@Cacti: If you missed it, the Google banner today is a playable pacman game in your browser. Quite clever. Just click on it and use the arrow keys.
6.
YellowJournalism
@Cacti: Can’t stop playing it on Google. My youngest son is fascinated by the waka waka sounds, and the oldest started yelling “Watch out” when a ghost would come PacMan’s way.
And it’s also the 30th Anniversary of Empire Strikes Back.
Since this is OT, I don’t need to say OT. Got Lady Smudge a scratching post today. And some new non-tip food/water bowls. She may be the only cat I’ve seen who doesn’t seem to grok catnip. And the non-tip water bowl so far is pissing her off (the other bowl I was using got spilled several times when she decided to make waves with it).
I also got a new mat for in front of the litter box, because she seemed to constantly be tracking out litter onto the old one. hope it works, but it seems kind of small.
No pix, because she’s sleeping. Probably waiting to attack me in my sleep.
@Rosalita: I took a little break from politics. It was getting to me. I commented to you in the other thread, warning you not to Google 2 girls, 1 cup, but I was too late. How you doing? How’s your killer cat doing?
15.
robertdsc
No pix, because she’s sleeping. Probably waiting to attack me in my sleep.
Fool, that’s when you take lots of pictures! At my old job, I used to take pictures of my KC when she was sleeping on my jacket. I miss her so much. /weep
@arguingwithsignposts: YAY. A Lady Smudge update. I was gonna ask in a previous thread, but I didn’t want to be OT. And, my boys never liked catnip until I gave them fresh. Now, they are all up in it, even if it’s not fresh. Gateway drug, my friend….
@robertdsc: Aw, sorry that you’re still grieving over the loss of your beloved.
Power washing and stripping the deck so we can stain it next weekend. And catering to my cats’s every whim. Do those count?
20.
gbear
Just got back from a trip to Target to buy kitty litter, a couple of Tombstone Pizzas, and the Exile On Main Street bonus tracks that Target is selling as a seperate CD. I actually feel a lot better about buying it as a seperate disc. The Exile album is best left alone, and the outtakes make for a pretty good stand-alone set.
I’m going to a little art fair down in Afton, MN this weekend. That’s kind of a nice trip along the St.Croix river on the scooter.
We went and saw the Empire Strikes Back for our senior ditch day in high school, first show (10:30 AM) in Denver a the old Cooper Theater. There’s a B and N bookstore there now that my college age daughter works at.
And just like that, she was up to say hello to her BJ friends.
28.
Mnemosyne
That reminds me, I still have a bunch of blackberry mojito mix in the fridge. Plus a lot of rum.
I know what I’m having with dinner!
ETA: I was thinking about doing a bike tour of the historic parks in my city tomorrow morning, but I am a lazy ass and don’t feel like being there at 9 am on a Saturday morning.
@wag: The Cooper in St. Lous Park? That was a GREAT theater. I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey there sitting so close to the front that you couldn’t see anything but screen. Saw How The West Was Won there too. I’m old…
37.
Morbo
I think I might actually watch Olberman tonight for the first time in months. There’s the Rand Paul thing. And then there’s this.
And it’s also the 30th Anniversary of Empire Strikes Back.
Wow. That is seriously depressing. I’m all grown up and old now. How the hell did that happen?
Mojitos or Fat Tire?
I say we have both.
39.
SIA
I just emailed MTP and asked nicely to have Jack Conway on Sunday instead. And also, replace David Gregory please.
40.
Comrade Coffin
This means that Ian Curtis died too early. Just a few days later and he could have played Pac-Man and discovered that Darth Vader was Luke’s father. So much to live for!
41.
eric
after spending some time with a beautiful black Suhr….time to relax and feel bad about myself…for the guitar players among you …. enjoy….just dont slit your wrists…..
I don’t know what breed* Lady Smudge is, but I think she and Charlotte are the same one. Probably American Shorthair, but who knows? Charlotte is chatty enough to have some oriental (Siamese, etc.) in her.
No this was a Cooper in Denver. When I moved to MLPS in ’89, i found out there was an identical Cooper in St Louis Park. What a great theater. I still think the round theater with the wrap-around screen was the best EVER.
46.
demkat620
And it’s also the 30th Anniversary of Empire Strikes Back
The one Lucas didn’t direct, and the best of the lot.
David Gregory is really a pussy isn’t he, I mean what an absolute and utter wuss. And while I am at it what is this “moderator” bullshit, the man is a Sunday morning talk show host, where does he get off calling himself a moderator when he basically is a sock puppet who coos and smiles at the bullshit his guests spew (usually John McCain). I hate him with the heat of a thousand suns, but I think that is cause he looks just like my next door neighbor who rails against government largesse (and taxes) while living on Navy retirement, Tri-care, EIC, and child support from the state for all of the children they have adopted. It is hard to listen to someone who rails against taxes when they bought a swimming pool with their EIC.
50.
bemused
@gbear:
I’d much rather see Rachel interview Gregory. Heh.
@arguingwithsignposts: I suppose I will get slammed for this but here goes. She really has been your saviour has she not? I remember the dark days, when here on BJ we were pushing your butt up the ledge while you were hanging on by your fingernails. Smudge has done more for you than any of us ever could. She has given you a reason to enjoy life. That is her most magnificent achievement.
53.
Bill Murray
@Comrade Coffin: Love will tear us apart again is rather the theme of both Pac Man and the Empire Strikes Back.
I think I’m going to go listen to Unknown Pleasures and then watch Control. and then, so I don’t emulate Ian, listen to the Wombats, “Let’s Dance to Joy Division”
54.
CynDee
@jeffreyw: I was wondering what We were having tonight . . . thought I’d find it here, and here it is.
Yumyumyummy. Beautiful!
@Litlebritdifrnt:
She has been a great help, indeed. Although at times (like when she jumps on my chest at 3 a.m. in the morning, waking me up), it’s been trying. But yes, that is her most magnificent achievement. But BJ gets credit as well, except for some whom I won’t name.
ETA: to explain a little more, sharing her growth with the BJ community helps too.
56.
eric
and finally, the late-exceptionally great Michael Brecker with Chick, Gomez and Gadd.
@Cacti: It’s also the 30th anniversary of the theatrical release of The Empire Strikes Back.
EDIT: Bah, someone beat me to it.
60.
Pete
You know, one of the main reasons I go onto this blog is that when Sullivan is going on some stupid mental bent against against something Obama has done, you guys call him out on it in great terms.
Don’t get me wrong, Rand Paul History Month is pretty good, but someone get on this please!
It somehow behooves us to live our lives vicariously through our animals. I am pretty sure that Smudge has been your lifeline, and I am grateful for that. She is precious. I am listening right now to the news reports of the oil spills in the marshes of LA, of the reports that this stuff is going to hit NC beaches, that this is going to devastate the south. “It is like driving down the highway at 80 miles an hour and knowing that your breaks don’t work”
@Litlebritdifrnt:
As someone who grew up on the Texas Gulf Coast and spent a year near Galveston, I’m glad it’s not heading toward Texas, but I feel really bad for the rest of the Gulf Coast, esp. Louisiana.
67.
SiubhanDuinne
@litlebritdifrnt #51: You said what I think nearly every day.
Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)
Whatever you do, do it good.
70.
SiubhanDuinne
@arguingwithsignposts: Well, I’m grateful for Smudge all the time, not least because you are truly one of my favourite commenters on BJ and I give her a lot of credit for that. But also, of course, because she’s a love. Such an intelligent, sweet face.
