Hold On.
In other open threaddish news, this Onion piece brings back one of my proudest moments: I correctly guessed who shot Montgomery Burns. Unfortunately the only guy who heard me say it later dropped out of college so you’ll have to take my word for it. Still, it was awesome.
gbear
I’ve been trying hard against unbelievable odds.
Hold On Hold On Hold On Hold On.
Ain’t no one gonna turn me ’round.
Laura Clawson
Took my Henley-cat to the vet this morning and he seems, not quite right. He’s walking around with his back legs bent, low to the ground. He’s eating a little, I think he’s used the litter box, but I’m concerned.
paradox
Tbogg’s dog is really sick, ‘n he host one of his hounds already this year, it’s fucked up…
paradox
Hi Laura.
I hope he gets better, I hate it when any of the pets are ill.
// winks // I still like that tattoo.
some other guy
The US and Russia are apparently on the verge of a deal to reduce their nuclear arsenals by 75%. Of course, like all treaties, it requires 2/3 consent in the Senate. Will the GOP obstruct nuclear disarmament?
Mnemosyne
I just finished a really good book that I’m sure everyone has already heard about, but here is it anyway: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
It’s multiple stories wrapped together, but it’s mainly about the HeLa cells, which were taken from a woman named Henrietta Lacks back in 1951 but are still alive today and have been used for a huge number of advances in medicine. The secondary story is about her family who, being poor and black and from the South, can’t afford health insurance but constantly have journalists and scientists harassing them about their mother’s cells and who, frankly, have been exploited by unscrupulous people more than once.
I know someone is going to buy the movie rights and turn it into yet another Nice White Lady Saves Black People movie, but that’s not how the book reads at all. It’s more like “nice white lady slowly earns the trust of people who have absolutely no reason to trust her.”
LiberalTarian
Anybody up for kitties?
Cat Lady
I’ve watch the Fucktard Bush wipe his hand on Clinton’s shirt about 30 times, and I still can’t wrap my mind around it. My conclusion is that that freak had to exist in order to get Obama. I’m in deep deep conflict about the price, but after this week I’m almost – ALMOST – convinced it was worth it. Am I wrong? Help!
gbear
@some other guy:
Did the Germans bomb Pearl Harbor??!!
Garrigus Carraig
@some other guy: Are you joking?
Mnemosyne
@Laura Clawson:
Our cat Annie once had a day-long freakout because we took her somewhere in her carrier (I think to the groomer’s) and didn’t put it away again immediately, so she was convinced that we were going to pick her up and stuff her back into it at any moment. She spent that whole day hiding and slinking around.
It took forever for me to figure it out, though — I did almost stuff her back into it and take her to the vet before I realized what was making her so flinchy.
eric
for your viewing pleasure this evening: two great scenes
The Wire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYj7q_by_2E
Pulp Fiction
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czb4jn5y94g
Garrigus Carraig
@Cat Lady: Ask an Iraqi if it was worth it.
some other guy
@gbear:
Does the pope molest bears in the woods when no one is around to hear it?
…
Sorry, I’m bad at this.
Juror #7
@Mnemosyne: I’ve been wanting to read that; thanks for the reminder.
Cat Lady
@Garrigus Carraig:
You’re right about that, but without Iraq and the financial collapse, we’d have McCain and Palin. How’s them apples?
mr. whipple
The senate dems need to use the nuclear option!
freelancer
Was traipsing around youtube looking for inspiration, came across an old favorite:
Neutral Milk Hotel – Two Headed Boy, Pt. 2
jamie
Listening to a wonderful free online concert by a cellist in San Francisco, by the name of Unwoman.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/unwoman-new-music-preview
gbear
@some other guy:
S’ OK. I stole mine.
Martian Buddy
One of Malkin’s readers comments on Blanche Lincoln’s “no” vote on reconciliation:
I don’t get it either–why would any Democrat think that the teabaggers can be placated by running to the right?
KDP
Crooks & Liars has posted this cool T/F quiz about HCR from the New York Times‘ education section. I got 10 for 10, what about you?
Based on your understanding of health care reform, circle “T” for true or “F” for false for each statement.
