Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

The revolution will be supervised.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Let’s finish the job.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

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

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

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71Comments

  8. 8.

    demo woman

    Congrats Skippy. I hired two folks to paint two peaks and a chimney today on hard coat stucco. They ended up replacing rotten wood and worked their tails off for less than 20 dollars a hour. I actually have the stucco from hell that if you look at skewed you see areas where you missed. Anyway I did not ask them for a green card and I would still recommend them.

  10. 10.

    gbear

    I’ve been watching a House Wren move into the birdhouse in my back yard today. I first noticed them singing last night when I got home from work. I can now look forward to the wrens joining the robins in a summer of non-stop song starting at about 5:00 in the morning.

    No TV here, just listening to a Brinsley Schwartz best-of CD. The original version of “What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace Love and Understanding” is playing as I type.

  11. 11.

    Violet

    I’m going to have Mexican food. And I think I’ll watch either Chuck or Glee, since both are piling up on my DVR. I feel incredibly dull.

  13. 13.

    South of I-10

    I’m recording The Hangover for later. I just walked out to see if it was still raining, and find not one, but two squirrels on the bird feeder. Oh well, the cardinals seem to be liking it too.

  15. 15.

    Corner Stone

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    Or Stuck, sloppy drunk and trying to hug all over the blog host.

    That’s no where near even money. You’re going to have to lay points on that one.

  16. 16.

    Mike in NC

    We saw “Robin Hood” today and it was better than most of the reviews would have us believe. I do doubt that the French invented landing craft with bow ramps in 1200 AD, however. Talk about your artistic license…

  17. 17.

    Nicole

    @zed: Here! But we’re a few weeks behind, so we’re also watching “The Hangover” since tonight is part two of a two-parter, I guess.

    I like the new Doctor.

  18. 18.

    PTirebiter

    Some seriously funny guy stuff. That the A.V. Club would offer up a serious critique is a sobering. I assumed that titling their section AV Club was just a clever bit of nostalgia, it never occurred to me that the club might have actual and admitted alumni.

  19. 19.

    Phyllis

    On River St in Savannah enjoying a libation from Wet Willie’s and watching a huge container shio ease its way down the river. Bitchez.

  22. 22.

    burnspbesq

    The new digital-to-analog converter for my desktop audio system finally showed up today, and I am reveling in the best sound I have ever been able to produce at home.

    I worked hard for a long time to get to where I am, and I refuse to feel guilty about how much I have spent on audio gear in the last 18 months. Life’s too short.

  23. 23.

    Splitting Image

    I just bought a Wii.

    Any suggestions on good games? I was trying out Wii Sports (which came with it) and I find the controller a nice change of pace.

  26. 26.

    SIA

    @demo woman: Might like to get that contact from you! Need a porch and some other hard to reach stuff painted – believe we’re in the same neck of the woods? How do I get my email to you? Siubhan Duinne has it if you have hers.

    Glad to hear your project is almost complete! Hope I’m remembering correctly – didn’t your SO just get a new job recently?

  29. 29.

    Annie

    @SIA:

    Thanks. I hope the General comes back…No matter the differences he may have had with John, I, for one, consider him to be an essential part of the BJ community and would miss him if he leaves.

    What is most disturbing are the hateful comments by some members….So, is this what we all should look forward too? If we disagree or even have an outburst, we should expect to have our lives commented upon, distorted, and made into a joke? Not our political beliefs, but how we chose to live our lives?

    Interestingly, the disagreement was with John, but I don’t see him reverting to hateful comments, particularly about how one choses to live one’s life…

    I will stop here because this is upsetting…Now, for those who disgree, start commenting on my life…Go for it…

  31. 31.

    Corner Stone

    @Splitting Image: It depends. I’m using the Wii to play games with my 5yr old boy. So I only buy games that are friendly.
    Mario Kart, Wii Resort and Punch-Out are all awesome.
    Not a big fan of the SuperMario world but it’s growing on me.