But I don’t know why you wouldn’t photograph her sleeping in that dark closet. Fur like hers, I think she’d glow in the dark.
71.
monkeyboy
Rather cool story on how MetaFilter kept 2 Russian girls away from sextrafficers.
Oof I’ve had a week. Over at my place, I finally just posted “All The Scholar Ladies” (the only reasonable answer to “All The Single Ladies,” if you ask me) to make myself feel better.
I’m listening to the quad to DTS conversion of Dark Side of the Moon, far better than the shitty SACD version the band had James Guthrie mix. This is the Alan Parsons version.
It never gets old.
81.
Bubblegum Tate
Damn, you’re up on S.O.U.L.? That’s kinda some digger shit right there. My favorite song of theirs, though, has gotta be “Peace of Mind”. Just an amazing groove.
82.
SIA
@MBSS: EEEEWWW. Way too much visual there! And anyway. You left out President McCain.
83.
J. Michael Neal
I’m trying to coax Eddie out from under the bed, and working on getting pain killers and antibiotics into him. Yesterday, he had a root canal, one tooth fully extracted, five crown removals, and biopsies of his liver and spleen. He’s having problems with teeth resorption, and when they did the blood tests to make sure he’d be okay under anesthesia, his liver readings came back elevated. Nothing on the ultrasound, though.
He also is overgrooming his tummy, but we don’t know why. It might be psychological, but I’m guessing that it isn’t. The vet had me try an antihistamine last week, and that seemed to help. Unfortunately, getting a pill into him twice a day simply isn’t an option. That means he spends his whole life hiding under the bed, and the only time I see him is when I close the bedroom door, pull the mattress off the bed, then the box spring, and then try to get the pill into him. It’s just not worth it. He may end up seeing the dermatologist.
It’s never any of the others. Always Eddie.
84.
eemom
when I stopped at the Total Wine store this evening there was a girl in front of me at the register who turned 21 yesterday. Everyone in line wished her a happy birthday.
When I turned 21 the drinking age was 18. And Ronald Reagan was president, also too.
eemom +not enuff
85.
MikeJ
@eemom: When I turned 18, the drinking age was 19. When I turned 19, the drinking age was 21.
@J. Michael Neal: Have you asked about the liquid meds they can make taste like fish?
87.
MBSS
is it true?
did tunch lose weight?
is the “tunch is watching you” merch a deliberate attempt to make black helicopter, paranoid, losertarians even more paranoid? because if you move to the left or the right you will see that tunch’s eyes follow you. even when you go into a different room.
88.
J. Michael Neal
Why the fuck was the Blackhawks’ organist just playing Anchors Aweigh?
89.
J. Michael Neal
@WereBear: The painkillers and antibiotics are both mostly tasteless liquids. I’m just mixing them in tuna juice, and they’re going down. I was using small doses of a human antihistamine, and they don’t come in fish flavors, pretty much just bitter chalk flavor.
90.
SIA
@eemom: When I turned 18 it was 1975. Who was president then? (I remember parts of those years)
I had luck with the little thyroid pills by mushing it into strips of Velveeta. Many cats, when presented with long strings of food, like strips of deli roast beef, or lengths of cheese, will gulp it down, and we can sometimes trick them that way.
All this talk of animals is really making me miss having a dog.
But, at least my new employer has a dog policy, where people are welcome to bring their dogs to work, as long as they are kept under control and are housebroken. It’s always lovely to be working on something tough and suddenly hear the clickety-clickety of a pooch sprinting down the hallway to visit everybody and solicit scritches and pats.
Hmmn. I usually prefer beer with my sausage and chips.
100.
Bill Murray
@MBSS: GG already said a little bit about Paul on Wednesday, but he has not had a whole post up to this time
“And even Rand Paul, who some are trying to depict as a crusading civil libertarian and anti-war advocate, ran on a platform (as Scott Brown did) of opposing the closing of Guantanamo, the use of civilian trials for accused Terrorists, and the granting of visas to people from numerous Muslim countries. Many of the key ignorant and primitive orthodoxies of modern conservatism are as strong as ever. Other than some (extremely hypocritical and opportunistic) war questioning and some anger over the growing corporate-Government overlap, I have a very hard time looking at the American Right and finding much cause for optimism about any of what’s taking place over there.”
@Pete: You mean how he’s been on a “Hazing of Rand Paul” kick? How he linked to the Weigel thing complaining about Rachel Maddow doing her job? You mean that?
Obama wasn’t arguing for the ability to abduct and detain someone. Obama was arguing that someone already abducted and detained for an extended period of time could continue to be detained. The court said it applied to only the specific individuals mentioned in the case and to nobody else.
It’s not a good ruling, but it’s not the ruling that Greenwald says it is. Obama isn’t detaining new people, he’s just continuing to unravel the old mess, in this case not to our satisfaction. I’m still bewildered what he’s supposed to do with some of these people – Congress won’t let him send them to the US, some are clearly not guilty of anything, and yet no country will take them. What does that leave us with? It’s crazy.
109.
J. Michael Neal
@MBSS: You should live up here in Minnesota. Grain Belt, baby. Or Pig’s Eye. We (and Wisconsin, too) didn’t sell all of our cheap local brews to G. Heilman.
110.
South of I-10
I am in a foul mood. I need to step away from oil spill coverage, but I can’t seem to make myself. The state closed fishing at Grand Isle today, because the beach is covered in oil. Fuck BP. I got into it today with a Schlumberger employee who was trying to tell me that the evil media was overhyping the spill. Fuck you, you fucking idiot. Wait until the first fucking hurricane blows in and we have oil 20 miles inland. Fuck! Okay, rant over, and yes I do feel better. Now, can anyone tell me if the spill would make birds you normally see on the coast come further inland? I saw a great egret in the middle of downtown Lafayette today, and there have been flocks of birds flying over that you don’t usually see here. I know it is breeding season, so I don’t know if this is a yearly thing and I am just noticing it this year, or if it is really different?
actually fell asleep watching it in the theatre with my Dad and big brother.
Haha.. so did my brother. But he woke up bright eyed for King Kong (it was a drive-in double header! Star Wars and King Kong) I hated King Kong, but my brother likes horror..although he did like the Mos Eisley scene.
cain
116.
JGabriel
Question: Can we figure out a way to send Rand Paul to London, wearing a name tag that says, “Hi, I’m Randy!”?
Come talk to me after you get your ass grabbed by a few of them at the mall.
When I was a kid, doing this to the girls at school was my thing. I got in official trouble and had my ass kicked a few times, so I grew out of it. It wouldn’t dawn on me to do that to a grown woman in a public place. Ugh.
Actually, I’m still bitter about them doing it when I was 14 years old and minding my own business at the mall. Fortunately, I have moved 2000 miles away since then.
Michigan has a bunch of great microbrews, but that’s not what I mean. I mean the cheap stuff, that you can get for $9.99 a case, but is pretty nice. I grew up in Ann Arbor, and I’m not familiar with any such beers in that part of Michigan.
Minnesota and Wisconsin held on to the cheap local breweries, and they’re the only places in the country I know of that did.
Pig’s Eye and Grain Belt used to be brewed and bottled a little over a block from my house. Some summer nights I could hear the bottles clinking down the line. Unfortunately, the last owners of the company were royal fuckups who tried to convert the brewery to ethanol production and wound up stinking up the neighborhood to high heaven. People were getting seriously sick from the emissions too. It took a couple years to get the ethanol plant shut down but the owners shut down the brewery first. Grain Belt is now brewed at the Schell’s brewery in New Ulm, MN and Pig’s Eye is brewed in LaCrosse, WI, but I still see the brewmaster a couple of time a week as he makes sure the old brewery building is secure.