1. Starting in 2014, most Americans will have to have a minimum amount of health insurance or else pay a penalty of $95 or .5% of household income, whichever is greater. T F
2. In the health insurance marketplace created by the reform bill, individuals and employees will be assigned insurance plans based on their needs, rather than choosing the plans for themselves. T F
3. In 2014, the government will launch a new health insurance company which will compete against private companies. T F
4. Under the new health care law, employers will be required to offer health insurance to all workers. T F
5. Starting later this year, the government will give tax credits to small business owners who want to offer their employees health insurance. T F
6. Despite the reform, insurance companies will still be able to deny an individual coverage based on his or her age and/or medical condition. T F
7. Under the new plan, federal money cannot be used to pay for abortions, except in cases currently allowed by law, such as rape, incest or when the pregnant woman’s life is in danger. T F
8. To pay for the new insurance plans, individuals and employers will pay premiums; the rest will be covered by new taxes on high-cost employer-sponsored group health plans and tanning bed use; additional payroll taxes for people who earn more than $200,000 per year, and fees to be collected from health care companies, drug makers, manufacturers of medical devices and insurance companies. T F
9. Starting in 2014, all illegal immigrants will be able to purchase health insurance through the government. T F
10. The health insurance reform will result in an estimated 16 million new Medicaid recipients. T F
Laura Clawson
@Mnemosyne
Thanks. That’s my hope, that he’s just upset and concerned and maybe feeling a little off from having been sedated. When he lies still he seems fine, and he’s definitely interested in his food, so probably he’s just being skulky and angry with me. But if he’s not better by morning, I’ll have to miss some work time to bring him back to the vet.
Not to mention one time when he was upset that I’d put a liner in his litter box, he peed on my bed in the night, so I’m a bit nervous to fall asleep…
KDP
Well, I hope my prior post makes it out of moderation. It’s the NY Times Education Section T/F quiz on HCR. It was fun, and I found I knew more than I’d thought, 10 for 10. I suspect non-troll readers of this blog will score the same.
jamie
@Buddy: Aw, they’re cute. If it weren’t for the rabies, I’d want to pat their widdle heads.
rob!
Anyone in the greater Balloon Juice world work in publishing?
rob!
Stop right there! No one who follows Malkin can actually read, so they must have sort of looked at some funny pitchers of some Demmycrats and somehow gleamed what Malkin’s point was.
jamie
@rob Sort of. I do freelance layout/design and some programming work, sometimes, for a big gray house. Used to do production for a magazine, before I realized what a grind that is.
Martian Buddy
@rob!: Now that you mention it, there were a lot of inline images in that article.
jamie
@rob
I think the Malkin army is actually easier to explain. Remember the brain slugs from Futurama?
mcd410x
I’ve never been denied coverage for my pre-existing coverage. And now I can’t be.
I’m thankful for that.
Martian Buddy
One more before I turn in; in an earlier thread, someone mentioned that the national discourse is going to get even uglier when Congress takes up immigration reform. Hayworth apparently decided to warm up the xenophobes in advance–he’s already got an anti-amnesty donation banner up on Red State.
Mark S.
Xavier just won’t go down.
Brian J
I’d like to ask a question to you guys, people who don’t really know me and might give me an unbiased opinion: why do I feel so…indifferent towards good news?
Long story short, my law school responses are starting to come in. I’ve been rejected from a few places I would have liked to go, but I’ve gotten accepted to a Top 100 school, although it’s at the bottom. It’s supposedly a school on the rise, and it’s a major legal market, New York, so even if it’s not nearly as good as NYU or Columbia, I figure I can still get a good job if I do well. So, I do have an opportunity to make up for the lack of focus and success during my undergrad years and can come out with an advanced degree, so my snob side can be satisfied. I should be pretty happy even if I don’t get in anywhere else, yet I think I’ve told one person in my real life. Not one person in my family knows.
You should I should be pretty happy, yet I don’t feel even slightly excited. I worry that if I end up going there, which will be the case unless I get in some other places, I will go in there with the wrong attitude. Could my desire to leave home and experience something new for a while really be dragging me down that much?
By the way, I don’t mean to sound whiny. I am just curous why I am so nonplussed about this.
mr. whipple
wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!
anyone else watching xavier/kansas state?
