, in some sense, maybe in normal times, possible, and then running with it well past its logical end. Is it really that outrageous to suspect that benefits might discourage people for looking for work? I don’t think so, in the same way a nice fat savings account might do the same thing. The thing is, people know what sort of situation they are in; if they need a job right away, they will look for one. And of course, there just aren’t enough jobs out there right now.
Brian J
@Rey:
There are some sites that pirate his shows. They are a couple of weeks behind, but they are there. I just forget what they are. (Which isn’t entirely helpful, I know, but maybe you know where to look more than I do.)
A Mom Anon
@Brian J: How in the fuck is 300 or so dollars a week encouragement not to find a job? UI benefits are not even close to drawing your normal salary,in most places it’s not even near half of what you were making before. A single person can’t live on that,let alone a family. There’s an awful lot of assuming going on with Malkin and the morons in Congress who have this idea that people are drawing a regular paycheck,like a severence package might offer.
UI is barely enough to eat and maybe pay for transportation to go look for a job,if you’re lucky. The idea that it’s incentive to sit around and do nothing is offensive as hell to those of us trying like crazy to find a job before we lose everything we’ve worked years to get.
Brian J
@A Mom Anon:
I’m not trying to be offensive or insulting or anything, and I am certainly not agreeing with what people like Malkin or DeLay are saying.
I was merely trying to analyze how these people were wrong. If you look at this blog post, which links to this study by Larry Katz, it’s shows that under normal times, there might be a small effect of benefits increasing the time a person is unemployed. But are we even close to normal times? No. There are so many people looking for jobs that it only makes sense from a moral standpoint, let alone from an economic one (they provide a form of stimulus, after all), encourage an extension of benefits.
Once again, I think we see the stupidity and/or dishonesty of people like Malkin and DeLay. As I said before, they are taking what might be a reasonable argument–again, in normal times–and abusing it by taking it over a logical end. It’s not a shock that they are selectively citing evidence, but it’s still sad.
Mayken
Get satellite and stop give Comcrap money!
asiangrrlMN
@A Mom Anon: I gotta agree with you. It doesn’t make sense at any time. Three hundred dollars a week is not going to encourage people to sit on their asses and not look for a job. I know that many people also don’t have cars, which means taking public transportation, which means eating up a lot of time and scheduling babysitters and whatnot for the kids. The ironic thing is that most of these people probably spend that much on a haircut (the rightwingers, I mean).
Just to add, even in normal times, I don’t think it’s an incentive not to find work. It just allows people the ‘luxury’ of not HAVING to find work thisveryminute.
Are there going to be people who scam the system? Of course. Like any other system. I would hazard a guess that the number is extremely low, though.
@Ash Can: I completely agree with your comment. I have never found Martin funny, but he is a class act. And, I will be DVRing the Awards tonight so I can watch ’em in an hour and a half.
@jeffreyw: That was mean of you. Bait and switch!
Mayken
@Brian J:
SATSQ YES! yes, it is.
Sorry, but I’ve been unemployed for over a year now and I can tell you unequivocally that there is NOTHING about being on UI that is discouraging me from looking for work. I’ve been pounding virtual and literal pavement since the first day and filling out the damn forms with the information about above-said pavement-pounding for less than half of what I was making at work is enough to make me want to cry. For people whose benies are less than mine, I have no idea how they make ends meet on UI. So, yes, it is crazy to think not even getting enough money to pay the rent each month keeps people from looking for work.
patrick II
I’ve always wondered what people who blame ui and laziness thought the causal affect was when the Fed announces an interest rate hike and unemployment goes up. Does the sight of an interest rate hike have some sort of laziness enhancer beam attached to it that causes people to say — aw screw working, I’m going on unemployment next week?
Just wonderin’
asiangrrlMN
@patrick II: I like the way you think, patrick II.
A Mom Anon
@Brian J: The “common wisdom” that these idiots are putting out there is that UI is welfare and undeserving people are getting it. It’s bullshit,you have to have proof that you were let go through no fault of your own before you even begin to qualify.
I’ve worked blue collar jobs my whole life(with the exception of taking off 16 yrs to raise an autistic child),I’ve collected UI a couple of times. I was never under the impression that I didn’t need to find a job again ASAP,and this was in good times where jobs were plentiful.
I am looking into the next room at a man who has busted his ass to provide for his family for nearly 20 yrs,and he’s broken at the moment because he’s not getting so much as a call back on any of the 42 jobs he’s applied for in three weeks. He’s taking it as a personal failure on his part because he’s been working since he was 16 yrs old. He’s 44 now,I’m about to turn 50. No one wants us to work for them(no one’s saying it out loud,but the impression is we’re too old-legal or not,that’s what”overqualified”means),even though I can assure you we can do the heavy lifting,be dedicated and dependable and know what it means to come home dirty and tired. For ANYONE to so much as hint that we’re not trying hard enough is more than offensive,it’s disgusting.
