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There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

No one could have predicted…

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

“But what about the lurkers?”

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

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it’s a trap.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Let me file that under fuck it.

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

I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

You are here: Home / Smokin’ in the boys’ room

Smokin’ in the boys’ room

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Apparently, Qatari humor is a little too edgy for American audiences.

It’s good to see that right-wing blogs aren’t overreacting to this the way that liberal blogs sometimes overreact to things (RedState):

So we have now had two bombers make it through airport security and on to planes under Barack Obama’s Department of Homeland Security — a Department of Homeland Security that has been tweaking Bush administration era policies to make us safer.

Update. John Aravosis:

They should have shot him on the spot.

That is so fucking stupid.

Update. I only say that because I am an Obot.

Reader Interactions

130Comments

  6. 6.

    Mike Kay

    So we have now had two bombers make it through airport security and on to planes under Barack Obama’s Department of Homeland Security — a Department of Homeland Security that has been tweaking Bush administration era policies to make us safer.

    well, they do have a point, I mean don’t anyone forget, 9/11 happened on Clinton’s watch.

  8. 8.

    Short Bus Bully

    /shit pants
    /blind fear
    /lash out randomly at people I already hated

    Have I got the sequence correct for coding the winger response to anything that smells remotely like “terrorism”?

  9. 9.

    ts

    Not so fast, DougJ! Best reaction so far is from a progressive so pure he pisses Evian. I give you John Aravosis (forgive the linkwhoring, plz):

    They should have shot him on the spot.

    Uh oh. What will Raul Grijalva say????

  10. 10.

    Polar Bear Squares

    Thanks for keeping us safe Bush! Except … you know … that day when it really mattered!

    Assuming that indeed this was not a nefarious plot, I’m excited to get the full story on this.

    Bill Mather is going to have a field day with this.

    Jon Stewart too.

    Does this mean I’m going to hafto take my shoes off now when I use the bathroom on an plane?

    Shit.

  11. 11.

    JGabriel

    TS via Steve:

    This story was broken by Brian Ross. Know what that means? It will completely fall apart by midnight.

    Damn. Called it, dude.

    .

  13. 13.

    jrg

    If Obama cared about national security, I’d be eating cheetos right now instead of cleaning the urine off my recliner. How could he let this happen?

  14. 14.

    kommrade reproductive vigor

    So we have now had two bombers make it through airport security and on to planes under Barack Obama’s Department of Homeland Security

    The Netherlands are part of the United States? Where are my free tulips at, bitches!

  15. 15.

    Mark S.

    @Polar Bear Squares:

    Does this mean I’m going to hafto take my shoes off now when I use the bathroom on an plane?

    If you’re lucky. I bet they’ll get rid of the bathrooms on planes altogether. One percent doctrine.

  18. 18.

    Polar Bear Squares

    @ Brian J

    I don’t know. I think it might be.

    But I’m following so many HBO shows it’s hard to keep track of them all. I did see he was going to be doing something new with his show. Instead of a panel, he’s going to have one guest for the whole time I think. I saw Chris Rock on one. That show will be hilarious.

  21. 21.

    ts

    Dude, not much, if this season is anything to go by. Motherfucker hasn’t tortured ANYONE. I read somewhere it’s getting shitcanned, so poor Jonah Goldberg will have to start masturbating to reruns of Firing Line.

    /sad fap

  22. 22.

    Polar Bear Squares

    @ Mark S

    I’m waiting for the day when Obamacare secret IRS agents confiscates all belts and shoes.

    The day is coming.

    Got the news straight from my Redstate Strike Force brigadeer general.

  27. 27.

    JGabriel

    @Bret:

    If ever there was a time for an “It’s just been revoked!” comment, now is it.

    What, for smoking on a plane? It’s not like he was getting a blow job.

    .

  28. 28.

    demimondian

    @MattR: Actually, that’s old. RyanAir is (justly) notorious for absurd charges, but that one kind of blew up in their faces.

    The press had a field day: “Save ten pound, bring your own diapers” kind of stuff.

  31. 31.

    Veritas78

    Mebbe I read it wrong, but I assumed from the get-go that the “should have shot him on the spot” line was snark.

    These days, though, it’s hard to tell wherever you go.

  32. 32.

    Undercover FBI Agent DougJ

    RyanAir is (justly) notorious for absurd charges, but that one kind of blew up in their faces.

    You should be shot on the spot for that double entendre.

  33. 33.

    Violet

    @Polar Bear Squares:

    Does this mean I’m going to hafto take my shoes off now when I use the bathroom on an plane?