  33. 33.

    Poopyman

    @Corner Stone:
    The “Staggering Hypocrisy” thread from 11:39 AM Friday which is still attracting comments. Of course, it was linked from DKos and Crooks and Liars, so that’s probably helped.

    Anyway, Stuck lost his shit and demanded to be banned. Then declared he was leaving – over the course of however many hours. Anyway, I think that’s been the last thread he’s been heard from on.

  35. 35.

    Corner Stone

    @Poopyman: Poopster – I knew what she was referring to, thanks. But the idea that somehow poor lil Stuckster was put upon by the big bad boogeymen, and his personal arena was threatened…that’s just naive and bogus bullshit.
    Anyone who has an iota of feeling for Stuck has no sense of who he is or what he has done on this blog.
    He was an ersatz enforcer of authority, and a relentlessly stupid individual who felt that might=right and what was ordered was good enough. Month after month he pushed the company line, and he loved it. Loved it. He would’ve walked on hands and knees across broken glass if John Cole had said that was where the good life was.
    Until Cole betrayed him.

    His “beard” of Charlie hid the actual Stuck from some of you simpletons.

  37. 37.

    Corner Stone

    @gbear: C’mon gbear.
    He’s clearly pandering for Cole’s benevolence. And he’s telling people he disagrees with they are cowards – when he’s the one lying about leaving.
    Yeah, dickitude, blah blah.
    Gimme a fucking break. The collective memory here is nil.

  38. 38.

    Anne Laurie

    @Corner Stone: Take it from one who’s been there: After a while, non-stop interjections into every damn conversation about how much you hated X and how glad you are he’s gone finally that arsehole will make people regard YOU as a bigger pest than the object of your ire might ever have been.

    I like Stuck, and I like Charlie, and I know you’ve got your doubts about me in general… but seriously: Give it a rest, for your sake as well as the non-combatants.

  40. 40.

    Yutsano

    @Anne Laurie: I thought we were supposed to be the adults in the room. Color me disappointed with this entire exchange. And I say this as an individual who CS has tried to pick a fight with.

  42. 42.

    Corner Stone

    @Yutsano: Your non-disapproval disapproval is noted good sir.
    The rest of us will get out of your way shortly so you can resume your usual 3 way late night convo.
    I applaud you for being the only adult on BJ.

  43. 43.

    YellowJournalism

    @Splitting Image: Ditto to the ones already mentioned, but I’ll repeat that Mario Kart is a must. Get the wheels; they’re worth the money. (Not the expensive, super-enhanced ones. Get the set that has a wheel and buy an extra one or how many more you need.) Sports Resort is really fun, but you have to get the extra equipment enhancers to use it. Wii Play is a good set to get if you’re looking to buy an extra controller. The games that come with it are fun. My son already knows how to play Mario Kart and some Sports/Sports Resort and Wii Play games that don’t require much from him in terms of coordination or strategy. We haven’t played the Wii since January, though, and I can’t say I’m sorry about that. It was getting to be addicting for the entire family. Now that the weather is nice, we’re enjoying outside time, too.

  44. 44.

    Yutsano

    @YellowJournalism: It sounds like a decent distraction in the winter months, and if you use it right could also keep the holiday bulges from being too terrible. Wii can be a great tool for exercise, my SIL uses it for that purpose in fact.

  45. 45.

    Steeplejack

    @Splitting Image:

    Okay, I will go into the blowhard zone on this.

    My brother bought a Wii last fall. We played the games that came with it, found that we liked the dorky little golf game (nine holes, not many options). For Christmas I gave him Tiger Woods PGA 10 and a couple of the extra-touchy-feely controllers (MotionPlus, I think they’re called). It was like crack cocaine. Unbelievable. It is pathetic to say that is probably the best $45 (for the game) I have spent in the last five years. You get many (real, 18-hole) golf courses, tons of options, and the game really makes good use of the MotionPlus controller for fine control (or lack thereof, damn it). And the graphics and the game play are unbelievable.

