Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

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

No Justins, No Peace

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

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

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

“But what about the lurkers?”

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

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

People are weird.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Republicans don’t trust women.

“Joe Biden deserved better than he got from some folks in his own party.”

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

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154Comments

  3. 3.

    beltane

    Is there anyone who actually eats that stuff? Head cheese, also. No one could possibly eat head cheese.

  6. 6.

    mr. whipple

    “Locally called “everything but the oink” or made with “everything but the squeal”,[3] scrapple is typically made of hog offal, such as the head, heart, liver, and other scraps, which are boiled with any bones attached (often the entire head), to make a broth.”

    Yuk. No thanks!

  8. 8.

    Betsy

    @mr. whipple:
    I figure if you’re going to kill an animal for food, it’s wasteful not to use the whole thing.

    That’s an easy position for me to take, though, being a vegetarian.

    Edit: p.s. Upon re-reading, I see that came out sounding way more humorless than I intended. Sorry!! I’m not actually that smug. (About that, anyway.)

  10. 10.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @Betsy: I don’t know, those lower stalks of the broccoli can be tough to the point of nearly inedible, I think one gets points for eating those too.

  11. 11.

    That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal

    Bleh. I shelled out the other $5,000 for plumbing repairs today. I got two more notices from companies that don’t want to hire me. I’ve pretty much given up on ever hearing from the IRS.

    I’m feeling old, lonely and unwanted, so you guys get to hear me complain about it. Assuming this awesome blog ever lets me post without.

    FYWP. And the rest of the world, too.

  12. 12.

    mr. whipple

    @Betsy: You have a point, but do you eat corn husks and peach pits?

    Just kidding. I don’t know why stuff like this grosses me out.

  13. 13.

    DFS

    Down south here we have similar wonders like souse, C-loaf, and Pender’s Pudding.

    The ingredients make interesting reading.

  14. 14.

    Ross Hershberger

    I’m a vegetarian with Amish ancestry. I only eat meat at my grandmother’s house because a 93 year old woman doesn’t need that conversation from her first grandson.
    OTOH, I don’t really care what other people eat. Pretty much everyone who eats non-kosher hot dogs is eating what’s in scrapple and head cheese anyway. Is it more palatable when it’s ground into a paste and dyed pink? By all means use all the pig. Starving children and all that…

  15. 15.

    Anne Laurie

    I go with the theory that dogs were invented (well, invited themselves into our human lives) so that you could virtuously use up those nasty leftovers without having to eat them yourself.

  17. 17.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    The first time I ordered an andouillette for dinner I thought something had died on my plate. Well, something had of course, but I mean usually dinner doesn’t smell like they left it out for a month or two before cooking it.

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/destinations/france/article3171090.ece

    Did you know that there’s a Web site called “Things That Stink”? I had no idea. I just sniffed it out Googling andouillette.

    http://unclestinky.wordpress.com/category/stinky-animals/

  18. 18.

    Betsy

    @mr. whipple:
    I understand why – it seems gross! I joke with my fiance that being a vegetarian is just a way for me not to look like a wimp about eating insects, amphibians, or offal.

  21. 21.

    slag

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    Why, because there are more than 7 letters in “rumspringa”?

    No problem. Start out with the word spring. And on the next round add the r-u-m-a. You’d get points up the ruma for that one.

    /scrabble nerd

  22. 22.

    Betsy

    Question for the hive mind: Is there anything Facebook can/should do about chronic, deranged, sexually threatening harassment? I block the user every time he messages me, but he just creates a new account.

  23. 23.

    Left Coast Tom

    If there’s an economy-based revival for ‘scrapple’, or other…such…culinary…items related to finding presentable ways of feeding people offal, I’m pretty sure we’ll get to hear how this is just wonderful, and only a DFH could complain, as we did in the case of communities deciding to convert paved roads to gravel because they couldn’t afford the paved road anymore.

    My response to one such paeon to gravel: I recently drove over 30 miles of gravel road in Wyoming, each way, with cows in the middle of the road greatly outnumbering cars, to reach a trailhead. I have other expectations in semi-urban areas.

