Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

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

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

The willow is too close to the house.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Yet Another Open Thread

Yet Another Open Thread

by | 127 Comments

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Random thoughts:

– I’d like to thank Randy for his awesome World Cup blogging and remind you all to check out his blog. I think a lot of my renewed interest in the game is due to the fact that he started posting here.

– Sherlock Holmes was a really fun movie, and I’d like to see a follow up.

– Edge of Darkness was better than I thought.

– All this wanking about Obama’s approval rating and handling of the oil spill cracks me up. Is anyone here going to vote for the retrograde jackass the Republicans puke up? Anyone?

– Laurie David is pretty hot. Why was she sleeping with Larry David? Or Al Gore?

– What are the “big games” in the WC the next few days?

Reader Interactions

127Comments

  1. 1.

    ellaesther

    I got nuthin’ on any of that. Other than to hope that the rumors about Al Gore and Ms. David are wrong, because I’m over-invested in people being mensches, even people I don’t know, but especially people I respect.

    Oh, and I can watch and enjoy the occasional game but following a World Cup blog is beyond my skill set — but I’m glad Randy’s here to get you guys up to snuff!

  6. 6.

    beltane

    If Al Gore was sleeping with Laurie David it means that life really is a sitcom about nothing, which is what I have suspected all along.

    Just did some screaming at people over at DKos. It made me feel better.

  8. 8.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Laurie David is pretty hot. Why was she sleeping with Larry David? Or Al Gore? –

    The really important question: Will this make it on to Curb?

  11. 11.

    Mike Kay

    Laurie David used to work at NBC and that’s how she met Larry david.

    I know what you mean, but I remember when Diane Keaton was hot and a successful actress and she dated the hunky woody allen. Go figure.

  12. 12.

    Keith G

    @eemom: Exactly.

    Can’t say I care much about oil or soccer tonight. I do want to know what the puppies are up to.

  13. 13.

    Mike Kay

    @beltane:

    Just did some screaming at people over at DKos.

    About what?

    I hate to be a bother and ask, but I refuse to go over to that place.

  14. 14.

    planetjanet

    All that rigamarole last night about Avatar vs. Imaginarium and you run off and see Sherlock Holmes? Sheesh!

  15. 15.

    planetjanet

    All that rigamarole last night about Avatar vs. Imaginarium and you run off and see Sherlock Holmes? Sheesh! Feel the love.

  17. 17.

    Nick

    @beltane: Oh can we see?

    They’ve gotten pretty delusional over there. I officially threw in the towel with them after yesterday’s Bill Maher “Fuck the coal miners” diary.

  24. 24.

    lamh32

    Okay,

    I loved Sherlock Holmes. On my trip to India this past April, I watched in on both the flights to India and back to America. And I’d already seen the movie last christmas when it came out in theatres.

    BTW, I believe I read somewhere that a sequel has already been greenlighted.

    Also, is there anyone who RDJ (Rodney Downey Jr) can’t make more likeable, i.e. Gwenyth Paltrow, Jude Law, Scarlett Jo, etc.

  25. 25.

    williamc

    As a gay enviro-crusader movie nerd, this open thread hit all my buttons: 1) I heard from Sully on Real Time maybe a week or so ago that Al is well-known to be well-hung, though how Sully knows, I don’t want to think about (Big Gay Al? ick…). 2) Laurie David is a well-known environmentalist and I could see the inconvenient truth here being that she wanted to be with someone who understood her craziness about saving the planet (see what I did there, ‘inconvenient truth’? Late night punning, heh). 3) I went into Sherlock Holmes expecting not to like it because I didn’t think I’d believe Downey as the most famous Brit detective ever, but not only was his accent ok, he and Jude Law had a ton of chemistry as Holmes and Watson, so much so I kept expecting them to make out in every scene that they were in together.

  28. 28.

    lamh32

    I’ve actually gotta go to work, so I’m out, but I just had to repost this from the last thread.

    Rachel Maddow brought up the fact that Obama asked for prayers or blessing or whatever for the region, and now people are complaining about that part of the speech too.

    Seriously, is this really worth any mention at all.