    I’m only over at my brother’s once every week or two, but somehow we always end up down in the basement flailing away for hours. I was actually sore one Monday after a marathon session the day before, and my brother (a doctor) started joking about starting up a specialty in “virtual sports injuries.” (But he got his comeuppance when, in talking with his doctor about a [scheduled] hernia operation, he mealymouthed around about when he could “start playing golf again.” The doctor said, “Golf?!” And my brother had to say, “Well . . . Wii golf.” LOL. But I digress.)

    Anyway, the final straw was a month or two ago. I was watching TV on Sunday, flipping through the channels, and I happened to land on some PGA golf tournament. I found myself thinking, “Hmm, Pebble Beach, 12th hole”–and it was. I don’t even like watching golf, but I nailed it because the graphics in the game are that good. Really a lot of fun, even if you (think you) don’t like golf.

    My only other experience is with EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis. I gave that to my brother’s partner for his birthday, and now we have to kick his ass off the Wii to get in some golf time. He echoes the experience with the golf: the version that comes with the Wii is fun, the stand-alone game is an addictive drug. He comes up from the basement in a drenching sweat and complaining about a sore shoulder. (Another virtual sports injury.)

    Going forward, I am interested in trying one of the Lego adventure games–Star Wars, Batman, Indiana Jones–but I shudder to think about the consequences.

    ETA: Oh, Jeebus. I just went to Amazon to check something and saw that Tiger Woods PGA 11 is coming out June 8. God help me.

  46. 46.

    Yutsano

    @Steeplejack: Give in to the Dark Side young one. It is useless to resist. You know you’re gonna go there, so you might as well sit back and enjoy the ride. I’m sure it must be hella scary to think about how in the hell they’re going to improve the graphics from the level they’re at now however.

  47. 47.

    Steeplejack

    @Yutsano:

    God, we haven’t even plumbed the depths of PGA 10 yet. There are like 20 different golf courses, and I’m not sure that we’ve played them all yet. Plus there are options for weather conditions, slow or fast greens, which pro golfer you are impersonating, etc., etc.

    Even playing the same course as the same player, it is challenging just to try to improve your score–er, just like real golf. Duh. Really an amazing game. I have played a fair number of computer games in my time, and this one is the first that I have seen that seems “open-ended”–that you could literally never get tired of playing it. There’s no end point.

    I have wondered what a first-person-shooter type game would be like on the Wii (“Crack is for wusses–I want heroin!”), so maybe I will check out PTirebiter’s recommendation of Call of Duty or something like that.

  48. 48.

    Yutsano

    @Steeplejack: Call of Duty is a worthwhile game for one other noticeable effect: it has been shown in at least some combat vets to reduce PTSD after combat tours. I’ll have to look up again where I saw that, but I found that remarkable. I guess the game activates the parts of the brain that also get activated during PTSD, so they are able to better disassociate reality from their stressors. And they said video games were just mindless junk.

  49. 49.

    Steeplejack

    @Yutsano:

    Interesting. I was heavy into Doom and Doom II back in the day (okay, late Bronze Age), and I can remember even years later having very vivid dreams in which I was in the game—i.e., the game experience was no different from a “real” dream experience. So I could see this having some therapeutic effect, assuming they know what the hell is causing it.

    P.S. The great thing about Doom and Doom II was that a lot of nerdy, asocial kids devoted thousands of hours to making complicated, ingenious add-on “levels,” and, God, I must have played them all. Heretic, too. That was a great game that used the same engine. Wish I still had Doom II and a choice selection of a few thousand levels on my computer.

  50. 50.

    Yutsano

    @Steeplejack: It realy comes down to we don’t have the first fucking clue how the brain really works even now with all the amazing discoveries that have been made in the last twenty years. It seems to fit with Shakespeare’s line about how there is more in Heaven and Earth than we can even imagine. Or as the Vulcans say, infinite diversity in infinite combinations.

  52. 52.