Stan of the Sawgrass
All:
I really loved Martin’s book (Born Standing Up) and he did a great interview on NPR’s Fresh Air. Also, there was an easter egg for me in there– he talks about seeing “serious art” for the first time in Dalton Trumbo’s house, and one of the painters he mentions is Hiram Williams, my painting teacher at UF back in the mid-seventies.
Also, I put up a short blog (bloglet?) that posts pages from Gerald K. Smith’s ultraright sheet, “The Cross and the Flag.” I got “inspired” by John’s link to the article about George Wallace voters and Tea Partiers. This is the same kind of thing, but it’s a little more in-your-face. Plus more anti-semitism than racism.
I don’t know if it’s worth the time to finish scanning and posting the rest of it. I don’t know if it adds anything to the discussion about the crazy right of today.
What do you guys think, and thanks for checking it out. I have to do yardwork today, but I’ll look for any comments later this afternoon.
Sorry to break into the thread this way, it’s bad manners.
Kryptik
@asiangrrlMN:
You honestly think they care about that? Like you said, they probably spend that much on haircuts. They have a very warped scope of money and value, and it shows through every one of their economic proposals. All that matters to them is fellating the idea, the concept of the ‘Great Reagan’ they have in their heads, and his harping on ‘Welfare Queens’. Most of these assholes probably have never had to worry about living check to check before.
asiangrrlMN
@Kryptik: I know they don’t care about it. I have long since thought that people like McCain and his ilk (and the pundits, but they really don’t matter, anyway) should have to live for one month working at Wal-Mart or construction or McDonalds. They should not have healthcare insurance. They have to pay a mortgage on their (one) home and payments on their (one) car, which is a second-hand car with a hundred thousand miles on it. They must shop in the city where things cost much more than in the suburbs. I doubt they would last a week.
Stan of the Sawgrass
(grumble…. the link didn’t post. Guess I’m not aware of all the internet traditions after all.)
The GK Smith loonathon is at :
http://naveldirt.blogspot.com/
Also– to Mom Anon:
I’ve applied for UI exactly once, and it was one of the most ego-destroying experiences of my life, at a time when my self-esteem was already at its lowest point. You have to beg, and the staff is usually so jaded and burnt-out that you get only the most minimal help, if that.
Disgusting.
Brian J
@A Mom Anon:
I don’t want to get into your experiences because it’s your life, I have no idea what you are going through, and I don’t want to make any comments that sound like I am attacking anyone (except those, like DeLay, who deserved to be attacked). But to be rather general, I don’t think I could ever classify you or anyone like you like DeLay and others are doing. It’s not right, either factually or if you consider fairness.
Like I said before, I mentioned the study done by Larry Katz and how Michelle Malkin abused it because it’s a common example of they get their talking points. It looks like Malkin found a perfectly reasonable academic paper and, through either dishonesty or stupidity, took it way out of context. Aren’t those on the right doing it a lot these days, especially with climate change? That’s what it seems like to me. And more often than note, it’s treated as if it’s a legitimate response, when it’s very much not.
Brian J
@Mayken:
It’s important to distinguish between normal times and abnormal times. As many other said, the employment situation isn’t remotely close to normal now because there are so many more people looking for jobs than there are jobs available. So while in normal times, they might act as a slight discouragement to find work, that almost certainly isn’t the case now.
As I have said, I am not, in any sense, trying to defend people like DeLay or Malkin. Instead, what I am doing is trying to show how they start the process of spreading misinformation and lies. In the case of Malkin (and I know nobody else but me brought her up, but I just remembered reading about it and knew where to go for the links, so that’s why I keep mentioning her), she took a study that would, as its author Larry Katz said, apply to times of normal employment and twisted it. She abused the shit out of his research, in other words. And instead of being called on it when doing it, she wasn’t challenged by enough people, which lets the problem grow.
licensed to kill time
Adam Gadahn Captured In Pakistan
Just saw this – does everybody else know already?
asiangrrlMN
@Brian J: And I’m saying in so-called normal times (whatever they are for someone who is unemployed), it’s not true, either. UI is just bare-bones enough (hopefully) so that they don’t completely drown in debt while they are out of a job.
But, your bigger point is well-taken. The right doesn’t give a shit about any nuances or reasons behind the numbers. They will twist facts to suit their hypotheses and not think twice about it.
@Stan of the Sawgrass: I think it’s definitely worth exploring. The lunacy of the current Teabaggin’ Party is eerily similar to the ilk you have linked.
@licensed to kill time: Holy shit. Had no idea.
Brian J
@asiangrrlMN:
Well, according to some research, like the paper I cited above, when the labor market is normal, it might have a small effect. But then, we are not in normal times, and I don’t know enough about it to really have an opinion on it.