    1st of all, take it from someone who’s from that region and who has family there. The prayers and blessings will be appreciated by the majority of Gulf coast residents.

    2nd, I get it, not all of us are “religious” people are “people of faith”, but Obama has written about the importance of his faith, always has and probably always will. So why is it so surprising that he would do it now. Unlike Bush, Palin, et al, Obama doesn’t wear his faith on his sleeve, and he doesn’t seem to use his faith as reasoning for his policy decisions, unlike Bushie and the like. Also, just cause he asked for prayers doesn’t mean he gonna put together “prayer circles”. Way to be condescending to people of faith. Not all of them are crazed conservs. Some of us are flaming liberals as well.

    For my money, if you are complaining about that part of the speech, then you were probably not gonna be satisfied with any part of the speech anyway.

    Good night all!

  30. 30.

    ellaesther

    Ok, Open Thread? Open Thread.

    I’ve posted a couple of things that I think the folks here might appreciate (and you may recognize a certain commenter or two on one of them!).

    The first is about the deeply irritating wrongness of magazines geared toward my demographic (Choose to be happy! Make a vision board!).


    The other is about Jay Smooth    , a hip-hop video blogger to whom no less a figure than The Grand Pandjandrum himself introduced me (speaking of whom, has anyone seen him lately…?) and about whom I have since been properly schooled. In one video that I posted, he talks about talking about racism, and in another, talks about the arrogance of the politically ignorant — he’s smart and funny and all manner of wonderful things.

    Please, come, read, enjoy!

  31. 31.

    beltane

    @jeffreyw: Forget about that link which doesn’t work for some reason. Here’s a quote from the comment:

    I’m seeing precious few reality-based criticisms and an awful lot of magical thinking in its place. What people really want is for some deus ex machina to swoop down and fix the situation. Guess what? Humpty-Dumpty really cannot be put back together again

  32. 32.

    Nellcote

    I just noticed something about Prez Obama’s schedule. The speech he gave at the Naval Training Base in Florida was covered on cable in whole. Lots of young faces in uniform in the background. During his speech tonight about the Gulf oil situation he made mention of the military too.
    Is there a message in the juxtaposition of oil and sending troops?

  33. 33.

    lamh32

    @williamc:

    You and me both Williamc; re: RDJ and JL, making out.

    It was really funny, kinda reminded of the House and Wilson (get it Holmes & Watson) relationship from the show “House”

  34. 34.

    planetjanet

    @lamh32: Oh, I absolutely loved Sherlock Holmes as well. It had the most amazing fast paced and sparkling dialogue. I love anything Robert Downey, Jr. is in anyway. And that character was made for him.

    My comment was a bit off the wall. I don’t know if you saw the thread last night. John was thinking of watching Avatar or the Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus and there was a long conversation. The consensus seemed to be that Imaginarium was the better movie. I have been curious all day as which John chose. Quite the surprise.

  37. 37.

    ADM

    Sherlock Holmes was fun. Another fun, but under-the-radar movie? Defendor (not misspelled) with woody harrelson.

  40. 40.

    ellaesther

    @Upper West: After hearing The Regular Guy’s review on WXRT in Chicago (holla!), I’m thinking of bringing my kids (nearly-7 and nearly-11). I’m apparently the only member of my generation who never saw the original, and I had less than no interest — but Regular Guy has piqued my interest. And now you have too!

  42. 42.

    williamc

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck:

    Right on, when can we send her to her Death Panel and put her out of our misery? It just feels more and more every day like she’s auditioning to be the host of a real life Running Man.

    @Nellcote:

    Maybe he’s gearing up for the Nuclear Option. I know the talking butts of tv punditry were all aflutter about this solution to the spill last week (really, an underwater explosion in an oil and gas pipe that is buried in the Earth’s crust, what would go wrong?). They won’t rest till Black President blows some sh!t up.

  43. 43.

    Steeplejack

    I’ve been pimping this relentlessly, but once again: this awesome World Cup graphic that Calouste linked to a few days ago gives you everything you need in one interactive page. Dial in a day, a team, a group–even a venue–and get all the information you need. Big h/t to Calouste.