I was actually a big fan of Leinenkrugel beer when I quit drinking back in the 80’s. Too big a fan, actually. Did you ever try Walter’s beer out of WI? That was kind of a local legend because it came in quart bottles labelled “Family Size”. I spilled the entire contents of one of those onto my car’s back passenger carpeting one evening…
i’m way late to the party on this, but i just have to add my two cents on the “don’t call rand paul a racist b/c it’s counterproductive” thread from earlier.
it seems to me that the only folks thinking about “what’s in paul’s heart,” are white liberals defending him from the charge of racism. it seems that most of the people definitively calling him a racist aren’t too concerned with weather he has black friends, or thinks black people could possibly be decent human beings too;” they think he’s a racist because he supports policies which promote discriminatory outcomes.
in one of his statements yesterday, he said something to the effect of ” Civil Rights is a settled issue, and the only people concerned about it are those trying to score political points.” that’s the thing though, for minorities who live in this country day in and day out, civil rights issues are anything but settled. I don’t care how Rand would have voted on the CRA, because I have no plans to stick him in a time machine and fine out; but there are politicians all across the country todaywho are working each and every day to dismantle the protections won by the civil rights movement, and Rand Paul, should he be elected, has every intention of being part of that group of elected officials.
I have no problem pointing that out, and identifying such a person as a racist.
yes, wingnuts the world over will scream and cry about how unfair that is, and what a good person Rand really is; i’m fully aware of that and anticipate that straw-man. they do it because it works; in no small part because liberals all around the country predictably took to the internets & tv today to tell me and others like me, that they shouldn’t call Rand a racist… because the wingnuts will cry foul.
so what? that doesn’t make it any less true.
maybe the problem isn’t the fact that the strawman will inevitably be used, but rather that it’s allowed to be effective, because of liberals’ tiresome insistence, on preemptively telling people who think it’s critical to name racism when faced with it, to hush.
@moja31:
Well now that you’ve proved that you have no idea what the point was … what?
Nobody was defending Randroid from anything and that’s your out of the bucket mistake. (maybe a troll was)
The point is accuracy, not your fucking assumptions. The words out of the man’s own mouth are that his ideas will allow racism in practice in the service of his ideology of Libertarianism. You’d prefer the maybe of racist Rand to demonstrated uncaring stupidity? No black pals (iffy) get trotted out to make your liberal self into a lying asshole. But you please yourself with your so-called tough talk.
Just because something takes a couple more seconds to articulate doesn’t make it weak tea or weak kneed liberalism. If you feel like screwing him to the wall then do it in a manner that leaves the dog whistling pricks no wiggle room. As I said, please yourself.
129.
moja31
@Chuck Butcher: someone’s ideas can be both stupid and racist, which paul’s clearly are. there is no “maybe racist,” championing policies that have racist results, is racist. while it might be politically expedient to simply call such ideas stupid, it is also important to point them out for the racism that they are. the fact that you point out that his ideas are in fact racist, doesn’t mean that you’re trying to read what it is in his heart. i don’t care why he supports racist policies, but i’m sure as hell going to point out that he does in fact support policies that are not merely stupid, but also racist.
a failure to directly confront people’s racism might not have an impact on your life, but there are plenty of people in this world for whom it has an enormous impact every single day. i’m not willing to ignore that, just because wingnuts will use it as an excuse to try and obfuscate. my lack of white privilege doesn’t allow me to accept that framing the way some other liberals do.
130.
Phoebe
Yeah, I agree with the guy in the video, but @Chuck Butcher: Fine, say that his policies are racist or whatever, and the defenders will still scream “not a racist! Black friends! Sterling character! How could you play the racist card?!?!” They’re going to do it either way. The guy in the video is right, but that’s what you do in a conversation. Whatever is going on in the media is not a conversation. Unless it’s live, somehow, and people aren’t stonewalling or shouting the other one down.
And the guy in the video wouldn’t begrudge moja31 the conclusion that someone who does racist things or whatever is probably a racist, but t.g.i.t.v. is just saying that in the conversation we should keep the focus on the action, i.e. the thing that irrefutably happened, and keep it there, and not on what racism lurks in the hearts of men, which is such murky ground, and truly irrelevant to the topic/crime at hand.
131.
Yutsano
@RedKitten: I’m right there with you. Every time I go to my parents’ house and get some border collie lurve (he got leftover bacon from breakfast from me today, they always find the easy marks) I either want to steal him or go out and get me one. The thing is I’m seriously leaning towards a great Dane now. I have a decent sized yard and two cats so he wouldn’t be lonely. Okay I’ll also admit the idea of Samkitten with a ball of puppeh fluff would break all the cuteness meters. Plus one province over has one of the greatest breeds evah for kids: Newfies. Anne Laurie would have a ton of recs on this subject.
the fact that you point out that his ideas are in fact racist, doesn’t mean that you’re trying to read what it is in his heart. i don’t care why he supports racist policies, but i’m sure as hell going to point out that he does in fact support policies that are not merely stupid, but also racist.
I don’t think we need to stay away from the word “racist,” but I think we do need to stay away from using it as a noun if possible. Saying “Rand Paul is a racist” leaves an opening to start the special pleadings about how he’s really a nice guy, not one of those mean racists. But saying, “This policy that Rand Paul supports is racist” takes that special pleading away and puts the attention where it belongs: on the racist policy, not on the guy’s personality.
I think that some people got overly intellectual yesterday and thought it was the word “racist” that needed to be avoided, but it isn’t. What we’re trying to avoid is letting right-wingers distract everyone from the real subject by talking about Paul’s personality and feelings and what a nice guy he really is when it doesn’t matter as long as he’s supporting racist policies.
I’m sure everyone is in bed or tired of this. I don’t care a damn bit what Ayn Paul thinks or feels about any race, it isn’t germain to the question of what the outcome is, the outcome is racism abetted by the state. It is the deprivation of a selected group of the ability to participate in the commerce of our nation and it is unacceptable under any guise and worse yet under the guise of property and the associated greed. I don’t care how it is dressed up, I don’t care about the moral stance of the idiot proposing it, none of that counts – it is not about personality it is about law and outcomes.
I do not have to like a single black person to get there, I don’t have to care about race a damn bit to get there. You cannot have a successful legal and social contract in which a selected group are denied the ability to participate – the thing will blow up in your face. It isn’t just wrong, it is stupid and it offends the hell out of a big chunk of this nation on all those grounds.
You make this personal and the damn ideas keep ticking along because you’ve only attacked the face of it and not the root. It isn’t Rand Paul, it wasn’t Bull O’Conner, it wasn’t Lester Madox, it was the idea – the fucking concept backed with ribbons and bows that reeked.
I have a pretty strong feeling that Rand Paul is racist to the fucking bone and it doesn’t matter for spit if I’m right or not. I want his ideas crushed and that ought to take him personally out as well – or not, but the best chance is using the ideas.
” my lack of white privilege” is supposed to mean exactly fucking what? I’ll cry you a real big river and put up my fists just as soon as Rand Paul denies you access, spits on you, whatever… because then it is personal. You want to win, and I don’t mean an election, you go after their dressed up idea and kick it to flinders badly enough that no one will go back there. Don’t bother dressing yourself up in victim’s garb to attain self-righteous status, it’s a child’s game in a bare knuckles fight. I want to beat them over the head with this shit, I want to make them sorry they thought they could step away from their goddam dog whistles because now they’re naked. You apparently have no idea what a gift you’ve been given by this idiot, the cockroaches are out in the light and we’ve got big ole shit kickers on to fuck em up with. You want to play at calling them names, oh goody.