Mark S.
@Mark S.:
Unbelievable
Mark S.
@mr. whipple:
I was about to ask that myself. Double OT.
eric
@Brian J: my advice: don;t go to law school….i dont say that derisively. The more debt you incur the more you have to keep a lousy job. I have been doing it for 12 years and I am very good at it, but it is a very hard job to sustain and it makes your family and personal life hell.
lecture off.
eric
Jennifer
Get a degree in something.
Brian J
@eric:
What sort of law do you practice?
mr. whipple
“You should I should be pretty happy, yet I don’t feel even slightly excited. I worry that if I end up going there, which will be the case unless I get in some other places, I will go in there with the wrong attitude. ”
Let’s say that instead of getting in near the bottom of100, you get in at #50. Will that make you excited?
If not, maybe you just aren’t really excited about going anywhere, or are placing too much emphasis on the status of the school instead of how well you’ll perform in it.
ajr22
@mr. whipple: Amazing game, Crawford is hitting threes from 10 feet behind the line. Gus Johnson is going nuts, the guy clearly enjoys his job.
Neutron Flux
@mr. whipple: Yes. After Kansas was eliminated, if K State loses, it will a tough tournament to take here in the Flux house.
Comrade Luke
@Brian J: I hate to analyze someone I don’t even know, but it sounds like you might be pursuing a profession you’re not 100% excited about, for reasons you don’t fully buy into.
My $.02…
mr. whipple
@ajr22:
This is so wild. I don’t give a rat’s ass about either team, but I’m on the edge of my seat. Great battle.
This commentator is in the bag for K-state, tho.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
It’s Kentucky versus West Virginia senor Cole. Good luck!! NOT
Angela
@mr. whipple:
I’m watching it; K-State alum. What a game.
eric
@Brian J: I do commercial litigation in a major market. I was a partner in one of the larger firms in the us/world. There are lots of variables as to whether you are “successful.” In fact, just because you are a good lawyer, does not mean you will succeed in the long run. Dont get me wrong…..there are times i really, really enjoy it….but then there are other times that if i afford to could quit….buh-bye.
MattR
@ajr22:
There is no better announcer for an exciting finish
ajr22
@mr. whipple: Ya each team has hit about 10 big three pointers. I’m a little upset they didn’t show the second half of the Kentucky game. A kid playing for Cornell went to my high school, and my senior year started for our varsity team as a freshman.
Brian J
@Comrade Luke:
Maybe, but I am actually pretty excited about going to school. I am just not sure that the school I will probably go to is the one I want to go to. I can’t really complain, considering what I applied with, but still.
Brian J
@eric:
That makes sense.
Neutron Flux
OK, there we go. Whewww.
jharp
http://capitalgainsandgames.com/blog/bruce-bartlett/1601/groupthink-right-would-make-stalin-proud
“Sadly, there is no place for David (Frum) and me to go. The donor(wingnut welfare) community is only interested in financing organizations that parrot the party line”
Would someone please make a post on the fucking asshole Bruce Bartlett making this absurd remark… …after sucking the wingnut teat for years and selling out the middle class.
Go fuck yourself Bruce. And you too David.
Neutron Flux
@ajr22: One of the guys I work with kid is playing for Cornell.
ajr22
@MattR: Gus Johnson got so fired up, he is a trending topic on twitter haha. Great game.
Brian J
@jharp:
I don’t know Barlett’s entire intellectual history, but he’s respected by people like DeLong and Krugman as someone who you might have reasonable disagreements with. He does, in other words, go for honesty as opposed to pure ideology. He had problems with the stimulus package, but he supported the idea of stimulus to begin with, for instance. And if there’s any issue where he breaks with the right, it’s on the issue of tax cuts. I believe it was some critical comment about Bush and tax cuts that got him canned.
As far as him selling out the middle class, how did he do that? Supply side economics? Again, I don’t know his whole intellectual history, but I do know that he’s talking about reasonable, legitimate supply side issues, which is how people respond to incentives. He’ll be at the front of the line to criticize the idiot supply siders, who peddle the nonsensical idea that tax cuts will always lead to more revenue.