  25. 25.

    eemom

    Oh, you said SCRapple. I was trying to figure out what flavored ice tea beverages have to do with the Amish……

  29. 29.

    WereBear

    I didn’t know the Amish were that fond of scrapple. Down South, it’s in the deli case, and you’ll pry it from their cold dead hands…

    Now haggis, I understand, is completely inexplicable.

  30. 30.

    Betsy

    @eemom:
    Oh, I use it every time. But I think he can just create a new account using a different email address…so I assume that if he does that there’s nothing that FB can really do.

    @slag:
    True, but easier said than done, my friend. At least for me. I use it to keep in casual touch with a lot of people, which I actually genuinely enjoy doing and which I couldn’t really do via email.

  31. 31.

    Svensker

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    The first time I ordered an andouillette for dinner I thought something had died on my plate. Well, something had of course, but I mean usually dinner doesn’t smell like they left it out for a month or two before cooking it.

    Heh. Ditto. For me it was a case of hubris, too, since I was expecting something that was similar to Louisiana cajun sausage, so I had ordered it quite confidently. My god, the smell. Cooked pig shit with texture. The proprietess, who was also the waitress, stood over me while I ate it, every bite, with a grim smile on her face. She KNEW it wasn’t what I was expecting.

  32. 32.

    TuiMel

    Jo, would you love to scrapple? She’ll never say no…

    That’s my “experience” with scrapple.

  33. 33.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @Svensker: Yes I thought it was like a boudin blanc or boudin noir, which are only slightly more aromatic than your basic hot dog, though much better. Imagine my surprise. I was actually on a date and she had recommended it, so I felt sort of obligated to pretend to like it to, or at least not seem nauseated. Turning “Ewwww” into “Oooh” was quite a trick.

    Changing the subject: Looking at some of the descriptions here, it occurs to me that the current Republicans are the scrapple of political parties.

  36. 36.

    Svensker

    @Betsy:

    No idea but my sympathies and grrrrrr at the asshole.

    @WereBear:

    I didn’t know the Amish were that fond of scrapple. Down South, it’s in the deli case, and you’ll pry it from their cold dead hands…

    We go to Amish country every year and there’s always tons of scrapple. My Kansas grandmother used to make it, too, with hog scraps and corn meal — just a good way to stretch the budget and the taste of meat.

  38. 38.

    Linda Featheringill

    @Betsy:

    Stalking via Facebook:

    I would contact the police.

    If you are uncomfortable enough to ask for help from the “hive mind” then you are uneasy enough to talk to the police.

    Home addresses are ridiculously easy to get from various internet sources. And if the creep knows where you live, things could escalate.

    Somewhere within your local police department there is probably someone who has some experience with stalking.

    Good luck. And keep us posted as to how things are going.

  40. 40.

    Anne Laurie

    @WereBear:

    Now haggis, I understand, is completely inexplicable.

    That’s what the whiskey is for. Haggis was the prototype for Slim Jims — ‘food’ products only drunks can consume.

  41. 41.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Svensker: Wiki says:

    As with all tripe sausages, andouillettes are an acquired taste. Their strong smell can be reminiscent of feces and may offend people unaccustomed to the dish.

  42. 42.

    The Dangerman

    I’m sorry, but I’ll see your Scrapple and Haggis…

    …and raise you some scrumptious Turkey Nuts.

    And, no, these are not almonds from Istanbul.

  45. 45.

    Betsy

    @Svensker:
    @Linda Featheringill:
    Thank you. I’m a little surprised at how unsettling it’s been. Which is probably why I posted here, actually – I really just want to complain. It sucks, and it stresses me out. I think I will take Linda up on her suggestion to contact the authorities.

  47. 47.

    Yutsano

    I think scrapple is of Germanic origin, which of course would put it square in Pennsylvania Dutch cookery just fine. I only say this because my grandmother made it for us every summer, and one of the plusses besides using up scraps of the pig is that it freezes very well. Maybe my grandma had a different recipe, because I LOVED hers.

    Eggplant parmigana casserole in the oven. Should be done soon.