    —

    Shit.

    No, the shit is what you’ll be stepping in when you have to enter lavatories shoeless. Perhaps they’ll have Lavatory Slippers for sale on the plane, a la headphones?

  39. 39.

    SpotWeld

    So let’s recap

    Smoker on airplane: jack@ss

    Response by security: maybe over the top, but probably
    justified in a “better-safe-than-sorry” way.

    Connection to any policy by Obama (or Bush for that matter): None

    Response by right-wingers: On the same level as the joke by the smoker (i.e. Complete jerk, except in the case of the bloggers, they assume the safety of their couch-ensconced status instead of diplomatic immunity)

    Predicted next step: Any statement by the President or the administration on this will be labeled “Another Liberal Apology to Foreigners” because he didn’t invade Qatar or something

  40. 40.

    gbear

    The press had a field day: “Save ten pound, bring your own diapers” kind of stuff.

    Maybe it’s time to get in on the ground floor by opening a chain of ‘Depends’ stores at major airports. Additional fee for disposal services after arrival.

  41. 41.

    Brick Oven Bill

    And the world turns, and Muslims display their masculine religion for show or for real for us to see, and we grow deeper in debt, and the currency weakens, and American females are still driving forklifts.

  42. 42.

    gbear

    Aravosis doesn’t have either a sense of humor or taste in music. He’s like a music business villager.

  43. 43.

    Mike Kay

    I give you John Aravosis who said, “They should have shot him on the spot.”

    Peace lovin hippies.

  44. 44.

    pragmatic idealist

    A sign of softening??

    Wanting to shoot him on the spot rather than endlessly torturing him?

  45. 45.

    whiskey

    Various sources are reporting that he spent too long in the bathroom, the marshall smelled something funny (because he was smoking), and the diplomat replied, “oh, I was trying to set my shoes on fire”.

  50. 50.

    FlipYrWhig

    Keep this in mind the next time John Aravosis pretends to have a feeling about a political issue and demands that this Will NOT STAND! and something must happen now Now NOW!! 11! 1one!

  51. 51.

    MattR

    @Cris: But of course somehow Erick also thinks it is perfectly acceptable if the person in the bathroom is a Muslim.

  52. 52.

    Martin

    Cato says this is the fault of the non-libertarians:

    Sound paranoid? Anti-smoking regulations followed a similar path. Once upon a time, banning smoking on airplanes seemed like the reasonable middle ground. Now that’s the (relatively) laissez-faire position, smoking bans in bars and restaurants are the middle, and full-blown smoking bans have come to pass in some cities.

    Clearly if randians were ruling the world, nobody would be (not actually) blowing up our planes.

  53. 53.

    Luthe

    None of this would have happened if Obama hadn’t heartlessly made the Republicans filibuster his nominee for TSA head.

  54. 54.

    Martin

    Predicted next step: Any statement by the President or the administration on this will be labeled “Another Liberal Apology to Foreigners” because he didn’t invade Qatar or something

    I think ‘turn it into a sea of glass’ is the preferred phrase now that Obama has ruled out pre-emptive nuclear strike to keep our lavatories free of cigarette smoking diplomats.

  56. 56.

    Martin

    Josh Marshall:

    I’m curious whether under international law a diplomat can be expelled from a host country simply for being a raging c@#k.

    Now, that’s journalism I can believe in.

  58. 58.

    rootless-e

    i knew a feller who, as a joke, told security in Lod airport that he had some box with unknown contents in his luggage (drink had altered his already dubious sense of humor). Needless to say he got some serious bruises, no suitcase, and a suggestion that he not visit Israel again.

  61. 61.

    Steerpike

    Read what he wrote:

    They should have shot him on the spot. What the hell is an Arab diplomat doing making jokes about blowing up US planes?

    His point was, how stooopid do you have to be to make a joke about something like that when you already fit the exact profile every American has of a terrorist (justified or not), and you have been behaving suspiciously? I’m surprised he wasn’t shot on the spot.

  63. 63.

    Violet

    I’m only seeing 17 comments on that Red State post by Erik. That doesn’t seem like very many. Is that place not very busy or something?

    One of the commenters is still looking for a plot:

    There’s still the possibility that this is a test to see if a diplomat can get away with lighting a cigarette on a plane. If you’ve got a cigarette lit, then it becomes a lot simpler to light off a potential shoe bomb.

    And the solution to that is, No Muslims Allowed. See how simple that is?

    I doubt this is even possible, but it would kind of crack me up if the Qatari diplomat was an evangelical Christian. /wishful thinking

  64. 64.