@Chuck Butcher:
Since you brought it up, I looked up the wiki entry, and there’s no source for the spelling Randal. I looked on the campaign web site, and on the m.d. web site, and there’s no link that proves *either* spelling.
Of course, I have no link for the other spelling, so we should probably nail that down somewhere other than wiki.
139.
Ron
@moja31: I see no evidence from any of Rand Paul’s comments that he’s a racist or endorses racism in any way. His argument is solely based on how much government should be allowed to regulate private businesses. It’s an argument that is worth debunking, but it does nobody any good to say that because he doesn’t feel like the government should be able to prohibit discrimination by private business that he is promoting racism.
140.
gbear
it does nobody any good to say that because he doesn’t feel like the government should be able to prohibit discrimination by private business that he is promoting racism.
You know, it does nobody any good to say that because he doesn’t feel like government should be able to prohibit throwing people from the tops of buildings that he is promoting murder. Murder is just something that happens in a free and open society.
His argument is solely based on how much government should be allowed to regulate private businesses.
Actually, Paul’s argument is that private business owners should be allowed to use government power to discriminate against people because property rights are more important than the rights of citizens.
Don’t believe me? Let’s say you’re a restaurant owner who wants to have a whites-only restaurant. A bunch of black people come in, sit down at a table, and refuse to move.
What recourse do you think that restaurant owner should have? The instant you say, “He should be allowed to call the police and have them arrested for trespassing,” you have now endorsed using the power of the government to enforce the restaurant owner’s discriminatory policies. You’ve decided that the government should have more power over private citizens and less power over property.
142.
Mnemosyne
Going back to the spirit of the open thread, can I just say for a minute that AT&T is a bunch of fucking fucktards? Apparently the reason I can’t port my cell phone number over to Virgin Mobile is that there’s a super-secret password that was put on the account when I got it 10 years ago, they’re not allowed to tell me what it is, and apparently there’s no backup security question that would let me prove to them that it’s really me and I really want to leave their fucking service. Well, gee, I guess I just have to keep giving you guys my money, don’t I?
The nice Virgin Mobile rep is being very helpful and they’re making another stab at figuring out what the fuck is going on, but Jesus fucking Christ is this a pain in the ass. Thanks, AT&T — you’re making the decision for me to leave you behind even easier than I thought!
Yay Virgin Mobile! I should (hopefully) have my number ported to them by Wednesday. This is when being nice to customer service people and assuring them that you know it’s not their fault that the other guys are being jerks really pays off. :-)
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Cat Lady
Cacti
Today is the 30th anniversary of Pac Man.
Damn I feel old.
jeffreyw
Mmm…enchiladas
jeffreyw
With refried beans and rice
Martin
@Cacti: If you missed it, the Google banner today is a playable pacman game in your browser. Quite clever. Just click on it and use the arrow keys.
YellowJournalism
@Cacti: Can’t stop playing it on Google. My youngest son is fascinated by the waka waka sounds, and the oldest started yelling “Watch out” when a ghost would come PacMan’s way.
And it’s also the 30th Anniversary of Empire Strikes Back.
asiangrrlMN
@jeffreyw: Yuuuuuuuuuum! That’s what I like to see.
@Cacti: Wokka wokka! I was quite the Ms. Pac Man fiend in my day. Good times.
Who has exciting plans for the weekend?
Rosalita
@jeffreyw:
how about some carnitas too?
Cacti
@Martin:
‘Twas the google banner that brought it to my attention.
Rosalita
@asiangrrlMN:
where’ve you been? have we passed on threads in the night?
I have casual HS reunion tomorrow night and a picnic Sunday…local memorial day parade taking place
Cacti
@YellowJournalism:
I actually fell asleep watching it in the theatre with my Dad and big brother.
robertdsc
Still the best movie in the saga. It’s my personal favorite, certain parts of Revenge Of The Sith excepted.
John, how is Tunchibal Lecter doing?
arguingwithsignposts
Since this is OT, I don’t need to say OT. Got Lady Smudge a scratching post today. And some new non-tip food/water bowls. She may be the only cat I’ve seen who doesn’t seem to grok catnip. And the non-tip water bowl so far is pissing her off (the other bowl I was using got spilled several times when she decided to make waves with it).
I also got a new mat for in front of the litter box, because she seemed to constantly be tracking out litter onto the old one. hope it works, but it seems kind of small.
No pix, because she’s sleeping. Probably waiting to attack me in my sleep.
asiangrrlMN
@Rosalita: I took a little break from politics. It was getting to me. I commented to you in the other thread, warning you not to Google 2 girls, 1 cup, but I was too late. How you doing? How’s your killer cat doing?
robertdsc
Fool, that’s when you take lots of pictures! At my old job, I used to take pictures of my KC when she was sleeping on my jacket. I miss her so much. /weep
asiangrrlMN
@arguingwithsignposts: YAY. A Lady Smudge update. I was gonna ask in a previous thread, but I didn’t want to be OT. And, my boys never liked catnip until I gave them fresh. Now, they are all up in it, even if it’s not fresh. Gateway drug, my friend….
@robertdsc: Aw, sorry that you’re still grieving over the loss of your beloved.
arguingwithsignposts
@robertdsc:
Unfortunately, she was sleeping in a dark closet. When she’s sleeping in the open, it’s not a problem as much.
jeffreyw
@Rosalita: Had to look those up, they seem to be right up my alley. Alas, no pork shoulders to hand.
Chat Noir
@asiangrrlMN:
Power washing and stripping the deck so we can stain it next weekend. And catering to my cats’s every whim. Do those count?
gbear
Just got back from a trip to Target to buy kitty litter, a couple of Tombstone Pizzas, and the Exile On Main Street bonus tracks that Target is selling as a seperate CD. I actually feel a lot better about buying it as a seperate disc. The Exile album is best left alone, and the outtakes make for a pretty good stand-alone set.
I’m going to a little art fair down in Afton, MN this weekend. That’s kind of a nice trip along the St.Croix river on the scooter.
asiangrrlMN
@Chat Noir: Sure. Why the hell not?
@gbear: How far is Afton from the Twin Cities/
Comrade Mary
Ooooh! You HAVE to check out Janelle Monae. Girl is fucking INCREDIBLE.
Tightrope (You should also track down her appearance on Letterman this week, which is all over YouTube)
Many Moons (music starts at 0:40 if you are too ADD to wait through the intro)
Comrade Mary
OK, fine, here’s the Letterman appearance.
James K. Polk, Esq.
Ms. Pac Man and I are the same age? Huh…
For my thirtith birthday, me and my friend hiked thirty miles on and around Mt. Tam…
Tourist Klub and Naturefriends FTW.
Sentient Puddle
I just realized that on Sunday, we get both the Lost series finale AND Super Mario Galaxy 2.
Fuck, 24 hours ain’t enough…
wag
@robertdsc:
We went and saw the Empire Strikes Back for our senior ditch day in high school, first show (10:30 AM) in Denver a the old Cooper Theater. There’s a B and N bookstore there now that my college age daughter works at.
I feel old, too.
Mojitos or Fat Tire?
arguingwithsignposts
And just like that, she was up to say hello to her BJ friends.
Mnemosyne
That reminds me, I still have a bunch of blackberry mojito mix in the fridge. Plus a lot of rum.