    I think South Africa-Uruguay is big tomorrow, because both teams have played one game already and are tied in their group. If one of them can pull out a win tomorrow, they will be much better positioned to handle Mexico and France in the rest of the group play. The outcome–for both teams–will certainly direct how they approach those games.

    ETA: South Africa is six hours ahead of Eastern time, so 2030 there for the South Africa-Uruguay game tomorrow is 1430 EDT, or 2:30 p.m. to you civilians.

  45. 45.

    beltane

    @Stroszek: You’re right. The general attitude on the left is very discouraging. If the activists of the past were anything like today’s progressives, women still wouldn’t have the right to vote and Jim Crow would still be the law in much of the land.

  46. 46.

    SectarianSofa

    I liked Sherlock Holmes as well — I had not expected to, based on whatever crap information I was getting from media review osmosis. (I don’t recall actually ever reading a review.)
    Saw ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ or whatever it is called this weekend with the kids — I for some reason didn’t expect to enjoy it, and did. After the fact (the wife signed me on to the gig, so I didn’t research it beforehand), I see the reviews of it are almost all positive, though some whiners believe that it (Just Like Avatar!) is a Hippie Peacenik Scholiast movie that somehow is about hating America and loving forgeigners.

  49. 49.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    Olbermann: “It was a great speech if you were on another planet for the last 57 days.”

    Matthews compared Obama to Carter.

    Olbermann: “Nothing specific at all was said.”

    Matthews: “No direction.”

    Howard Fineman: “He wasn’t specific enough.”

    Olbermann: “I don’t think he aimed low, I don’t think he aimed at all. It’s startling.”

    Howard Fineman: Obama should be acting like a “commander-in-chief.”

    Matthews: Ludicrous that he keeps saying [Secretary of Energy] Chu has a Nobel prize. “I’ll barf if he does it one more time.”

    Matthews: “A lot of meritocracy, a lot of blue ribbon talk.”

    Matthews: “I don’t sense executive command.”

    And this is the liberal bias wingnuts howl about. Tweety didn’t get an executive erection, well boo fucking who?

  51. 51.

    YellowJournalism

    I don’t know if this was addressed in the previous Obama speech thread, but Fox News had Palin on for a response, and one of the things she railed on about (in an obviously previously-prepared speech) was that Obama fucked up by not allowing the Dutch to help with the clean-up, because the Dutch are so good at building dikes.

  52. 52.

    DaveInOz

    Edge of Darkness was better than I thought

    Edge of darkness was based on a UK mini-series from 1985 which I really enjoyed at the time. If you can get hold of it, I’d recommend it, especially for the soundtrack by one Eric Clapton.

  53. 53.

    Nellcote

    @williamc:

    Maybe he’s gearing up for the Nuclear Option.

    I was seeing it as making the connection between oil and the waste of misbegotten wars for people that don’t get it yet. As was said upthread, I don’t think the speech was directed at me.

  56. 56.

    Nemo_N

    What are the “big games” in the WC the next few days?

    Slovenia vs. USA, of course (for our American host, at least :P).

    I never expect much from the first week of the World Cup since most teams are weak and everyone is playing for points, even if it means playing for a draw. The final games of this round robin should be interesting though, since most teams will have their survival at stake.

  58. 58.

    jeffreyw

    @Nellcote: I noticed that. No clue as to what he was actually thinking about, but there are a lot of complaints about disorganized response to the spill, and the military does have a good chain of command. BP ain’t in it. Also, the can do attitude of the no nonsense General (I forget his name) who took charge in the aftermath of Katrina did a lot to sooth raw nerves at the time.

  61. 61.

    Nick

    @beltane: progressives are pretty pessimistic by nature. That’s how they get their policies…everything sucks and we have to make it better.

    The problem is when they become cowards and give up to easily. That’s not a progressive trait. A lot of people have given up, either because they think it’s too impossible, or Obama sold them out, or that they think the progressive movement is dead because of the peope above.

    Progressive in America just aren’t a reliable force.

  63. 63.

    ellaesther

    @beltane: Someone on my twitter feed just tweeted “It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea” (a quote from Robert Anton Wilson, apparently).

    Or, in other words: Yup.

