Sorry- I forgot to throw this up.
The Merle Haggard piece was a little slow.
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.
“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”
This blog will pay for itself.
I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.
ha ha ha! Nice try weird people.
Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.
If West Virginia and San Francisco had a love child.
He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.
I really should read my own blog.
There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.
In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.
Trump makes a mockery of the legal system and cowardly judges just sit back and let him.
It’s easier to kill a dangerous animal than a man who just happens to have different thoughts/values than one’s own.
My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.
I also would like a pony to improve my balloon juice experience.
The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.
Optimism opens the door to great things.
A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.
The willow is too close to the house.
No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.
“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”
Technically true, but collectively nonsense
Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.
He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!
John Cole
John Cole is a little slow this am.
snowbird42
I liked it…but then, Im his age.
Violet
I’m back! Moved on Tuesday. Took until Friday for the idiot Uverse people to get the TV and internet hooked up. Finally back catching up with the world. I’ve been reading dead-tree newspapers this week while listening to the radio. Very old school and kind of pleasant.
Moving is a right pain in the rear. Done it twice in the last year. Don’t recommend that at all.
SiubhanDuinne
@Violet: Welcome back. Not a thing has happened around here.
Well, Tunch got an infection, and John has partied every night for the past two weeks, and if you can believe it, a BIG MOTH visited his screen door, and tomatoesbroccoligreenpeppers, but otherwise, not much.
somethingblue
I thought they really missed an opportunity in not commissioning a Merle Haggard bikini from the pushpin woman.
Montysano
Well, Senor Cole, if you get in the mood for some hippie-punching today, please choose carefully. Turns out our son is up in your neck of the woods, having traveled from Alabama to attend the All Good Festival. Is there patchouli in the air this morning?
beltane
Nice, not too hot day today. We went Galt to the Maine coast last week; I recommend everyone do the same if they get the chance. I still can’t get into news or politics yet.
General Stuck
I know we love to hate Fox News, and Fox News Sunday is part of that, but I was very impressed with Chris Wallace irreverent grilling of the execrable Senator Kyle this morning, as he also grilled Mr. Axelrod. It was some true journalism and first rate interviewing. And Kyle looked like a caught fish flopping around on the river bank . Of course the panel with Snidely Kristal and Frau Cheney (if she is on it this morn) will wash away with stupid any points gained by Wallace.
SIA
/giggle
@Beltane – oh, Maine coast, I bet it’s pleasantly warm and not stinking muggy hot and wretched there? I’m on a lake in AL and sitting on the porch before the demons of summer drive me back inside. But can’t complain really it’s lovely to be out of the city for a couple days.
@Violet, did you move to a different city or just abode?
beltane
Slow morning here today, eh? Is everyone waiting for the World Cup final to start? My mother-in-law who is from Zandvoort, Netherlands is visiting and we’re going to celebrate by making pannekoek met ragout (apologies for the spelling) and drinking lots of beer. It is all very exciting.
beltane
@SIA: It was not hot and muggy at all by the water, which was very nice. What was not nice was that the water was extremely warm for this early in the summer. I realize that Al Gore is fat, but it is still distressing to see such warm ocean temps that far north in early July.
Svensker
@beltane:
The Dutch put tomato sauce on their pancakes? No wonder they drink beer. (JK, but please explain this food.)
We’ve got mom’s 88-year-old cousin up from Ball-tee-more visiting for the game. You know, the cousin who quit smoking last March when she was getting a little winded bowling (she averages 241). The same one who isn’t dating as much lately because she prefers older guys but there aren’t many of them left. Even tho she gave up cigs, she still knocks back a couple of drinks every day and flirts up a storm with the younger fellers (you know, the 82-year-olds). Her requested game-day menu is grilled steaks and vodka tonics. God, I wish I were as fabulous at my age as she is at 88.
gnomedad
Tunch wouldn’t forget to throw something up.
harlana peppper
Eat something bad at birthday party yesterday?
Punchy
This is one hell of a concert festy. Wish I could have gone this year…..pains me to miss Yonder Mountain and 5000 hippies in sun dresses and dreadlocks.
Where’s Tim F. been?
DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective
@General Stuck:
First of all, it’s Kyl, not Kyle, and secondly, all Arizonans are amazed that anyone would pay any attention to anything the guy says on any topic. In a senate full of empty suits, Kyl is remarkable for being an empty, cheap, mean, reactionary suit that hasn’t had an original thought probably in his adult lifetime. He is a product of the Arizona Republican political machine, still controlled by the remnants of the Pulliam family, which includes the Quayles, Dan et al, and their Potatoe-head relatives.
Punchy
@Svensker: Did I understand you correctly….you know a 88-year old woman that averages 241 in bowling? Uh….this is a Guiness record, right?