I know what I’m having with dinner!
ETA: I was thinking about doing a bike tour of the historic parks in my city tomorrow morning, but I am a lazy ass and don’t feel like being there at 9 am on a Saturday morning.
SIA
@arguingwithsignposts: Aw, what a beauty. So elegant.
Chat Noir
@arguingwithsignposts: Lady Smudge is gorgeous. Love that “just woke up” look in her eyes.
gbear
@asiangrrlMN: Afton’s about 20 miles east of downtown St Paul. Head out 94 but get off just before you cross into WI, then go 4 miles south.
When I’m on the scooter I’m lucky if I can keep the trip under 60 miles (but that’s only one gallon of gas).
Comrade Mary
@arguingwithsignposts: Smudgie!!
AnnaN
@Mnemosyne
Thank you for that link! I can’t stand crappy drink mixes and whenever I really want a good cocktail I am too lazy to start my own simple syrup.
SIA
On my last day in Alabama the Beautiful. Stories like this (and my trip today down to the local scary scary Piggly Wiggly) make me ready to get back to GA, which is like f*cking NYC in comparison.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/21/alabama-anthony-hopkins-sentenced_n_584898.html
Bad Horse's Filly
@arguingwithsignposts: She is a beauty.
gbear
@wag: The Cooper in St. Lous Park? That was a GREAT theater. I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey there sitting so close to the front that you couldn’t see anything but screen. Saw How The West Was Won there too. I’m old…
Morbo
I think I might actually watch Olberman tonight for the first time in months. There’s the Rand Paul thing. And then there’s this.
Comrade Dread
@YellowJournalism:
Wow. That is seriously depressing. I’m all grown up and old now. How the hell did that happen?
I say we have both.
SIA
I just emailed MTP and asked nicely to have Jack Conway on Sunday instead. And also, replace David Gregory please.
Comrade Coffin
This means that Ian Curtis died too early. Just a few days later and he could have played Pac-Man and discovered that Darth Vader was Luke’s father. So much to live for!
eric
after spending some time with a beautiful black Suhr….time to relax and feel bad about myself…for the guitar players among you …. enjoy….just dont slit your wrists…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpV2erLHULc
eric
gbear
Dave Gregory should interview Rachel Maddow this sunday instead.
Mnemosyne
@AnnaN:
If you live anywhere in Trader Joe’s territory, they sell a bottled simple syrup in the baking section.
@arguingwithsignposts:
I don’t know what breed* Lady Smudge is, but I think she and Charlotte are the same one. Probably American Shorthair, but who knows? Charlotte is chatty enough to have some oriental (Siamese, etc.) in her.
(I mean, other than “mutt,” like most cats.)
SIA
@gbear: And Jack Conway.
wag
@gbear:
No this was a Cooper in Denver. When I moved to MLPS in ’89, i found out there was an identical Cooper in St Louis Park. What a great theater. I still think the round theater with the wrap-around screen was the best EVER.
demkat620
The one Lucas didn’t direct, and the best of the lot.
Christ, 30 years? I feel so old.
SIA
@Mnemosyne: SO pretty. And what a sweet picture.
arguingwithsignposts
@Mnemosyne:
Lady Smudge is also very chatty at times, especially when I come home and she wants the brush.
Litlebritdifrnt
@SIA:
David Gregory is really a pussy isn’t he, I mean what an absolute and utter wuss. And while I am at it what is this “moderator” bullshit, the man is a Sunday morning talk show host, where does he get off calling himself a moderator when he basically is a sock puppet who coos and smiles at the bullshit his guests spew (usually John McCain). I hate him with the heat of a thousand suns, but I think that is cause he looks just like my next door neighbor who rails against government largesse (and taxes) while living on Navy retirement, Tri-care, EIC, and child support from the state for all of the children they have adopted. It is hard to listen to someone who rails against taxes when they bought a swimming pool with their EIC.
bemused
@gbear:
I’d much rather see Rachel interview Gregory. Heh.
eric
then there is this from back in the day
jaco and zawinul….and Weather Report live
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F02mBkBoMQw&feature=related
Litlebritdifrnt
@arguingwithsignposts: I suppose I will get slammed for this but here goes. She really has been your saviour has she not? I remember the dark days, when here on BJ we were pushing your butt up the ledge while you were hanging on by your fingernails. Smudge has done more for you than any of us ever could. She has given you a reason to enjoy life. That is her most magnificent achievement.
Bill Murray
@Comrade Coffin: Love will tear us apart again is rather the theme of both Pac Man and the Empire Strikes Back.
I think I’m going to go listen to Unknown Pleasures and then watch Control. and then, so I don’t emulate Ian, listen to the Wombats, “Let’s Dance to Joy Division”
CynDee
@jeffreyw: I was wondering what We were having tonight . . . thought I’d find it here, and here it is.
Yumyumyummy. Beautiful!
arguingwithsignposts
@Litlebritdifrnt:
She has been a great help, indeed. Although at times (like when she jumps on my chest at 3 a.m. in the morning, waking me up), it’s been trying. But yes, that is her most magnificent achievement. But BJ gets credit as well, except for some whom I won’t name.
ETA: to explain a little more, sharing her growth with the BJ community helps too.
eric
and finally, the late-exceptionally great Michael Brecker with Chick, Gomez and Gadd.
enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFIBoT9GP8c&feature=related
CynDee
@asiangrrlMN: Going to get my push lawn mower fixed . . .
eric
@eric: I lied…now, finally, this is obscenely brilliant….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SThiRBbvFJ4&NR=1
eric
Kobie
@Cacti: It’s also the 30th anniversary of the theatrical release of The Empire Strikes Back.
EDIT: Bah, someone beat me to it.
Pete
You know, one of the main reasons I go onto this blog is that when Sullivan is going on some stupid mental bent against against something Obama has done, you guys call him out on it in great terms.
Don’t get me wrong, Rand Paul History Month is pretty good, but someone get on this please!
Litlebritdifrnt
@arguingwithsignposts:
It somehow behooves us to live our lives vicariously through our animals. I am pretty sure that Smudge has been your lifeline, and I am grateful for that. She is precious. I am listening right now to the news reports of the oil spills in the marshes of LA, of the reports that this stuff is going to hit NC beaches, that this is going to devastate the south. “It is like driving down the highway at 80 miles an hour and knowing that your breaks don’t work”
I cannot fathom how bad this is going to be.
Derek
@Mnemosyne:
Anyone who buys simple syrup should seriously be shot.
Kobie
@Pete: Which of Sully’s latest are you referring to?
Mnemosyne
@Bill Murray:
It’s only tangentially about Ian Curtis, but you should definitely see 24 Hour Party People if you haven’t yet.
FlipYrWhig
@Comrade Coffin: Ian Curtis playing Pac-Man–“Love… love will tear us apart… no, bloody ‘ell, side door, side door!”
ETA: Damn, Bill Murray beat me to it. [/mopes]
arguingwithsignposts
@Litlebritdifrnt:
As someone who grew up on the Texas Gulf Coast and spent a year near Galveston, I’m glad it’s not heading toward Texas, but I feel really bad for the rest of the Gulf Coast, esp. Louisiana.
SiubhanDuinne
@litlebritdifrnt #51: You said what I think nearly every day.
jeffreyw
Nachos anyone?
Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)
Whatever you do, do it good.
SiubhanDuinne
@arguingwithsignposts: Well, I’m grateful for Smudge all the time, not least because you are truly one of my favourite commenters on BJ and I give her a lot of credit for that. But also, of course, because she’s a love. Such an intelligent, sweet face.