    Progressive means we progress. As a young woman, I was a well-meaning homophobe who thought those people should be treated well because they were people but they made me feel kinda weird. Now I’m a raging “Gay Rights NAO!” type who has already told her children that, yes, boys can marry boys and girls can marry girls. We’re meant to learn and evolve, no?

  64. 64.

    Nick

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck: It’s all based on ratings. MSNBC’s suck, so they’ll try to be like Fox.

    Fox is the highest rated network on TELEVISION. As long as that’s the case, everyone will try to emulate them.

  65. 65.

    LD50

    @Punchy:

    Do they eat chili in Chile? Do they call it “chili”, or “homecountryinabowl”?

    I’m told they call it nosotros.

  66. 66.

    JMY

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck:

    They complain about specifics, but this isn’t a policy speech.

    And wtf is with he wasn’t acting as a commander-in-chief.

    So we are going to discredit of Nobel Peace prize winner, who’s an actual scientist? That’s cool now?

  67. 67.

    LD50

    @Nick:

    progressives are pretty pessimistic by nature

    The fact that serious progressives are just about powerless in American politics will do that.

    Compare that to hardcore conservatives, who own a whole political party, and who are in power more often than not.

  69. 69.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck:
    I heard that too, and almost had to contemplate how to send MSNBC a bill for a broken computer screen. Tweety is about as bad a host as I can find on MSNBC, and that puts him on par with Morning Ho. That faux populist shit he peddles is just grating.

    And Howard Fineman too. Pasty old white guys reading the tea leaves. Your Village Witches of Endor.

  70. 70.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    @JMY: If he had given them more specifics, they would have called him a feckless technocrat nerd, and not a gut guy like Bush, or somesuch. And I have never had a clue what people mean with the not commanding enough a CiC.

  71. 71.

    JMY

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck:

    But that is something I hear about Obama all the time. “He’s not forceful enough.” “He’s not angry enough.” “He wasn’t specific enough.” How the fuck do you know he’s not angry when he goes back to the residence? Him telling you his mad and not going to take it anymore is gonna help you sleep better at night? Everything thing has become about optics and how this and that is a bad look for whoever.

  73. 73.

    Emma

    Nick: Compare that to hardcore conservatives, who own a whole political party, and who are in power more often than not.

    True, but you know the difference? The hardcore conservatives have spent over thirty years moving the country in their direction. They have invested money, time, and effort in creating and selling their worldview. Relentlessly. Even after major failures like the idiotic “contract with America” fiasco, they regrouped and came back again.

    And one of the things they do best is protect each other. Look at their so-called “intellectuals”. They are the same people who were spouting the same things in the 90s. They are vicious rats and sometimes they have massive internal bloodletting, but the message keeps rolling on.

    I don’t know if it is because they are selling a single worldview while “progressive” can encompass many competing points of view, as so it’s harder to sell. Or maybe it is because they sell feel-good fantasies while “progressives” try to improve things in the real world, which is not anywhere near as satisfying to the general audience. I don’t know.

    But the bottom line is, they have marched in lockstep selling their poison for over 30 years. And now we live in a world in which the underlying perception for many people is “taxes are bad,” “the government is incompetent,” and “my money is going to feed (select minority of your choice)”.

    And we expect it to change in two years because we elected an African-American president. Jesus.

  74. 74.

    Steve

    Am I missing something, or is this Al Gore thing anything other than a supermarket tabloid rumor?

  75. 75.

    gwangung

    And we expect it to change in two years because we elected an African-American president

    No, we expect it to change, because we elected an African American president, and we thought we were done.

  76. 76.

    Admiral_Komack

    I would like to apologize to eyeryone to ruining the last open thread by mistakedly hitting the “delete” key.

  77. 77.

    gwangung

    On a happier note for SF fans, Scalzi notes that the Worldcon Hugo packet has expanded with almost all the Hugo nominated material be it novels, novellas, novelletes, short stories, fanzines or graphic novels. All for the price of a supporting membership.

    Hm. Graphic novels alone on Amazon is damn near close to $50. And I get to vote in the Hugos. Um, no brainer.

  78. 78.

    Nick

    @Emma: Yes, conservatives are relentless, liberals are far from it. We’re way too cynical to effectively have a movement.