Anyway, I don’t know if I feel sympathy for him or Frum in the same way I’d feel for someone who suffered some streak of bad financial luck. After all, both seem like smart guys, and I doubt they will have trouble taking care of themselves. I just think it’s unfortunate that they had to be the examples of the blind ideological underpinning of the conservative intellectual world.
Veteran, Great War of Yankee Aggression
@Martian Buddy:
Courtesy Politico, Now the Tea Party is purging Dick Armey, for being wobbly on immigrant-hating.
Doesn’t take long for the tiger to devour the rider.
mr. whipple
Night all. Great game.
jamie
jharp:
Would someone please make a post on the fucking asshole Bruce Bartlett making this absurd remark… …after sucking the wingnut teat for years and selling out the middle class.
He just needs to come to grips with the fact that the market has moved on. None of us, of course, wants good, hardworking propagandists to be reduced to panhandling or eating each other or having to use their hands for a living, but the hard fact of capitalism is that we all have to stay current to compete in an increasingly global environment.
Brian J
@Veteran, Great War of Yankee Aggression:
If the Democrats don’t have a candidate ready to take this guy on, the entire state party in Arizona should be thrown out on their asses. However well immigrant bashing might play in the state, he does leave a pretty wide space for anyone who isn’t nuts like him.
MattR
@ajr22: Here is a short Gus highlight and here is a best of compilation
danimal
@jamie: I’m having a hard time feeling bad for Frum and others that have had their 15 minutes of fame, thousands of dollars of wingnut welfare and then decide to buck the borg. My rule: if you’ve sold your soul to the devil, don’t complain when things get hot.
jamie
@danimal:
Yeah, sort of my thought, too. Frum isn’t an idiot, and I’m sure he could die wealthy without doing anything more than drinking single-barrel and masturbating to Reagan headshots for the rest of his life. But he won’t, and there are going to be other wingnut sinecures for him.
Nobody likes getting fired, but if your’re going to be, getting fired while living a life like his is certainly the way to do it.
Tattoosydney
@Brian J:
@eric:
I wouldn’t go as far as eric, but I would say that if you aren’t excited about this, then you should think seriously about whether law excites you, and if it doesn’t, well… maybe you need to think again.
I’ve been a lawyer for 12 years – admittedly in Australia, where the expectations on lawyers are not as scary – and have finally had to admit to myself this year that, it just isn’t me. I hate every minute of it, I don’t get any joy from it, and while the pay is lovely, I would have been better admitting this five or six years ago, and actually doing something that might make me happy. The rewards of being a lawyer may be great, but if it isn’t your passion, then it might destroy your soul.
/unhappy cynic wondering why he didn’t spend the last twelve years doing something that might make him and others happy
jharp
“I’m having a hard time feeling bad for Frum”… … nor Bartlett.
These two pocketed hundreds of thousands, or more. And travel arrangements most folks couldn’t comprehend, all pre tax fringe benefits.
Fuck both of them. I’ll share my sympathy for the guy who earns an honest living.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
The evil tyrant Hussein Obama continues his rampage to destroy murrica with soshulofascist aplumb.
Obama Akbaar!!
Fern
@Brian J: Maybe you don’t really want to do this. Did you have teeny-tiny twinges of relief when you got turned down by some of those places? That’s always my clue that maybe that wasn’t what I really wanted.
Tattoosydney
@Brian J:
Important lesson – if you think you might want to be a lawyer, never ask a lawyer what they think.
Eight times out of ten they will tell you they hate every minute of it, and one out of the two who say they love it will be the borderline personality disorder/workplace psychopath who thrives particularly well in a law firm environment.
Brick Oven Bill
During fundamental transformations of society, lawyers do not usually fare well. This is why engineering is a good profession. In the absence of this opportunity, consider children’s television.
Prostitution too, is usually a winner.
TenguPhule
BOB, if that’s your only option you’re gonna starve to death.
TenguPhule
Whee, the Asshole Republicans block extending unemployment benefits *AGAIN*.
It’s like watching a red giant of stupid going nova.
Tattoosydney
@Brick Oven Bill:
What a load of shit. Who do you think write the new rules, interpret the new rules, re-write the new rules when they don’t work, and spend the next fifty years charging clients outrageous fees to argue about what the new rules mean?