    Mike Kay

    @Steerpike: apologist.

    Just wait until Hanoi Jane and the glennster find out what a brutal, blood-thirsty, racist, fascist Aravosis is. I’m sure they’ll kick him out of the Hippie Justice League of America

  65. 65.

    Mike Kay

    @Violet:

    I’m only seeing 17 comments on that Red State post by Erik. That doesn’t seem like very many. Is that place not very busy or something?

    This is the time of the night when they curl up in their snuggy and watch soft-core porn on cable.

  66. 66.

    rootless-e

    not long after the airports had just reopened post 911 (I can’t even type that without thinking of Rudy G.), I was in a very long security line and a little kid whose family was in line was running up and down the line waving at people, the mom was enthusiastically trying to keep him amused

    go on jack
    say hello to the people
    say hello jack
    hi jack
    hi j j oh shit.

  67. 67.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Martin:

    I’m curious whether under international law a diplomat can be expelled from a host country simply for being a raging c@#k.

    I bet John Bolton knows the answer to that.

  68. 68.

    MattR

    @Violet: So that commenter thinks that the diplomat was on a test run for Al-Qaeda and thought the best course of action upon being confronted was to say things that escalate the situation rather than see if his diplomatic immunity would defuse it (which is what the commenter thinks they were testing). Brilliant.

  69. 69.

    Violet

    @MattR:
    Yeah, great theory, huh?

    Is it against regulations to bring lighters and matches and so forth on airplanes these days? I’m pretty sure they’re not allowed in checked luggage. Not sure about the cabin.

  72. 72.

    rootless-e

    Russian idioms and proverbs are often kinda brutal

    “”At the same time, when (Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek) Bakiyev came to power a few years ago, he severely criticised (former president Askar) Akayev for nepotism, that only his family held power. I have the impression that Mr. Bakiyev is now stepping on the same rake,” Putin said.”

    I always liked: You said you were a mushroom, now jump in the basket. Supposedly a common saying during the purges in Stalin’s time.

  73. 73.

    Allan

    We must never forget 4/7.

    Remember how you felt for those panicked moments when you thought that another ineffectual would-be terrorist had made yet another failed attempt to blow up a plane?

    You must hold that feeling in your heart forever.

    Never stop panicking.

  75. 75.

    Whackjob Militia Leader soonergrunt

    But what is John Avarosis’ position on the Wikileaks video?

  76. 76.

    tammanycall

    Pete Williams is reporting on MSNBC that the diplomat may have told the Air Marshall, “I was putting a cigarette out with my shoe” rather than “I was trying to set off a shoe bomb.”

  78. 78.

    Violet

    @Cris:
    How can they allow matches! Matches must be stopped! I’ll be expecting the Red State Trike Force to send matches to the head of Homeland Security as a protest!

  80. 80.

    AnotherBruce

    John Aravosis: aaaallllll we are saaaaaaaying, is give peace a chance.

    Shit, you just gotta have a hippie to punch, dontcha. But honestly, what makes you think Aravosis is a hippie, because he’s gay?

  82. 82.

    rootless-e

    @Allan: if only Bush had been there to protect us as he did 9/11 when Clinton and Janet Reno attacked the USA.

  83. 83.

    asiangrrlMN

    Good lord. Thunk thunk thunk. That is my head beating gently against my desk. Another round of crotch-bomber pants-pissing? Oh, fuck.

  84. 84.

    YellowJournalism

    @Mike Kay:

    This is the time of the night when they curl up in their snuggy and watch soft-core porn on cable.

    Wow, Snuggies really are useful in so many different ways…

  88. 88.

    Yutsano

    Another round of crotch-bomber pants-pissing? Oh, fuck.

    It shall only get worse from here. I’m suddenly glad I’m going off grid for four days and I can blissfully ignore the world. Oh and dim sum Sunday. Had to get that in.

    Hi hon. I’ll be sending you two an e-mail shortly.

  93. 93.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Night, Gen. Stuck. Hope Kate smiles on you tonight.

    Heh. Odds are Charlie will jump up on his bed and kiss him to death. Oh and saw the pics of Haven today and two words came to mind: ME. WANT.

  94. 94.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Good lord. Thunk thunk thunk. That is my head beating gently against my desk. Another round of crotch-bomber pants-pissing? Oh, fuck.

    Susan Collins is ready for her close up, Mr Gregory!

  96. 96.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Yutsano: Me want, too. That boy was such a sweetheart. And, he can pretend Charlie slobber is Kate!