    Oh and I’m sorry Quebec, but poutine is inedible.

  49. 49.

    Honus

    @beltane: you think head cheese is bad, check out the souse meat some day. But basically, if you eer eaten a hot dog or a bratwurst, you’ve effectively eaten head cheese.

  50. 50.

    JWL

    Were your hypothesis troow, me wee laddie, hagis would have long ago doooomed the Scottish race to oblivion.

  51. 51.

    Betsy

    @Cols714:
    It refers to upper-middle-class liberal do-gooders. They give money to NPR; they are sent a tote bag as a thank-you. Then they carry them around to the farmers’ markets and arts-and-crafts shops.

  52. 52.

    Anne Laurie

    @Betsy: Talk to your local police department. Documentation is your friend — and even if FB isn’t helpful, sometimes knowing that the cops have been alerted will deter the semi-sane stalkers. If there’s a “women’s council” or “community outreach” branch (person) in your city/town, they might be able to help, too.

  54. 54.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Honus:

    But basically, if you eer eaten a hot dog or a bratwurst, you’ve effectively eaten head cheese.

    Maybe so for the meaty bits, but a key part is the aspic that binds the head cheese.

  57. 57.

    The Main Gauche of Mild Reason

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    The first time I ordered an andouillette for dinner I thought something had died on my plate. Well, something had of course, but I mean usually dinner doesn’t smell like they left it out for a month or two before cooking it.

    Wow. That settles it, I guess. I’ve always assumed that my sense of smell is less acute than other people, but I have independent verification now. The first time I tried andouille I thought it was delicious, and I’ve never really noticed the smell. Interesting.

  59. 59.

    Lunarmovements

    @Betsy:

    If he has done this repeatedly, then it is most definitely stalking and is a criminal matter. I don’t know what feedback you have gotten from FB, or even what they can do about it. But I would strongly urge you to speak to someone at your local police department. This guy may just be enjoying terrorizing you. Or he could be a really dangerous nutjob that needs to be stopped. I would act on this as soon as possible.

    And, secondly, if these people really do enjoy interacting with you as much as you do with them, then they would be happy to do so if you switched to a new FB account. Pick a pseudonym, establish an account. Using your old account, privately message those friends you want to keep and explain the situation. Ask them to keep in touch with you via your new ‘identity’. I know it sounds a little byzantine, but it would enable you to stay in touch with those folks whose company you enjoy so much. And it is an alternative to quitting FB altogether.

  61. 61.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @JWL:

    Haggis is used in a sport called haggis hurling, which involves throwing a haggis as far as possible.

    Note that “hurling” doesn’t mean what you might think it might in this case.

    This WIKI entry doesn’t include it, but I read in a guidebook once that this stems from when they actually used to use boiling hot haggis as a weapon, throwing them at the enemy hoping to burst them on their spear tips, drenching them in juices hot enough to burn.

    I’m not sure if simply inviting them to dinner would have been more threatening, but any time you menace combatants by threatening to throw your dinner at them I figure you might want to reconsider your cuisine.

  62. 62.

    Honus

    @Yutsano: you live in a country where they sell deep fried twinkies and milky way bars, and you think french fries with gravy and cheese is inedible?

  70. 70.

    Alwhite

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Put me down in the love head cheese column too – because of the variety of ethnic groups in my neighborhood growing up I was introduced to 5 or 6 variations & they all are very good!

  73. 73.

    Craig

    My family is from Philly and my grandfather was a butcher so we used to eat scrapple all time. It is delicious, the perfect breakfast meat. You suck, Cole.

  76. 76.

    Mnemosyne

    @Betsy:

    I, like, fourth or fifth the advice to contact the police. Cyberstalking is still stalking, and most police departments will take it very seriously. If you’ve never read The Gift of Fear, now is probably a good time, because it has some of the best advice about dealing with stalkers you can find. Basically, you should have absolutely no contact with the stalker at all. Zero. None. Because any contact is encouragement as far as he’s concerned.

  77. 77.

    El Cid

    Stephen Hawking is just so rude and insensitive and shouldn’t say such things.