But I don’t know why you wouldn’t photograph her sleeping in that dark closet. Fur like hers, I think she’d glow in the dark.
monkeyboy
Rather cool story on how MetaFilter kept 2 Russian girls away from sextrafficers.
See the Newsweek summary, or read the Ask Metafilter thread, and its overflow into MetaTalk to watch it unfold and get all the details and current status.
MikeJ
@Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people): Is it just because I’m listening to Music is the Weapon of the Future that I like your nym?
ellaesther
Oof I’ve had a week. Over at my place, I finally just posted “All The Scholar Ladies” (the only reasonable answer to “All The Single Ladies,” if you ask me) to make myself feel better.
http://emilylhauserinmyhead.wordpress.com/
Hope it helps for those who, like me, have had a week.
Also, too, PS: I am apparently as bad at PacMan as I was in my youth. Thanks for that, Google! Do no evil, my ass.
WereBear
@arguingwithsignposts: I’m so glad.
Cats are magic. When they are loved. Maybe… it’s the love that’s magic.
Yup, I think that’s it.
MBSS
MTP has decided to replace paul with alan greenspan with mcmegan sitting on his lap while she holds the reanimated corpse of ayn rand. yay!!!
arguingwithsignposts
@SiubhanDuinne:
Well, she was hidden behind coats, so there’s that.
Also, still pissed about the no-tip waterbowl, which I really wish I could film, but she’d skitter away.
Kobie
@MBSS: So in other words, call it even.
Comrade Mary
@monkeyboy: Aaaaaand I just came back from the MeTa thread to find this. Good God, this really is going viral, isn’t it?
Yeah, if you don’t have time to read either hugeass thread, try the Newsweek summary. It’s surprisingly decent.
MBSS
@Kobie:
slight improvement. the corpse has a better coif.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
I’m listening to the quad to DTS conversion of Dark Side of the Moon, far better than the shitty SACD version the band had James Guthrie mix. This is the Alan Parsons version.
It never gets old.
Bubblegum Tate
Damn, you’re up on S.O.U.L.? That’s kinda some digger shit right there. My favorite song of theirs, though, has gotta be “Peace of Mind”. Just an amazing groove.
SIA
@MBSS: EEEEWWW. Way too much visual there! And anyway. You left out President McCain.
J. Michael Neal
I’m trying to coax Eddie out from under the bed, and working on getting pain killers and antibiotics into him. Yesterday, he had a root canal, one tooth fully extracted, five crown removals, and biopsies of his liver and spleen. He’s having problems with teeth resorption, and when they did the blood tests to make sure he’d be okay under anesthesia, his liver readings came back elevated. Nothing on the ultrasound, though.
He also is overgrooming his tummy, but we don’t know why. It might be psychological, but I’m guessing that it isn’t. The vet had me try an antihistamine last week, and that seemed to help. Unfortunately, getting a pill into him twice a day simply isn’t an option. That means he spends his whole life hiding under the bed, and the only time I see him is when I close the bedroom door, pull the mattress off the bed, then the box spring, and then try to get the pill into him. It’s just not worth it. He may end up seeing the dermatologist.
It’s never any of the others. Always Eddie.
eemom
when I stopped at the Total Wine store this evening there was a girl in front of me at the register who turned 21 yesterday. Everyone in line wished her a happy birthday.
When I turned 21 the drinking age was 18. And Ronald Reagan was president, also too.
eemom +not enuff
MikeJ
@eemom: When I turned 18, the drinking age was 19. When I turned 19, the drinking age was 21.
Thank god pot was illegal, nobody asked for IDs.
WereBear
@J. Michael Neal: Have you asked about the liquid meds they can make taste like fish?
MBSS
is it true?
did tunch lose weight?
is the “tunch is watching you” merch a deliberate attempt to make black helicopter, paranoid, losertarians even more paranoid? because if you move to the left or the right you will see that tunch’s eyes follow you. even when you go into a different room.
J. Michael Neal
Why the fuck was the Blackhawks’ organist just playing Anchors Aweigh?
J. Michael Neal
@WereBear: The painkillers and antibiotics are both mostly tasteless liquids. I’m just mixing them in tuna juice, and they’re going down. I was using small doses of a human antihistamine, and they don’t come in fish flavors, pretty much just bitter chalk flavor.
SIA
@eemom: When I turned 18 it was 1975. Who was president then? (I remember parts of those years)
Oscar Leroy
More hope and change:
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/05/21/bagram/index.html
WereBear
@J. Michael Neal: Yeah, bitter chalk doesn’t go over well.
I had luck with the little thyroid pills by mushing it into strips of Velveeta. Many cats, when presented with long strings of food, like strips of deli roast beef, or lengths of cheese, will gulp it down, and we can sometimes trick them that way.
Good luck. Poor guy.
Jules
@MBSS:
Speaking of mcmegan there has not been a peep out of her about the Rand Paul Libertarian Apocalypse.
arguingwithsignposts
@Jules:
Because she’s an idiot?
MBSS
@Jules:
i’m waiting for her or glenn greenwald to say something.
RedKitten
All this talk of animals is really making me miss having a dog.
But, at least my new employer has a dog policy, where people are welcome to bring their dogs to work, as long as they are kept under control and are housebroken. It’s always lovely to be working on something tough and suddenly hear the clickety-clickety of a pooch sprinting down the hallway to visit everybody and solicit scritches and pats.
WereBear
@RedKitten: That’s so wonderful, for both the people and the dogs.
MBSS
in honor of cole and his high falutin’ culinary standards i am now going to detail my delicious linner or dunch.
5 natural lights +5
vegan sausage on wheat bread with saracha and sour kraut
a snickers
artichoke and spinach chips
eat your heart out, cole. i’m classy too.
J. Michael Neal
@MBSS:
Hmmn. I usually prefer beer with my sausage and chips.
Bill Murray
@MBSS: GG already said a little bit about Paul on Wednesday, but he has not had a whole post up to this time
“And even Rand Paul, who some are trying to depict as a crusading civil libertarian and anti-war advocate, ran on a platform (as Scott Brown did) of opposing the closing of Guantanamo, the use of civilian trials for accused Terrorists, and the granting of visas to people from numerous Muslim countries. Many of the key ignorant and primitive orthodoxies of modern conservatism are as strong as ever. Other than some (extremely hypocritical and opportunistic) war questioning and some anger over the growing corporate-Government overlap, I have a very hard time looking at the American Right and finding much cause for optimism about any of what’s taking place over there.”
MBSS
@J. Michael Neal:
touche…touche
but da gubmint, particularly fannie, freddie, obama and pelosi ruined the economy, otherwise i would be drinking stella artois or newcastle.
i’m a beer snob with no money at the moment.
MBSS
@Bill Murray:
oh yeah, i did see that. and i did not hesitate to take reason.com to task for their authoritarian/libertarian heroes.
Bhall35
@Comrade Mary: Agreed about Janelle Monae. Incredible.
MBSS
actually i think 5 natural lights is a +2
jnfr
@Cacti:
I used to have to get a ride down to the arcade
Now I’ve got it on my phone.
Phoebe
@Pete: You mean how he’s been on a “Hazing of Rand Paul” kick? How he linked to the Weigel thing complaining about Rachel Maddow doing her job? You mean that?
Mnemosyne
@J. Michael Neal:
There’s probably a group of squids from Great Lakes naval base at the game.
(Yeah, I called ’em squids. Come talk to me after you get your ass grabbed by a few of them at the mall.)