  79. 79.

    Emma

    Gwangung: I don’t understand you comment. Did I not do sarcasm well?

    That’s my point exactly. There are people who seem to think that Obama got elected on a sea of progressivism. Obama got elected because, except of the 27% who wouldn’t vote for a Democrat even if it meant curing cancer forever, people were tired of the same people and the same faces, and most people had come to associate Republicans with the Shrub and the Shrub with failure. Obama was new and he was different and he seemed to have less baggage than the rest of them. And he wasn’t a flaming radical or a flaming conservative. Reassuring, steady, and, most of all, something new. And even so,it was, what? 62% of the vote?

    I wish there were liberals/progressives willing to spend as much time creating a message and selling it as conservatives have done. I wish I knew how to get the message across a corporate media that is, at bottom, merely another arm of wealth. But if we want to move that frekkin’ window back, we’re going to have to take the long view.

  81. 81.

    Mike Kay

    what obama should have done is called for tax cuts! that would have left the village media drooling.

  84. 84.

    Brian J

    @ellaesther:

    I doubt it’s true. There are enough people who love to focus on perpetrating “Al Gore is fat, so global climate change is a myth”-type arguments, who also happen to work for New York Post-style outfits that if it were true, they would have discovered it a long time ago.

  85. 85.

    Cacti

    I thought the Downey/Law Sherlock Holmes flick had quite the strong undercurrent of the “love that dare not speak its name.”

    Holmes was way too interested in keeping Watson away from the marriage altar for there not to be something more than friendship at work.

  87. 87.

    asiangrrlMN

    @jeffreyw: That’s it, Mister. I’m making the trek to your home, camping out on your doorstep, and I’m not leaving until you cook a twenty-course meal for me that will be eaten over five days. That blueberry turnover sent me right over the edge.

  88. 88.

    Emma

    Cacti: I heard that the Conan Doyle estate had the hissy fits to beat all hissy fits over that. Supposedly (and I’ve been out of the loop for a long time in many of those areas, so take it with a grain of salt), they have refused permission for a sequel.

  90. 90.

    Anne Laurie

    @SectarianSofa:

    Saw ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ or whatever it is called this weekend with the kids—I for some reason didn’t expect to enjoy it, and did. After the fact (the wife signed me on to the gig, so I didn’t research it beforehand), I see the reviews of it are almost all positive, though some whiners believe that it (Just Like Avatar!) is a Hippie Peacenik Scholiast movie that somehow is about hating America and loving forgeigners.

    Dude, we do our best to make this a full-service blog… :)

  91. 91.

    Mark S.

    @YellowJournalism:

    [Palin] railed on about (in an obviously previously-prepared speech) was that Obama fucked up by not allowing the Dutch to help with the clean-up, because the Dutch are so good at building dikes.

    Please tell me you’re joking.

  93. 93.

    ellaesther

    @Brian J: Fingers crossed, my friend. I genuinely pull for couples that everyone else wants to see fail, and dude, it’s bad enough that the Gores separated after 40 years. If it’s because Al’s a cheating douchebag? Well, that will make me very sad.

  94. 94.

    hamletta

    @planetjanet: I, too, am a fan of the RDJ — ever since I saw Less Than Zero in the theatre. He was the only one who came off as a plausible human being, rather than A Character.

    If you haven’t seen Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, I highly recommend it. The script is this goofy murder mystery riddled with allusions to classic movies and makes no sense whatsoever (which is itself an allusion to The Big Sleep). RDJ and Val Kilmer are a great team, and the girl, Michelle Monoghan, is wonderful. That she’s not a huge star already is proof we live in an unjust world.

  96. 96.

    ellaesther

    @asiangrrlMN: Can I come? Since about December, I’ve been longing to have someone cook for me regularly.

    Oy. The lecture my nearly-7 year old had to endure when she dared to complain that we were having hamburgers the other day (I love hamburgers, the children do not. This means I make them about [and I am not kidding] four times a year. Plus about four meatloaves. You DO NOT COMPLAIN when Mommy finally makes a meal that she likes!)