    LONDON (Reuters) – God did not create the universe and the “Big Bang” was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics, the eminent British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking argues in a new book.
    __
    In “The Grand Design,” co-authored with U.S. physicist Leonard Mlodinow, Hawking says a new series of theories made a creator of the universe redundant, according to the Times newspaper which published extracts on Thursday.
    __
    “Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist,” Hawking writes.
    __
    “It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.”

    Clearly Glenn Beck needs to lead a caravan of pirate ships to Britain filled with aggrieved repressed US religious folk who aren’t even allowed to pray at the Lincoln Memorial.

  79. 79.

    Yutsano

    @Bill E Pilgrim: Oui, mon familie est Québécois. But my great grandfather got some crazy scheme to open a bar in the middle of nowhere Idaho and the rest is history. I’m not totally clear if his having a Jewish wife influenced the decision or not. And poutine is still inedible dammit.

  80. 80.

    Gretchen D

    @beltane: Scrapple is good – a vehicle for syrup. Haven’t had any since I left Illinois many years ago. Where would you get it? Head cheese, though, that’s awful. You’re right.

  81. 81.

    beltane

    @El Cid: This will sound very insensitive of me, but since a RealAmerican must be of largely British origins, wouldn’t a caravan such as the one you described be a way to restore to teabaggers to their rightful place? If they want to return to 1850, we should do one better and return them to 1650. Let David Cameron deal with them.

  82. 82.

    slag

    @Betsy: I hear you. What a drag! And if Facebook serves an important function for you, then you certainly shouldn’t be intimidated away from it. And you should ignore me because I’ve had anti-Facebook bias ever since they hired Alberto Gonzles’ henchman as their lawyer. As kay would say, I have trust issues with conservatives. Do what’s right for you.

  84. 84.

    beltane

    @Gretchen D: The last time I saw it was in a supermarket near Hanover, PA. It is not available in New England. Our supermarkets do, however, carry a brand of fuchsia colored hot dogs that do not look even remotely edible.

  85. 85.

    merrinc

    @Betsy:

    My sympathies. I left Usenet a decade ago over that kind of harassment from a deranged lunatic.

    Does your state have a cyber stalking law with teeth and LE who know how to use it?

  86. 86.

    Yutsano

    @Bill E Pilgrim: I’m not a baker, so I thank the FSM every day for the Emerald Isle and Irish soda bread. No kneading, no yeast, very forgiving if your measurements are a bit off, easy to tell when it’s done, perfect for my pinch of this dash of that cooking style.

    I have no Italian or Greek in me but I love both cuisines. Had German food in Germany and French food and they’re all right, but I’ll go for a good trattoria over a bistro any day.

  87. 87.

    Mnemosyne

    I’m in for a miserable night. Something I ate this afternoon gave me food poisoning and I can feel it slowly coming on. I’m trying a little ginger ale, but I don’t have a lot of hope that I’m going to be able to fend it off.

    Usually I get food poisoning from my dinner and wake up in the middle of the night with it full-blown, so it’s a very weird feeling to have the symptoms creep in one by one.

  89. 89.

    MikeJ

    @Mnemosyne:

    Usually I get food poisoning from my dinner

    ?

    Usually? I’ve never had it. The other day somebody claimed that people like me who prefer steaks cooked blue and eggs over easy and sushi get sick more often, but I never have.

    How often are your suppliers poisoning you?

  92. 92.

    Mnemosyne

    Thanks, fellas. I’m somewhat prone to non-bug-related digestive upsets anyway, so it took me a bit to figure out it wasn’t just that I had undigestible dairy at lunch. I don’t think I’ve had true food poisoning (as in salmonella or e coli) in quite a while, so I’m having one of those, “Oh, yeah, that’s what it feels like” nights.

  95. 95.

    Don K

    @beltane:

    Ok, I’ll take the bait. As a native Philadelphian, I can say that scrapple is the food the gods would eat for breakfast. With a couple of over-easy eggs on top (or a couple of scrambled eggs on top), there’s nothing better. Oh, and I also like lebanon bologna (another acquired taste from Lancaster and Lebanon counties).