Martin
@Oscar Leroy: Greenwald has it somewhat wrong.
Obama wasn’t arguing for the ability to abduct and detain someone. Obama was arguing that someone already abducted and detained for an extended period of time could continue to be detained. The court said it applied to only the specific individuals mentioned in the case and to nobody else.
It’s not a good ruling, but it’s not the ruling that Greenwald says it is. Obama isn’t detaining new people, he’s just continuing to unravel the old mess, in this case not to our satisfaction. I’m still bewildered what he’s supposed to do with some of these people – Congress won’t let him send them to the US, some are clearly not guilty of anything, and yet no country will take them. What does that leave us with? It’s crazy.
J. Michael Neal
@MBSS: You should live up here in Minnesota. Grain Belt, baby. Or Pig’s Eye. We (and Wisconsin, too) didn’t sell all of our cheap local brews to G. Heilman.
South of I-10
I am in a foul mood. I need to step away from oil spill coverage, but I can’t seem to make myself. The state closed fishing at Grand Isle today, because the beach is covered in oil. Fuck BP. I got into it today with a Schlumberger employee who was trying to tell me that the evil media was overhyping the spill. Fuck you, you fucking idiot. Wait until the first fucking hurricane blows in and we have oil 20 miles inland. Fuck! Okay, rant over, and yes I do feel better. Now, can anyone tell me if the spill would make birds you normally see on the coast come further inland? I saw a great egret in the middle of downtown Lafayette today, and there have been flocks of birds flying over that you don’t usually see here. I know it is breeding season, so I don’t know if this is a yearly thing and I am just noticing it this year, or if it is really different?
MBSS
@J. Michael Neal:
oh, thank you. i was hoping someone might recommend a beer i haven’t tried yet. regionals may be tough for me to get my hands on locally though.
Morbo
@J. Michael Neal: Or Michigan.
Google ad for “Rand Paul, tea party,” well done, Google.
colleeniem
@Comrade Mary: Thanks for this…so awesome! I’m mad at myself for not knowing about her sooner.
Fern
@Martin: I appreciate the clarification – I was starting to read GG and it sounded pretty grim.
Cain
@Cacti:
Haha.. so did my brother. But he woke up bright eyed for King Kong (it was a drive-in double header! Star Wars and King Kong) I hated King Kong, but my brother likes horror..although he did like the Mos Eisley scene.
cain
JGabriel
Question: Can we figure out a way to send Rand Paul to London, wearing a name tag that says, “Hi, I’m Randy!”?
.
Steeplejack
SOUL doing “Express Yourself”? How about the Soul Survivors doing “Expressway to Your Heart.”
Steep in the house after work. + ½
robertdsc
When I was a kid, doing this to the girls at school was my thing. I got in official trouble and had my ass kicked a few times, so I grew out of it. It wouldn’t dawn on me to do that to a grown woman in a public place. Ugh.
Steeplejack
@Martin:
I thought that was way cool. I even managed to play it in the über locked-down browser on the computer at work.
Martin
@Fern: Always assume GG is going to overreact at least a little, and then seek 2nd opinions to figure out where.
Steeplejack
@gbear:
Try one of the DiGiorno “crispy flatbread” pizzas. Best store-bought pizza evah.
Mnemosyne
@robertdsc:
Actually, I’m still bitter about them doing it when I was 14 years old and minding my own business at the mall. Fortunately, I have moved 2000 miles away since then.
J. Michael Neal
@Morbo:
Michigan has a bunch of great microbrews, but that’s not what I mean. I mean the cheap stuff, that you can get for $9.99 a case, but is pretty nice. I grew up in Ann Arbor, and I’m not familiar with any such beers in that part of Michigan.
Minnesota and Wisconsin held on to the cheap local breweries, and they’re the only places in the country I know of that did.
gbear
@J. Michael Neal:
Pig’s Eye and Grain Belt used to be brewed and bottled a little over a block from my house. Some summer nights I could hear the bottles clinking down the line. Unfortunately, the last owners of the company were royal fuckups who tried to convert the brewery to ethanol production and wound up stinking up the neighborhood to high heaven. People were getting seriously sick from the emissions too. It took a couple years to get the ethanol plant shut down but the owners shut down the brewery first. Grain Belt is now brewed at the Schell’s brewery in New Ulm, MN and Pig’s Eye is brewed in LaCrosse, WI, but I still see the brewmaster a couple of time a week as he makes sure the old brewery building is secure.
I was actually a big fan of Leinenkrugel beer when I quit drinking back in the 80’s. Too big a fan, actually. Did you ever try Walter’s beer out of WI? That was kind of a local legend because it came in quart bottles labelled “Family Size”. I spilled the entire contents of one of those onto my car’s back passenger carpeting one evening…
Chuck Butcher
@Mnemosyne:
BTW, Wiki claims that Paul guy is a Randal. Sometimes agreeing with me is ok.
gbear
@Steeplejack: I’ll give it a try.
moja31
i’m way late to the party on this, but i just have to add my two cents on the “don’t call rand paul a racist b/c it’s counterproductive” thread from earlier.
it seems to me that the only folks thinking about “what’s in paul’s heart,” are white liberals defending him from the charge of racism. it seems that most of the people definitively calling him a racist aren’t too concerned with weather he has black friends, or thinks black people could possibly be decent human beings too;” they think he’s a racist because he supports policies which promote discriminatory outcomes.
in one of his statements yesterday, he said something to the effect of ” Civil Rights is a settled issue, and the only people concerned about it are those trying to score political points.” that’s the thing though, for minorities who live in this country day in and day out, civil rights issues are anything but settled. I don’t care how Rand would have voted on the CRA, because I have no plans to stick him in a time machine and fine out; but there are politicians all across the country todaywho are working each and every day to dismantle the protections won by the civil rights movement, and Rand Paul, should he be elected, has every intention of being part of that group of elected officials.
I have no problem pointing that out, and identifying such a person as a racist.
yes, wingnuts the world over will scream and cry about how unfair that is, and what a good person Rand really is; i’m fully aware of that and anticipate that straw-man. they do it because it works; in no small part because liberals all around the country predictably took to the internets & tv today to tell me and others like me, that they shouldn’t call Rand a racist… because the wingnuts will cry foul.
so what? that doesn’t make it any less true.
maybe the problem isn’t the fact that the strawman will inevitably be used, but rather that it’s allowed to be effective, because of liberals’ tiresome insistence, on preemptively telling people who think it’s critical to name racism when faced with it, to hush.
Chuck Butcher
@moja31:
Well now that you’ve proved that you have no idea what the point was … what?
Nobody was defending Randroid from anything and that’s your out of the bucket mistake. (maybe a troll was)
The point is accuracy, not your fucking assumptions. The words out of the man’s own mouth are that his ideas will allow racism in practice in the service of his ideology of Libertarianism. You’d prefer the maybe of racist Rand to demonstrated uncaring stupidity? No black pals (iffy) get trotted out to make your liberal self into a lying asshole. But you please yourself with your so-called tough talk.