    @Allan: This is fucking funny. Pure gold. Better than that BK commercial posted in a thread below.

    P.S. I will remember this day because it’s my birthday (4/7) and because it’s the day that Bachmann, Palin, and Pawlenty were on the same stage IN MY HOME STATE! Aaaaaargh!

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I hate you for that image.

  97. 97.

    james

    If I had diplomatic immunity I would do this everytime I got on a plane. Maybe not the smoking thing since it’s just sort of rude, but it’d certainly make the security checks more fun.

    “Sir, we need you to remove your shoes.”

    “But if I take them off there’s the off-chance your GED graduate ass might find the bomb I put in there.”

    “CODE MAGENTA!!! CODE MAGENTA!!!!”

    “Diplomatic Immunity, it works bitches!”

  99. 99.

    Zuzu's Petals

    So we have now had two bombers make it through airport security and on to planes under Barack Obama’s Department of Homeland Security … .

    The Undie Bomber got on the plane in Amsterdam, dufus. Here’s a hint: it’s in a foreign country.

  100. 100.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Zuzu’s Petals: But but but Obama is simultaneously overarching evil and a pussy! He’s everywhere, controlling everything, but he has no real power! He bowed to the emperor of Japan! Oh my god! He’s a fascist sockulist wimp power-hungry Rahm touched me, Rahm touched me! That’s pretty much how the stream of thought goes.

  101. 101.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Zuzu’s Petals:

    FYWP. Why am I in moderation? I changed the evil word!

    But but but Obama is simultaneously overarching evil and a pus sy! He’s everywhere, controlling everything, but he has no real power! He bowed to the emperor of Japan! Oh my god! He’s a fascist sockulist wimp power-hungry Rahm touched me, Rahm touched me! That’s pretty much how the stream of thought goes.

    ETA: Ah, forgot the kitty word.

  102. 102.

    JGabriel

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Why am I in moderation? I changed the evil word!

    Once you’re in moderation, you’re in until someone lets you out.

    Workaround:

    1) Edit
    2) Select and Copy Text
    3) Delete and Replace Text with Something Like “SoCiaIisT – Edited for Deletion”
    4) Paste Old Text Into New Post, Fix, and Submit.

    .

  103. 103.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: WordPress no like kittehs? FYWP, and this time I mean it! (Actually I know what word you were meaning there, I couldn’t help but lay into our favorite blogging platform!)

    I can’t wait until the 2012 election now. The fact that the Republicans keep wetting their pants over and over and still can’t put together a coherent plan for the country only bodes well for Obama. But hey let them keep at it plz.

  104. 104.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Yutsano: We shall see. We shall see. Never underestimate the stupidity of the general population.

    @JGabriel: I changed it before I posted, so unless FYWP has skeery mind-reading abilities, it was the kitty word that did it.

  105. 105.

    rootless-e

    @asiangrrlMN:

    What I don’t get is how Obama was able to win the nomination and election, when so many brilliant blog commentators can run circles around him on logic, negotiation tactics, FDR history, economics, manly virtues, and the all important Shrill Studies.
    And then he keeps on getting legislation passed despite disregarding the advice of people who, for God’s sake, have READ MATT TAIBBI. Is all logic and sense and justice gone from our planet? Have the gods gone MAD?

  106. 106.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: I’d just request deletion at this point. No sense in doing what will be basically a double post. And yeah we can be a stupid country, we did elect Bush twice after all. I doubt we’re that stupid though, plus the crazy is still in full cycle and will be for quite some time. White man anxiety still gets eyeballs glued to CNN and FOX so we’re stuck with hearing about the overimportance of the teabaggers for quite some time yet. It’s gonna take an actual bullet to an actual person to wake folks up.

  107. 107.

    asiangrrlMN

    @rootless-e: It’s because he really IS the Magic Negro(TM)! Or, it’s ACORN fixing the whole thing. Speaking of which, supposedly Breitbart offered a mea culpa (literally) for the O’Keefe video on Twitter, via Roger Ebert:

    Im changing sides – like Arianna in ’00. ACORN is not only INNOCENT, what ACORN did on OKeefe/Giles tapes was pure benevolence. Mea culpa.

    I don’t know if he’s snarking or sincere, but too little, too damn late.

  108. 108.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Yutsano: Eh, yeah, what he said. Delete comment, plz, Anne Laurie, when you get up. Thanks.

    You are the optimist. I am the pessimist. I never underestimate crazy and stupid.

  109. 109.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Stop yanging my yin dammit. I can do that all just fine on my own.