  98. 98.

    asiangrrlMN

    @ellaesther: Ha! Yeah. I can see how that would grate on the nerves. By the way, I was wondering if you would be OK with me adding your blog to my blogroll. I’ve been meaning to ask for awhile, and then I noticed today that you added mine to yours (ta for that), so I wanted to do it tout de suite.

  101. 101.

    russell

    my general open thread comment is “I’m freaking sick of this sh*t”.

    for “this sh*t”, pick pretty much anything you like, the available options are pretty broad.

    regarding laurie david, I’ve run out of patience with people who think of themselves as “environmentalists” but who fly a private jet between their homes on opposite coasts and pave wetlands on Martha’s Vineyard.

    do no harm, or STFU.

    seriously, just STFU. take the train, or live in one house. at a minimum, just fly on a commercial airliner, instead of on your very own personal dedicated airplane.

    if your level of commitment to the environment can’t extend to taking a commercial flight to travel between your various homes on various edges of the god-damned continent where you’ve paved some wetlands to accommodate your very own special needs, you are well and truly full of shit.

    heads up: laurie david is full of shit.

    you heard it here first.

    saw Sherlock Holmes twice on Comcast “On Demand”, it was kicking. can’t wait for the sequel.

  102. 102.

    ellaesther

    @hamletta: I am now taking this as Gospel. I will plug my ears and yell LA LA LA LA for a few weeks, and all will be well.

    @asiangrrlMN: Oh my goodness, sure! That would be lovely! After a commenter at Ta-Nehisi’s place gathered all the names & URLs of the bloggers there, I realized that, hey-oh, I could created dedicated blog rolls. The one for here is pretty short, I’m sad to say, mainly because I haven’t had enough time to click on everyone’s links since I hatched the plan. But yeah, it’s been there awhile! And aside from anything else, having it all listed right there on my own front page gets me to my internet pals’ sites a LOT more consistently. I need things to be made easy for me…. (And thank you so much for your comments! I’m always so happy when I see it’s you! The week of the flotilla proved to me the wisdom of my “I don’t comment in my own commenting section” rule, but it does also prevent me from replying to lovely folks such as yourself…!)

  103. 103.

    ellaesther

    Must.go.to.bed.NAO!

    Thank you Balloon Juice for helping me to get through an annoying evening of finally dealing with all those emails that I’ve been putting off (well, most of them…).

    May the FSM bless and keep you, held tight in His noodly appendages. And may FSM Himself avoid the fate of Touchdown Jesus. Amen.

  104. 104.

    asiangrrlMN

    @ellaesther: Excellent. I will post it right away. I was wondering why I never saw you commenting in your own comment section! Now, me, you can’t shut me up. Not that that would surprise anyone. My policy is to reply to all the comments on my blog. Then again, I’m a control freak, so there is that.

    So, cool! I will put it there now. I might even steal Cole’s line about ‘killin’ all your doodz’.

    Night! Sleep well.

  105. 105.

    Steeplejack

    @ellaesther:

    May the FSM bless and keep you, held tight in His Her noodly appendages. And may FSM Himself Herself avoid the fate of Touchdown Jesus. Amen.

    Fix’d.

  106. 106.

    Calouste

    @Steeplejack:

    Thanks for the shout out.

    It something else than the standard wall chart, and very user friendly. Only nitpick I have found is that they don’t show the current standings in the group.

  108. 108.

    Calouste

    @Emma:

    Wonder how much power the Conan Doyle estate has, considering the man died 70 years ago next month and copyright usually only last that long.

  109. 109.

    Steeplejack

    @Calouste:

    Agreed, but that’s a minor nit. I think the thing is Edward Tufte*-level genius! Thanks again for posting it.

    &#150&#150
    &#042 The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Edward R. Tufte, 1985, revised edition 2001.

  113. 113.

    ruemara

    I missed the speech but I’d been seeing the negative reviews since yesterday, so I will spare myself that chattering classes for today and tomorrow. This means I will focus only on things that bug me. So am I the only person who can’t stand the idea of trolls and worgen being druids. I mean, really, what’s next, gnome priests? For pete’s sake, I mean, they’re trolls and humans! The whole neighborhood is going downhill.