    Steeplejack

    @Yutsano:

    Agree with you, but I have to say that I was laughing because you went from the sublimity of Shakespeare to–well, Star Trek Vulcans. It reminded me of that recurring trope in Star Trek–and countless sci-fi novels, too–where some point is made à la: “Like all the tyrants of the distant past–Genghis Khan, Adolf Hitler, Haggorth of Douchenorb V . . . blah, blah, blah.” Sorry, couldn’t avoid the connection.

  53. 53.

    Yutsano

    @Steeplejack: Gene Roddenberry was certainly no Bard of Stratford-upon-Avon, but he was a visionary, even if we choose to only recognize a lot of his cultural influences in hindsight. I even got into this conversation with my brother last night after dinner. What inspired the flip cell phone? The communicator from Star Trek. What is an iPhone if not a very primitive tricorder? iPad? The padds they use to note information down upon all the time. Of course Roddenberry is not alone in influencing the advancement of scientific progress, but there is indeed a relationship there that, while not as profound as Shakespeare’s, is indeed present.

  55. 55.

    Yutsano

    @Steeplejack: Does it help to know that they actually found a way to make a molecule on one side of a room so mimic another that it was like they moved the second molecule to the position of the first? I don’t understand the exact science behind it, but apparently they did this all while getting around the inconvenience that is Heisenberg. Fascinating stuff really. Oh and I think Jobs is the last douchebag I want in charge of something like that.

  56. 56.

    Zuzu's Petals

    @Yutsano:

    Compared with the last AP-GfK poll in April, the survey showed Republicans losing some support among married women, a key component of many GOP victories.

    Guess those Mama Grizzlies are wanderin’ off the range.

  57. 57.

    Yutsano

    @Zuzu’s Petals: You may have to forgive me if I view this as anything less than a bad thing. I honestly don’t know how any American can put a Republican in charge of anything in good conscience.

  58. 58.

    Steeplejack

    @Yutsano:

    Yeah, I read some stuff about that. Very cool.

    [. . .] I think Jobs is the last douchebag I want in charge of something like that.

    Amen to that.

    But would you want Elena Kagan in charge of it?! ZOMG! (Turning it up to 11)

  59. 59.

    Yutsano

    @Steeplejack: You’re so cute when you’re poutrageous. :) And yes I just made up another word, I seem to be good at that.

    BTW I was going to ward you off interacting with Corner Stone too much, but A) you’ve already gone there and B) you’ll figure out it’s a pointless exercise.

  60. 60.

    AM

    Just a curiosity – anti-Hickenlooper ad for Colorado governor – “they” know this/that much – pretty scary – why don’t “they” know I don’t vote?

    ps. Long-time listener / first-time caller.

  61. 61.

    Viva BrisVegas

    @Nicole:

    I like the new Doctor.

    I like the new Doctor’s companion even better. So much so it got me wondering if they couldn’t have reversed the roles this time around. Maybe next time.

  63. 63.

    Viva BrisVegas

    @Yutsano:

    the Doctor has never been a woman

    Not officially, although Joanna Lumley did play the Doctor (briefly) in “The Curse of Fatal Death” for the Red Nose Day charity show some years back. Interestingly enough it was written by Steven Moffat.

  64. 64.

    Maude

    I hope Stuck comes back.
    This type of meaness happened at Atrios.
    There are very few commenters there now.
    Once in awhile, one or two of the commenters will write a number of mean comments about rootless-e.
    rootless-e has been gone for some time.
    BJ is also not a favorite over there.

  65. 65.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @Maude:

    This type of meaness happened at Atrios.
    There are very few commenters there now.

    I went back and re-read a lot of the drama in the thread where this came up, and the only conclusion I’ve come to is that it’s been a long week. Some people need to chill.

    ETA: I thought I saw rootless-e comment a few days ago. I could be wrong. And for the record, I am down with all of them – Cornerstone, JSF and Stuck. They are not trolls.

  66. 66.