Montysano
@SIA:
Would you care to share which lake? Just curious….
bkny
peek-a-boo … the no touch strip searches coming to airports soon — via rawstory:
Senate bill would make airport body scanners mandatory
By Daniel Tencer
Saturday, July 10th, 2010 — 7:17 pm
Senate bill would make airport body scanners mandatory
A bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate requiring all airports to use full-body scanners lacks sufficient privacy safeguards, says a prominent watchdog group.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center says the bill, introduced in the Senate by Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), “contains particularly weak privacy provision[s] that ignore many of the problems with the devices already uncovered.”
The bill (PDF), known as the Securing Aircraft From Explosives Responsibly: Advanced Imaging Recognition (“SAFER AIR”) Act, would require all commercial airports in the US to use full-body scanners as their primary screening method by no later than 2013. The bill is a response to criticism among some lawmakers that the DHS has been dragging its feet on implementing the technology.
demimondian
@DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective: Look at it this way, DickSpud…you folks may well be the spawning ground of the two most important movements in Republican politics this year: SB1070 and the new Senate majority leader, John Kyl.
And a Senator who will make Kyl look like a moderate, J. D. Hayworth.
Jus sayin’
General Stuck
Real hippies aren’t worried.
Violet
@SiubhanDuinne:
Thanks for the welcome back!
John is quite the social butterfly these days. One suspects a special someone might be involved… I hope Tunch is okay!
@SIA:
Different abode. Living in a house now and very happy to have much more land than I’ve had in a long time for gardening. It’s way too hot now for doing much outside, but will no doubt enjoy it once the cooler weather arrives.
BethanyAnne
I’m about to get back into Torchlight for a few hours. Nifty little game – feels very much like Diablo. Different environments and a different world, but some old Blizzard folk made it, so I’m not surprised. And Mom will be back soon with breakfast from Whataburger – potato breakfast burritos, mmm :)
Face
@bkny: On the flip side, article in the local paper today says that the TSA is now de facto ignoring liquids/gels/fluids in luggage. It’s not the “official” stance, and it’s somewhat dependant on the airport, but they’re not asking if its in the luggage, not asking to have it removed, and largely ignoring it when they see it on the monitor.
frankdawg
I love the revisionist history that is taking place over “Okie from Shitholeski”
I worked on a C&W radio station when that song was hot & it was hippie punching at its finest. Anyone who pretends in was innocuous or just good clean fun is either ignorant or a liar.
I was really surprised at the voice-over piece. Having worked in radio I have a decent ear for voices & was stunned at the number of times I have heard her voice & not picked it out.
Cat Lady
@beltane:
Don’t tell her about Paul. My BIL is Dutch too, and I don’t have the heart to tell him either.
Bill E Pilgrim
@frankdawg: Did you ever heard “Hippie from Olema”?
I remember Okie From Muskogee well and it certainly was serious business at the time for many, I thought it was Merle who just said eh, just a song, which I took to mean that he was doing it for commercial reasons more than anything else. I have no idea what documentary or etc we’re talking about so any of this might have been covered in that.
For the record I lurve Merle Haggard, one of the best singers and songwriters I ever heard, but at the time of that song, I was one of the ones he was singing about, no doubt about it.
Hippie From Olema was a response song from the Jesse Colin Young and the Youngbloods, and went “We don’t watch commercials in Olema” and so on, but the best line by far was “We still take in strangers if they’re haggard”.
Peace, man.
SIA
@Montysano: Lake Gerald in Delta AL. Never heard of it? Why, we’re just 9 miles from the Piggly Wiggly in Lineville! Where in AL are you?
demimondian
@frankdawg: I missed the voice over report. What’s that about?
(FTR, I despised that song — but I, too, have sung things which had nauseating lyrics or message. Wagner is wonderful music…as long as you don’t think about its content. The St. Matthew Passion is a marvelous piece…if you ignore the antisemitism in the crowd’s “On our heads” chorale. I can believe that Haggard sang it for the money; it’s a job at the end of the day.)
Montysano
@SIA:
Never heard of the lake, but I’m familiar with Lineville. I have a good friend who works at the college in Wadley.
I’m a B&W photographer; my wife calls my style “The Ramshackle South”; your area is one of my favorite stalking grounds.
I’m in Huntsville.
Admiral_Komack
“all airports to use full-body scanners lacks sufficient privacy safeguards,”
Excuse me while I whip this out!
bkny
@Face: perhaps laziness is overtaking the power trip. i was recently pulled aside and had my bags searched at the des moines international airport for failing to put my liquid make-up in the clear bag.
not to mention the confused elderly couple ahead of me who were searched for god knows what. you will learn to obey.