    When my Mom was still living and I would visit at year-end, I would ask her to have a pound of scrapple waiting for me in the fridge for my breakfasts.

    As luck would have it, I now can get both scrapple and lebanon bologna in the Detroit area now, so I’m a happy man.

  96. 96.

    Mike in NC

    Now haggis, I understand, is completely inexplicable.

    Yes, it is. Had haggis on my first visit to Scotland 20 years ago and can still taste it, no matter how much Scotch I try to wash it down with.

  97. 97.

    jwb

    Students abandoning Dems for Goopers:

    Philip Stricker, 21, a biology major who voted for Mr. Obama but says he has not been paying much attention to politics lately, uses a nontechnical term to describe the phenomenon.
    __
    “There’s a vibe,” he said on a recent afternoon, while pumping weights at the gym. “Right now it seems like Republicans just care a lot more than Democrats.”
    __
    A spokeswoman for the university’s chapter of College Democrats, Mandi Asay, 22, said her group battled apathy on one hand and anger on the other.
    __
    “People are angry — about the budget deficit, health care plan, angry about this and that,” she said. “I feel like Republicans definitely, definitely have a chance of getting back on their feet.”

    If this article is even close to being accurate about representing young people’s feelings, we’re in for a world of hurt come November.

  98. 98.

    Yutsano

    @Bill E Pilgrim: Did I equate the two? I didn’t mean to, they’re about as different as you can get culinary wise. Between French and German cuisine I’d go with French. Except for wienerschnitzel.

    @jwb: Link no work. You fix.

  100. 100.

    jwb

    @General Stuck: Yes, but note that the quote was attributed to the spokeswoman for the college Democrats.

    ETA: on the other hand, I’m suspicious because the whole article has the typical concern-troll feel of so much NY Times political writing.

  101. 101.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @jwb: Gosh I can’t imagine why! Saying “f___ you” to some of your staunchest supporters, and saying that a huge part of those who got you elected are “on drugs” or “retarded” has always been such a good strategy before.

    And now, since this will attract flames here like er, flames to a moth, I’ll be off for another month or two and see if it gets any better then.

  105. 105.

    Yutsano

    @jwb: Nope. Got it. And got my answer as well. I would hardly call Colorado State University the pulse of university students across the country. The writer falls for the trap of small sample size. I’m going with Stuck on this one, it’s more like the reporter lookig for validation of their pet theory than any actual reporting.

  106. 106.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @Yutsano: Only kidding. And there is actually cross-over, for example Alsatian food which I love in the winter, bought from outside stands that spring up all over the city, choucroute and sausages and YuuUm. I do prefer French though, and Italian is fantastic in an entirely different way. The “to each ones own” was the real point.

  108. 108.

    jwb

    @Yutsano: I agree. See my ETA comment, above. And, though I’ve seen a definite lack of enthusiasm among the students on my campus, I haven’t seen any signs of drifting toward the goopers.

  109. 109.

    Yutsano

    @Bill E Pilgrim: One of the thing I absolutely LOVE about Mario Batali (besides the clogs) was his emphasis on the regional differences in Italian cuisine. Thanks to him I know why butter is much more common to cook with in the Piedmont region rather than Calabria and why the Sicilians are so fond of their agrodolce sauces. But I think he has a real soft spot for the northeast regions bordering Trieste and Austria, where the food gets really rich and different. And speck. Mmm…speck.

  110. 110.

    Martin

    Haven’t had scrapple in ages. Went to college in southern PA and spent quite a bit of time with the Amish. Delightful people. Mixed reviews on the food. I particularly miss fasnachts, however.

  111. 111.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @General Stuck: The unions will still vote Democratic. So will any students who are politically aware enough to even know of those comments by the White House.

    Staunch supporters actually have a fairly thick skin, far more than the Obama defenders here, IMO.

    It’s the general population of Democrats who are less enthused and may not show up, and that’s from a general perception that the economy hasn’t picked up, like it could have with larger stimulus for instance, and from a general lack of fire on the Democratic side, which isn’t helped by the administration becoming Blue Dogs and barking at its left instead of the right.