    I need to get to bed. Gotta get up early to get my tail to the airport tomorrow.

  110. 110.

    IndyLib

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Happy Birthday!

    @Violet:

    It may be against the rules, but in the last 2 years, I’ve had my lighters confiscated at LAX and O’Hare, but not Honolulu or Milwaukee.
    Seems like the TSA might be a tad more anal on this issue at the bigger airports, but not so much in the mid-sized ones.

  111. 111.

    ExtremismInTheDefenseOfLiberty

    Off topic I suppose, but the battle seems to be shaping up:

    Coming up, Slavery: Economic boon to the Old South, sorely missed now in the age of Big Bank Bailouts in the North. But, others say slavery was hard on some black families. We’ll look at the new controversy, after these messages.

  113. 113.

    TooManyJens

    @asiangrrlMN: Someone else asked if his apology was sincere:

    it wasnt. you’re delusional. acorn helped aid and abet criminality in all offices but one. wake up. you like being duped.

    What a joke.

  114. 114.

    tavella

    @tammanycall: Pete Williams is reporting on MSNBC that the diplomat may have told the Air Marshall, “I was putting a cigarette out with my shoe” rather than “I was trying to set off a shoe bomb.”

    That sounds a little more likely. While it’s not entirely impossible for someone to be stupid enough to do bomb jokes to US marshals in flight, the US usually rates non-complete-moron diplomats. Mind you, he was still dumb for lighting up in the bathroom.

  115. 115.

    Arclite

    You gotta wonder about the intelligence of the smoker. What on earth was he thinking? What did he think would happen? Didn’t he see the apache video that wikileaks posted a few days ago?

  117. 117.

    Paula

    @ rootless-e :

    And then he keeps on getting legislation passed despite disregarding the advice of people who, for God’s sake, have READ MATT TAIBBI. Is all logic and sense and justice gone from our planet? Have the gods gone MAD?

    The haterade is strong wit chu, but highly amusing.

  119. 119.

    JGabriel

    Next up, Fox Party outrage when the Air Marshall gets reprimanded for overreacting:

    I was protecting my country, laying MY LIFE on the line, and all the Obama administration had to say was, “Do you have ANY idea how much it costs to scramble two jets?”

    .

  120. 120.

    El Cid

    Wait — won’t the ‘libertarian’ right stand for this brave rebel defying the liberal PC hate crusade against smoking?

    Isn’t this just one brave man standing up to the anti-smoking hysterics?

  121. 121.

    someguy

    Ahhh. Another day, another shot fired in Teh War on Brown Peepul.

    I’d be more upset about this but I’ve come to realize, based on the non-change in policies since 1/20/09, that a lot of librulls in this country hate brown peepul just as much as the conservatards. Not as many, to be sure. But enough that this kind of bullshit plays with them.

    You want to know why they hate us? ‘Cuz we hated on them first.

  122. 122.

    Svensker

    John Aravosis: They should have shot him on the spot.

    I used to read Americablog every day, but I started noticing that Aravosis had a fairly vicious anti-Arab/anti-Muslim thing going on. At first I thought it might be unconscious and cut him some slack, but it soon became apparent that he really was a bigot. This kind of “shoot the sand nigger first, ask questions later” stuff is very typical of him, I am sad to say.

    /former Americablog reader

  123. 123.

    Davis X. Machina

    but I started noticing that Aravosis had a fairly vicious anti-Arab/anti-Muslim thing going on.

    Comes of seeing every issue through the prism of The Gay.

    The Arab world in general, and the noisiest part of the Muslim world, has a bad track record on this score, so it’s not groundless, just narrow.

  124. 124.

    Ash Can

    IF OBAMA’S NAZICOMMUNIST GOVERMENT LET LAW-ABIDING AMERRICANS CARRY THEIR GUNS ONTO PLAINES THIS NEVER WOUD OF HAPENED

  125. 125.

    Svensker

    @Davis X. Machina:

    Ah, that makes sense. Hadn’t thought of that. Sad how humans so easily say, “Oh, yeah, you’re going to marginalize me? Well watch me marginalize YOU!”

  126. 126.

    briber

    @SpotWeld

    This would be a smart reply from the President then:

    [… invade Qatar?! That’s where CENTCOM is located… we’re already there. ]

  129. 129.

    rdale

    Aravosis response is one of the reasons I stopped reading Americablog a long time ago.

  130. 130.

    russell

    American females are still driving forklifts.

    Obviously, it’s time to break the seventh seal.

    That Qatari diplomat is one serious dumbass.

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