SIA
ruh roh what’s with the strike through?
bemused
We will attempt to go wild blueberry picking today hoping to avoid the scattered rain showers. My mate and the dogs has been scouting for good berry patches 4 different days and has come home with about 4 5qt pails full. He picks fast and clean too. If anyone has never tasted wild blueberries, you don’t know what you are missing. Tame blueberries just don’t compare.
Svensker
@Punchy:
It’s what she claims and judging by the way she whips up and down the stairs, I’m not questioning her.
stuckinred
@Bill E Pilgrim: “If We Make it Through December” and “Proud of What I Am” are two of his greats.
The next to last samurai
Is the Tunchtush all better now?
SIA
Does anyone else have all the text struck-through? It starts after Comment #31.
flounder
@Face
I can confirm this. I have been flying a lot recently and carry a small thing of hand lotion (hotel size) and some toothpaste that I have just been leaving in my bag. The first few times was because I forgot about it, but then it became more a contest to see if they were going to hassle me over it. Glad to see this stupidity might be going by the wayside.
licensed to kill time
@SIA:
It’s the Return of the Hyphen Bomb, caused by a hyphen that’s unattached on one side and stuck to a letter/word on the other. Chaos ensues. I don’t see it on Firefox, though.
Mark
@face/@flounder
A couple of years ago, I had a flight out of the international terminal at SFO and I noticed that people weren’t taking their laptops out – I asked the screener and he said as long as there was nothing else in the bag. So then I started a routine for dicking with the TSA fascists.
1) Laptop stays in the bag; a couple of times they’ve re-scanned (“screener’s discretion”) but normally they ignore it
2) At airports where they want to see your ticket while you’re walking through the metal detector, I started putting it in my mouth. You need three hands as it is to take your shoes off, get your laptop out and pull out your liquids. I figure they need a little tweaking back.
3) Finally, I stopped taking my liquids out of my bag. Mostly it was because I would travel very light – maybe a tube of Carmex and a mini toothpaste and I just didn’t see the point in pulling it out. Eventually I just stopped thinking about it. I’ve only taken flak for it once – PDX in August 2009, but not when I was just there in May. At John Wayne airport, the screener meekly said something about it but didn’t re-scan my bag.
The screeners love their fascist powers, but now that you can question the police state a bit more than you could five years ago, complaints must be getting them in trouble. Or maybe they get in trouble for backing up the lines. But any real airport with real shit to deal with isn’t going to get pissy about liquids anymore.
trollhattan
Random Sunday thoughts:
Caught at last. I’d love to be negotiating the movie rights to this guy’s story:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2012329053_apcbbahamasteenfugitive.html
If you keep classy company, here’s a surefire way to class up your next BBQ:
http://www.roastmyweenie.com/Roast_Your_Weenie/Roast.html
(Who says there’s no more discretionary income these?)
After today’s Tour stage, Lance is out of the running for the podium, so the remaining days of his cycling career comprise being domestique for Levi Leipheimer. I’ll miss watching you, big fella.
SIA
@licensed to kill time: Thank you. Will switch to FF. Crazy.
frosty
@Mark: Last fall — no hassle with an unopened 200 ml bottle of Jack Daniels at BWI, but they confiscated it at Hartford CT. I told the screener to have a nice party that night and she got all snippety with me.
burnspbesq
@bkny:
And we’re going to spend how much to install a technology that doesn’t work in every airport in the country?
Dumbasses, we are.
burnspbesq
There was a quick promo spot during yesterday’s third-place game that seemed to say that Christiane Amanpour will be taking over has host of “This Week” beginning in August. That could get interesting.
SIA
@Montysano: Some of the places around here make trailer trash look good. Take Mt Moriah Church Road off Hwy 9 – there’s plenty of southern ramshackle about. You might be interested in this if you haven’t seen already, Pam Grundy’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/You-Always-Think-Home-Portrait/dp/0820313041″>photographic essays on Clay County. It’s really like that here. I love it though.
Is there a site where I can see your work?
ETA not sure how the formatting above is going to turn out – haven’t installed FF on this PC and all I see is strikethroughs.
SIA
@SIA: Clearly, we have formatting fail. Trying to insert italics in link.
LIkeableInMyOwnWay
@demimondian:
Hayworth has no chance unless McCain dies, or renounces Christ on tv while having sex with a young boy. Which, you know, considering his record of panderment, is not out of the question, if he thought it would get him more votes.
SB1070 is going to be copied by several states unless it is struck down by the courts, which is a coin toss as near as I can tell.
The SB1070 movement here is fueled by one of the oldest traditions in the Cowboy West: Telling People Back East to go fuck themselves, we take care of our own business out here. Well, until the bills come due, and then we want People Back East to kick in with the funding.
More than one Western politician has made a career out of promoting this scheme. Washington bad, don’t tell us what to do, we will do what we want. But send money. Tilting at the Eastern Windmill will get McCain reelected, and Brewer elected. Mission Accomplished.