Just because something takes a couple more seconds to articulate doesn’t make it weak tea or weak kneed liberalism. If you feel like screwing him to the wall then do it in a manner that leaves the dog whistling pricks no wiggle room. As I said, please yourself.
moja31
@Chuck Butcher: someone’s ideas can be both stupid and racist, which paul’s clearly are. there is no “maybe racist,” championing policies that have racist results, is racist. while it might be politically expedient to simply call such ideas stupid, it is also important to point them out for the racism that they are. the fact that you point out that his ideas are in fact racist, doesn’t mean that you’re trying to read what it is in his heart. i don’t care why he supports racist policies, but i’m sure as hell going to point out that he does in fact support policies that are not merely stupid, but also racist.
a failure to directly confront people’s racism might not have an impact on your life, but there are plenty of people in this world for whom it has an enormous impact every single day. i’m not willing to ignore that, just because wingnuts will use it as an excuse to try and obfuscate. my lack of white privilege doesn’t allow me to accept that framing the way some other liberals do.
Phoebe
Yeah, I agree with the guy in the video, but @Chuck Butcher: Fine, say that his policies are racist or whatever, and the defenders will still scream “not a racist! Black friends! Sterling character! How could you play the racist card?!?!” They’re going to do it either way. The guy in the video is right, but that’s what you do in a conversation. Whatever is going on in the media is not a conversation. Unless it’s live, somehow, and people aren’t stonewalling or shouting the other one down.
And the guy in the video wouldn’t begrudge moja31 the conclusion that someone who does racist things or whatever is probably a racist, but t.g.i.t.v. is just saying that in the conversation we should keep the focus on the action, i.e. the thing that irrefutably happened, and keep it there, and not on what racism lurks in the hearts of men, which is such murky ground, and truly irrelevant to the topic/crime at hand.
Yutsano
@RedKitten: I’m right there with you. Every time I go to my parents’ house and get some border collie lurve (he got leftover bacon from breakfast from me today, they always find the easy marks) I either want to steal him or go out and get me one. The thing is I’m seriously leaning towards a great Dane now. I have a decent sized yard and two cats so he wouldn’t be lonely. Okay I’ll also admit the idea of Samkitten with a ball of puppeh fluff would break all the cuteness meters. Plus one province over has one of the greatest breeds evah for kids: Newfies. Anne Laurie would have a ton of recs on this subject.
@jnfr: Win to the Nth degree.
asiangrrlMN
@arguingwithsignposts: She is so beautiful. Count me as one who is very grateful that you rescued this little girl, and, in turn, she rescued you.
@Mnemosyne: Charlotte is a doll!
Mnemosyne
@moja31:
I don’t think we need to stay away from the word “racist,” but I think we do need to stay away from using it as a noun if possible. Saying “Rand Paul is a racist” leaves an opening to start the special pleadings about how he’s really a nice guy, not one of those mean racists. But saying, “This policy that Rand Paul supports is racist” takes that special pleading away and puts the attention where it belongs: on the racist policy, not on the guy’s personality.
I think that some people got overly intellectual yesterday and thought it was the word “racist” that needed to be avoided, but it isn’t. What we’re trying to avoid is letting right-wingers distract everyone from the real subject by talking about Paul’s personality and feelings and what a nice guy he really is when it doesn’t matter as long as he’s supporting racist policies.
Corner Stone
Some of my best friends are black.
Just sayin’.
Mnemosyne
@Chuck Butcher:
But you have to admit that the story that he was named after Randle P. McMurphy was more interesting than him being a plain ol’ Randal. Oh well.
Chuck Butcher
@Mnemosyne:
Yeah, but I liked Randle though Keyse’s was a bit more complex than the movie one.
Chuck Butcher
I’m sure everyone is in bed or tired of this. I don’t care a damn bit what Ayn Paul thinks or feels about any race, it isn’t germain to the question of what the outcome is, the outcome is racism abetted by the state. It is the deprivation of a selected group of the ability to participate in the commerce of our nation and it is unacceptable under any guise and worse yet under the guise of property and the associated greed. I don’t care how it is dressed up, I don’t care about the moral stance of the idiot proposing it, none of that counts – it is not about personality it is about law and outcomes.
I do not have to like a single black person to get there, I don’t have to care about race a damn bit to get there. You cannot have a successful legal and social contract in which a selected group are denied the ability to participate – the thing will blow up in your face. It isn’t just wrong, it is stupid and it offends the hell out of a big chunk of this nation on all those grounds.
You make this personal and the damn ideas keep ticking along because you’ve only attacked the face of it and not the root. It isn’t Rand Paul, it wasn’t Bull O’Conner, it wasn’t Lester Madox, it was the idea – the fucking concept backed with ribbons and bows that reeked.
I have a pretty strong feeling that Rand Paul is racist to the fucking bone and it doesn’t matter for spit if I’m right or not. I want his ideas crushed and that ought to take him personally out as well – or not, but the best chance is using the ideas.
” my lack of white privilege” is supposed to mean exactly fucking what? I’ll cry you a real big river and put up my fists just as soon as Rand Paul denies you access, spits on you, whatever… because then it is personal. You want to win, and I don’t mean an election, you go after their dressed up idea and kick it to flinders badly enough that no one will go back there. Don’t bother dressing yourself up in victim’s garb to attain self-righteous status, it’s a child’s game in a bare knuckles fight. I want to beat them over the head with this shit, I want to make them sorry they thought they could step away from their goddam dog whistles because now they’re naked. You apparently have no idea what a gift you’ve been given by this idiot, the cockroaches are out in the light and we’ve got big ole shit kickers on to fuck em up with. You want to play at calling them names, oh goody.
arguingwithsignposts
@Chuck Butcher:
Since you brought it up, I looked up the wiki entry, and there’s no source for the spelling Randal. I looked on the campaign web site, and on the m.d. web site, and there’s no link that proves *either* spelling.
Of course, I have no link for the other spelling, so we should probably nail that down somewhere other than wiki.
Ron
@moja31: I see no evidence from any of Rand Paul’s comments that he’s a racist or endorses racism in any way. His argument is solely based on how much government should be allowed to regulate private businesses. It’s an argument that is worth debunking, but it does nobody any good to say that because he doesn’t feel like the government should be able to prohibit discrimination by private business that he is promoting racism.
gbear
You know, it does nobody any good to say that because he doesn’t feel like government should be able to prohibit throwing people from the tops of buildings that he is promoting murder. Murder is just something that happens in a free and open society.
Mnemosyne
@Ron:
Actually, Paul’s argument is that private business owners should be allowed to use government power to discriminate against people because property rights are more important than the rights of citizens.
Don’t believe me? Let’s say you’re a restaurant owner who wants to have a whites-only restaurant. A bunch of black people come in, sit down at a table, and refuse to move.
What recourse do you think that restaurant owner should have? The instant you say, “He should be allowed to call the police and have them arrested for trespassing,” you have now endorsed using the power of the government to enforce the restaurant owner’s discriminatory policies. You’ve decided that the government should have more power over private citizens and less power over property.
Mnemosyne
Going back to the spirit of the open thread, can I just say for a minute that AT&T is a bunch of fucking fucktards? Apparently the reason I can’t port my cell phone number over to Virgin Mobile is that there’s a super-secret password that was put on the account when I got it 10 years ago, they’re not allowed to tell me what it is, and apparently there’s no backup security question that would let me prove to them that it’s really me and I really want to leave their fucking service. Well, gee, I guess I just have to keep giving you guys my money, don’t I?
The nice Virgin Mobile rep is being very helpful and they’re making another stab at figuring out what the fuck is going on, but Jesus fucking Christ is this a pain in the ass. Thanks, AT&T — you’re making the decision for me to leave you behind even easier than I thought!
Mnemosyne
@Mnemosyne:
Yay Virgin Mobile! I should (hopefully) have my number ported to them by Wednesday. This is when being nice to customer service people and assuring them that you know it’s not their fault that the other guys are being jerks really pays off. :-)