    Steeplejack

    @Yutsano:

    Thanks for your concern. I am aware of all most some Balloon Juice traditions.

    I think we all jointly create the Balloon Juice “community,” or “experience,” or whatever it is, by what we choose to post–and also by what we choose to omit, or remain silent about. I have no particular brief for Stuck–I think I violently disagreed with his position in the “Hypocrisy” thread, to the extent that I remember it (I have been playing catch-up all week because of my weird work schedule)–but I feel pained by his departure. It feels like a loss, not just to me but to the community. A distinctive voice is gone, and so there is one less thread in the tapestry. That’s not necessarily good or bad, any more than “red” or “blue” is intrinsically good or bad, but there is a decrease in “complexity” or texture that bothers me. Hell, I even sort of miss Brick Oven Bill, although I supported it every time he got banned. He is like the irritating but usually harmless village idiot who occasionally has to be hustled offstage when he starts masturbating in public. But I digress.

    What I don’t get is the glee in some quarters that Stuck is gone, and the continued gloating about it after the fact. What does that prove? Did someone win? And, if so, what exactly did they win? And how does that serve the Balloon Juice community? Is this just a place to come and argue, hopefully score some rhetorical points and beat down the “simpletons”? If that’s how people see it, maybe they should go (back) to FireDogLake or GOS and mix it up there. Plenty of people available to engage on those terms. And if Balloon Juice is that kind of place, it is going to lose more of the voices that I want to hear, as they go somewhere else (I don’t know where) or just lapse into silence. What I like about Balloon Juice is that it’s not that kind of place, or not primarily. Yeah, there are serious arguments—even raging, vitriolic ones—but there is an underlying feeling of sanity that I don’t see anywhere else on the Web. That’s what attracted me to Balloon Juice in the first place. Maybe it takes a Tunch picture or a late-night thread of execrable ’80s music to restore the equilibrium occasionally, but that is a self-correcting mechanism that works pretty well (if you like can stand execrable ’80s music, anyway). And props to John Cole for creating that space, even if he occasionally knocks out a retaining wall with one of his own explosive rants.

    Earlier tonight I recommended David Bohm’s book On Dialogue. I’ll save people the money. His theme is simple: a focus on dialogue rather than debate as a mode of discourse, and an examination of what potential that opens up for better discovering “the truth” (slippery term). Note: not proving that my truth is better than your truth, or that your truth is wrong, but discovering a truththat works for all parties in the given context. That’s how progress is made.

    So I ask everyone to think about that as they read and comment on Balloon Juice. By all means deploy the pie filter, ignore the posters you don’t like, argue with them—but don’t try to silence them. We all lose by that.

    All of this is personal to me because I have a tendency to let myself be silenced—by disapproval, by criticism, by confrontation. Even by my own natural reticence or my fear of “offending” someone or just putting myself “out there” “too much.” I think there are a lot of Balloon Juice readers or lurkers out there who don’t contribute for some of the same reasons. That’s too bad, because the Balloon Juice dialogue would be better for their participation, I’m sure. I’d like to see this place encourage that, rather than inhibit it.

    Steep out.

  68. 68.

    Maude

    @arguingwithsignposts:
    rootless-e doesn’t comment on Atrios as far as I can tell. I wasn’t clear which blog I meant.
    Since you had your rough patch, I’ve though of you and I was so glad when Lady Smudge came along.

  69. 69.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @Viva BrisVegas: Dr. River Song is the awesome. She makes up for the recent stream of less than Leila companions. Although the new girl shows promise.

  71. 71.

    Splitting Image

    Thanks for the gaming suggestions, guys.

    I think I’ll go with Mario Kart for sure, and I’ll check out the sports games as well. I’m really liking the way the controller works. I’ve been playing golf games since Mean 18, and it looks like they finally made a system that does that sort of game justice.

    Sigh. It was nice having a life… :o)

    (Actually, I’m going to take the suggestion to get outdoors while the weather is good, too.)

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