  116. 116.

    tkogrumpy

    As for who slept with who, far as I can tell pretty much everybody sleeps with somebody and who can keep track of that many people.

  117. 117.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Snicker. You two is rather cute sometimes.

    My work has until August to do something positive for me, or else I take my bonus check and run. I’ve already decided my brother and I are moving to Seattle some point soon after. Better job market for me, better educational environment for him, plus we both have emergency cushions that can sustain us for awhile. I’m only staying until August for the money. I thought I had another point there but meh.

  118. 118.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Yutsano: Who two? Me and Steepman? He is my ‘guy standing out in the rain, smoking a cigarette while gazing longingly at my window’, you know.

    Cooooool that you made a decision about your job and life in general. YAY!

    @Steeplejack: Night. I’m hitting the sack pretty soon as well.

  119. 119.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: The worst part is having to tell my head boss the reasons why I would be leaving. The fact that it’s reasons and not just one major cause seems almost odd to me. I really did enjoy it at first, maybe because it was fresh and new and exciting, but the more I learned the more I saw some real deep structural flaws in the company. Getting passed over twice for promotions by people less qualified than me (which I’d be even more upset about if I didn’t adore both of them, honestly it does salve the wound some to see someone you like succeed even if it’s at your own expense) is just cementing that decision in my head. Plus I still have the IRS gig as a possibility, that hasn’t been ruled out (but good Gawd are they taking forevah to decide!) so I could be moving and resigning for totally positive reasons. I’m just taking it one small step at a time at this point and rubbing in just what they’re letting go by exceeding my performance goals.

    Yes I’ve been thinking about this seriously for awhile why do you ask? :)

  120. 120.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Yutsano: It’s good that you have been giving it some serious thought and not just quitting on a whim. You sound like you have looked at it from all angles and are making the right decision for you. You and your brother. Seattle, here you come!

  121. 121.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: I just took a gander over on Craigslist and fell in love with a housing listing that is slightly far from where the IRS gig would be but the rent would be quite doable for both me and my brother plus it’s a three bedroom. I only say slightly far because it would be at least a half an hour drive if the traffic cooperated (snicker) but since we would both be going more or less to the same place in the city it may yet be workable. It’s like the FSM is tapping me on the shoulder and gently nudging me into action.

    Oh and just a little something to make you hate me:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffej15-Dgl0

  122. 122.

    WereBear

    @jeffreyw: can do attitude of the no nonsense General (I forget his name) who took charge in the aftermath of Katrina did a lot to sooth raw nerves at the time.

    Very true. I’ve never had a favorite general… until him.

  123. 123.

    WereBear

    @Emma: I wish there were liberals/progressives willing to spend as much time creating a message and selling it as conservatives have done

    We do. But we have one whopping problem; we don’t lie.

    The conservative movement lies its ass off. To quote Father Ted: “great big whopping lies with fecking bells on them!” They do not hesitate to tell whatever lie will sell the most, and next week, it’s a new lie!

    Progressives don’t do that. They have never done that. And I faced it long ago: people prefer a soothing lie to a harsh truth.

  124. 124.

    Randinho

    @LD50: There’s one good Chilean restaurant here in NYC. My wife and I went there for our anniversary a few years ago. She had the ribs (which were incredible) and I had the tasty Corvina Margarita. They also gave us complimentary cherimoya margaritas.

    John, thanks for the kind words.

  126. 126.

    Emma

    WereBear: Oh, I agree with you that they lie. AND that people prefer a soothing lie to a harsh truth. BUT… I have a feeling that if our message were uniform and constantly out there, we would have a better success. Notice that the TeaBaggers get only lip service in the media. The conservative movement puts out its spokespeople (Liz Cheney????) and they are accepted immediately.

    We fight among ourselves in public and so serious damage to the brand. Maybe it’s the nature of the beast and progressives have to accept that we are the nation’s fix it people and, as such, only appreciated when it hits the fan and we step in. BUT… in that case, we should realize that it’s going to be a long incremental process and stop calling for a “dictator of progressivism.”

  127. 127.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Yutsano: It’s the Lily cold shoulder for you after that video, Mister! On the serious tip, I’m really happy that the signs are pointing to a brighter day for you and your bro.

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