Lawyers are like turds, BooB – they always float to the top.
Fern
@TenguPhule: If they are planning to piss off as many voters as possible before the mid-terms, I’d say they are going about it the right way.
Brick Oven Bill
Most typically floating in the form of whipped soap, my friend.
freelancer (itouch)
@Tattoosydney:
I’d say you should run for office, but opposition research would find BJ in a heartbeat and squash your electability quotient right away.
Tattoosydney
@Brick Oven Bill:
Wah wah, you know who Shakespeare is, I’m very impressed ….
Funny how they never actually get around to killing the lawyers, first, second or third, and then before they know it, the lawyers are in charge again. We’re like cockroaches, BooB – indestructible.
Martian Buddy
@Veteran, Great War of Yankee Aggression: Wow. At this rate, we might hit the wingularity before November.
The suggestion that Obama is behind the criticism of him is a nice touch–very reminiscent of 9/11 truthers calling all their detractors “disinfo agents” and “government shills”
freelancer (itouch)
@Tattoosydney:
I rest my case.
Tattoosydney
@freelancer (itouch):
To say nothing of the history of drug use, the unfortunate homosexuality and the propensity to tell people I don’t like to fuck right off.
But hell, it would be fun if I was in charge – free drugs and wetsuits for all, BoB would be cooking for conservative newspaper columnists in prison, there would be a three day weekend every week, compulsory gay abortions for all, and everyone would be required by law to adopt a shelter dog or cat.
Yutsano
@Tattoosydney:
I would think Down Under all these traits would be positives. I could be doing it wrong though.
Oh, and when the hell did homosexuality become unfortunate? The day I came out make me one happy fucking little queer.
auntieeminaz
@Brian J: Stayed tuned. First part of April Rodney Glassman, city council member in Tucson, is planning an announcement. I have heard very good things about him.
Tattoosydney
@Yutsano:
I must clarify – I don’t think it’s unfortunate at all, but coupled with my other characteristics as listed, my proclivities and my shamelessly lengthy and torrid sexual history might put a dampener on a political career in most jurisdictions….
Yutsano
@Tattoosydney: I kinda figured, I just had to run with it. I also realized I sounded a bit more petulant than I intended, so I apologize. It’s not like my sexual history is innocent by any stretch of the imagination. I think I’ll stop right there before this turns into late-night confession hour.
Comment ca va?
Tattoosydney
@Yutsano:
Muito bem, obrigado, e voce?
It’s Friday night, work is over for the week – it’s all good.
Not at all…
I think that automatically goes with being a gay man.
Yutsano
@Tattoosydney: I’m cursing like a sailor for getting volunteered for a special project at work…and then I have to go in tomorrow and tell the software developers it’s nowhere near ready for primetime. That’s gonna be fun. Oh and I’m going to broach the subject of the four 10’s idea tomorrow as well. At least I don’t have a huge amount of shit to take care of before I go to Arizona in two weeks.
We should tell the wifey this, it may cause her ambitions to come to fruition.
Tattoosydney
@Yutsano:
She wants to be a gay man?
Yutsano
@Tattoosydney: You should check your e-mail more often. She’s been saying that for a couple of days now.
Speaking of which, where is that Taiwanese tartlet? Usually she’s here burning through threads like there’s no tomorrow. If she’s out knocking boots and didn’t tell us…
Little Dreamer
Michele Bachmann brings the crazy:
She wants the world to end and she’s in congress, I think that’s considered a conflict of interest.
Ruckus
@Brian J:
A lot of people find that they are not happy about life stages that they feel should make them happy if not downright ecstatic. Happens when expectations outrace reality. I’m on my third career, in the twilight of life and full on happy is a rare thing, and it usually does not come from work. I think that’s why it’s called work. It’s been a while since I was in school, looking forward to life’s rewards for using my head for something other than a hat rack, but I remember slowly learning that my projecting high expectations on life was usually followed by solemn introspection of why things rarely pan out in the direction and to the degree we want. Maybe you just arrived there faster. Or just maybe it’s only my life that’s like that. Or maybe I’m full of shit.