    This creates the general mood of “bleah”, which I’ve seen in all of my relatives and friends on my recent trip stateside.

    And none of them have the slightest idea who Jane Hamsher is, not a one. I checked.

    So no, it’s not caused entirely by the administration running to the right and abandoning its base, but it sure hasn’t helped.

    As far as I can tell, the Democrats are going to get stomped mostly by the economy, unemployment at 10% and so on. Which of course could only have possibly been averted with a larger stimulus– which Krugman and Robert Riech and Galbraith and many others were pushing for all along, and called unrealistic hippies for doing so.

    And now the unrealistic ones were right, and those who have been joining the Administration in calling them unrealistic are calling anyone who points this out “unrealistic” and bad sports and whiners…. while meanwhile the results of ignoring them are looming in November.

    Sigh.

    It never ends.

  112. 112.

    General Stuck

    @Bill E Pilgrim: I think you hit every single prog talking point. It is all bunk of course, and laughable about Obots having thinner skin than what ever side you are on, oh, I remember, “The Base” you are. lol, . Take a month off, take two for good measure. Your whining will not be missed.

  113. 113.

    Suffern ACE

    @jwb: Yeah, my sense from the young folk around me is that the GOP’s Faux Scandals referencing all the culture war battles of the past 40 years is really not of interest to them.

    But that doesn’t mean they aren’t in the “what’s really changed here anyway?” low enthusiasm camp. Anger I think is a turn off for them, but that doesn’t mean they’re happy.

  117. 117.

    Yutsano

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    It’s the general population of Democrats who are less enthused and may not show up, and that’s from a general perception that the economy hasn’t picked up, like it could have with larger stimulus for instance, and from a general lack of fire on the Democratic side, which isn’t helped by the administration becoming Blue Dogs and barking at its left instead of the right.

    This is what baffles me. If you stay home on election day and the Republicans win the House, what do you gain by this? I know there are a lot of folks who feel that their vote needs to be “won” but I for the life of me cannot fathom this psychology. This is how our system works, we have to strike balances constantly or else we’ll have a very difficult time making ANY progress period, since the opposition is only interested in stopping the meager gains and regression to a fantasy world that never existed. We never get everything we want out of life. Sometimes we don’t even get half. But giving up guarantees you will get zero.

  121. 121.

    slag

    @Bill E Pilgrim: Don’t take any months off! Stay right where you are. Seriously, we don’t need to keep having these idiotic standoffs. Say what you want, and let the chips fall where they may. We don’t need any Sideshow Sarahs or Dr. Lauras on the progressive side. No more quitting.

  124. 124.

    Violet

    @jwb:
    That’s weird. He wrote the “I Am Not A Conservative” post here. Why would he respond to it there? Or did he x-post?

  125. 125.

    hamletta

    Ugh, scrapple.

    My mom’s from Philly, and she used to try it on us every so often, but I always thought it was gross. Even with really good maple syrup.

    I don’t know where in the South WereBear is, but nobody in Nashville knows from scrapple.

    A few years ago at my church’s Shrove Tuesday pancake supper, one of the older ladies was saying she’d prefer scrapple to the link/patty sausage on offer.

    A sweet young thing, native to Nashville, said, “What’s scrapple?” and before Miss Marian could open her mouth, I chimed in, “Pig lips and cornmeal.”

    Miss Marian, a retired school teacher who wears her steely gray hair in braids looped over her head, gave me the kind of look you get from a retired school teacher who wears her steely gray hair in braids looped over her head.

    She explained that she grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania, and her father made his own scrapple, and it was awesome. (Of course she didn’t use the word “awesome,” because retired school teachers who wear their steely gray hair in braids looped over their heads don’t use words like “awesome.”)

    Took her a while to forgive me for that.

  126. 126.

    Yutsano

    @Violet: I’m hoping against hope it’s because he’s re-wording the thing, because his counterargument is a bit on the rambling side. He’s also defensive when he doesn’t need to be. Of course my answer to all the criticism would be SUCK. ON. DEEZ. NUTZ. But I’m a bit more confrontational than ED.