By the way, I saw your blog the other day for the first time. I didn’t read too much of it, just scanned through it a little, but it seems like if we were friends in real life, we’d get along pretty well. We’d probably have the same problem that I have with some friends, which is trying to have a conversation by finishing sentences and/or talking over and past each other, but probably be amusing to see.
Svensker
@Brian J:
Does the name Woody Allen mean anything to you?
Jules
Neil Gaiman is a God so my day was made watching his interview this morning (he has some cool, creepy stuff) but then the sat feed went wonky as Sean Penn was talking and we missed the rest of the show.
Too bad, my hubby has a crush on Lara Logan.
licensed to kill time
@licensed to kill time:
I see mr whipple posted it on the Tunch thread. When Gadahn released another audio tape the other day I remember thinking I wish they’d catch the little twerp. And now they have, it seems. And unlike the previous admin they are not calling press conferences and patting themselves loudly on the back but just quietly taking care of business.
asiangrrlMN
@Brian J: Yeah. I’m saying that the small effect might just be “I am not drowning, only treading water” kind of thing. I still don’t think the minimal amount (not to mention the humiliation someone has to go through to get on UI) given is enough to deter anyone from finding a job.
I don’t interrupt in real life! Well, actually, yes, I do. You are right. This is exactly the kind of discussion I would have with my friends in real life, and there would be much exchanging of ideas.
Brian J
@Svensker:
I think he was mentioned in a “Seinfeld” episode once. /sarcasm
Max
@licensed to kill time: My one true wish is that the Obama admin gets Osama. Not because I think OBL has much impact on the day to day AQ, but because it would send the neo-cons into total hysteria.
licensed to kill time
@Max:
That would be sweet sweet sweet indeed, watching the neocons tie themselves into pretzels about how catching Osama ain’t no big thang, somehow.
Also, Obama got Osama would be a great headline.
Steeplejack
@Svensker:
Woody has been up and down, but Vicki Cristina Barcelona was very funny. And a great soundtrack. Recommended.
Cain
@licensed to kill time:
Yes, and as I commented on the Tunch thread it’s because you don’t Al-Qaeda to use it as a recruiting tool. Do it quietly, don’t get people all aroused. The press is not your friend as they’ll just start doing the horse race stuff and you’ll have Cheney and the rest just making everything all murky. No.. better to keep it quiet and take them out.
If they can find Osama’s body (he’s either dead or dying) that would be the coup de grace and it will kill all chances of Republicans winning the presidency. They might as well just give it up at that point. I think even then they would not drum it up… by then there would be a new head on the al-qaeda hydra.
cain
licensed to kill time
@Cain:
That’s a very good point re: AQ recruitment tool. (“Bring ’em on” ARGGH…)
I remember Rumsfeld practically breaking his neck to get in front of the cameras to announce that pathetic Richard Reid thing, and in the process reminding us all to be afraid, be very afraid. The Bushites really liked to play Fear Factor and I really appreciate the Obama admin treating these guys like the common criminals that they are. I’ll take quiet competence over hysterical grandstanding any day.
A Mom Anon
@Brian J: I didn’t mean to jump all over you Brian,but honestly,take a look at the actual benefit amounts for some of the states. Then think about what COBRA costs. Look at what’s left over. Then think about what happens if you have a spouse who has a heart attack or chronic condition. Or a kid who breaks an arm while skateboarding,or ends up with an ear infection w/ a trip to the ER. I just don’t think there’s any there there with this study or the morans like Malkin who are trying to equivocate UI with welfare and laziness.
Mayken
@Brian J: I’m not sure it really matters. Being on the dole is mostly humiliating and not even in good times is the amount you get enough to support a single adult, much less a family on. I was unemployed for a while during roaring economic times and getting less than half of what I was making as a bike shop clerk was very much an incentive to get my ass out and find a job. Honestly, I think that is one of the reasons they keep it so low to begin with.
I know you are not defending what Malkin or Delay say but I think the underlying premise, that UI in any way encourages people not to work, is bogus. And granting them a flawed basic premise isn’t really helping the argument that UI is a net Good Thing and should be expanded/supported especially now.
alone in the dark
@WereBear:
I believe it was Alec Baldwin who said, “None of us set out to make a lousy movie. Sometimes it just happens. Sometimes you realize it early on, and sometimes you don’t see it until opening night.”
And that is a man who would know about being in bad movies.
Brian J
@A Mom Anon:
I don’t think you were jumping on me. I was just trying to thread a fine line between being honest about what I read and responding to you, based on your personal situation.
Anyway, as far as the paper I refered to by Katz, I don’t have the chops to evaluate how it was constructed and what assumptions went into it, but supposedly it was a pretty good reflection of what most mainstream economists think. (Again, that’s in normal times, and the effects are supposedly small.) My guess is, where there is an effect, it’s probably for people who fit specific characteristics: they don’t have many expenses and have larger savings they can use.
No matter what the study said then or what a similar study might say now, I’m glad we can both agree to pile on Malkin for being so stupid/ignorant and dishonest.