  127. 127.

    jwb

    @Violet: I don’t think he x-posted it here—though someone may have brought it up in the comments. I haven’t read through most of the comments here today. If I had to guess, I would say he wanted to have a conversation with Larison, and he thought the commentariat here would get in the way. But I did find it curious that he didn’t put up a post here that he had done it and why.

    ETA: and Larison linked here.

  128. 128.

    Violet

    @Yutsano:
    Haven’t read his post responding to Larison, or Larison’s, but will try to read them tomorrow.

    @jwb:
    I think I was unclear when I said x-post. I meant, did he x-post his original “I’m not a conservative” post here and there. Because if he did, then it made sense to respond there (although a mention here would be good). But as Larison linked to his post here, as you pointed out, then it’s doubly weird he responded over at the other blog.

    It sounds like yet another round of Sully-ish “What is a conservative?” Should we be looking for an Oakeshott tag?

  131. 131.

    Mark S.

    @El Cid:

    I’m waiting for Megan McArdle to weigh in on this. I’m confident she will provide the same level of analysis to theoretical physics that she brought to anthropology (We aren’t bosons).

  132. 132.

    jwb

    @Violet: I don’t think so. His response to Larison links back here, and looking quickly on his site, I don’t see that the original x-posted there.

  133. 133.

    jwb

    @auntieeminaz: Hey, you gave me an opportunity to call them “gutless morons.” How great is that!

    ETA: One of these days I should learn how to do multiple replies in a single comment.

  134. 134.

    Emma

    @hamletta: This is when it is useful to say that you just don’t eat meat. It started out as a cop out of offal and such, and become more and more true.

  135. 135.

    roshan

    I just love Digby. This is what she writes about Iraq revisionist history.

    We’ll be litigating this one for the rest of our lives, I’m afraid. And a hundred years from now, If Iraq is a stable modern country there will be wingnuts of the day crediting the neocon crazies with “giving birth” to the country by invading it for no good reason.
    __
    That’s what Junior comforts himself with late at night. Cheney doesn’t give a damn.

    I burst out laughing at that last line up there. Why can’t we just get her cloned and let the clones breed? Man, I would definitely marry one in a heartbeat.

  136. 136.

    Yutsano

    @roshan: That might take some explaining with your wife. Outside of royalty I don’t recall Korea having a tradition of polygamy.

  137. 137.

    roshan

    Ha. Yutsy, I’ve got nothing against Koreans but I am not one. So, I guess it’s polygamy for me.

  138. 138.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Betsy:

    On occasion our daughter has problems with internet stalkers. I gave her a few tips on what the creeps are looking for (a reaction, usually repulsed or scared, gives them their jollies) and a few tips on how to respond. One guy sent her a pic of his schlong and she responded “Want to see mine?”. That’s all it took to get rid of that creep.

    One guy in a gaming community knows approximately where she lives and he tried to scare her into thinking he was stalking her here in our town, talking about the sunny weather we had been having and saying she looked like she was enjoying it when he saw her. This puzzled her because at the time it had been foggy and cool for a few days. I checked the weather service and they had our weather listed as hot and sunny (as usual, they were wrong). She tricked him into posting on a forum she mods at and was able to capture his IP address, ran a WHOIS on him, publicly confronted him, pointed out his lame stalking story was just that, told him that she had captured and traced his IP address and asked him if would like to publicly discuss his issues with stalking her.

    He left her alone after that. She has had numerous other incidents and she slaps them down in a heartbeat now. She has written some pretty rude and crude stuff (just plain gross, some of which I was glad to donate) but it was crap that was guaranteed to turn them off real fast. I would drop a few suggestions here but I think it would cause WP to stroke out (again).

    FYWP!

    The key thing is not to respond in a way that they are hoping you will. Each situation is unique but they all are looking for the same thing, to scare you or get some kind of rise out of you. Don’t let them do it! Fire back with the exact opposite of what they are expecting and you will find that they quickly lose interest when they realize that you know they are full of shit and are only having fun at their expense. Whatever you do, DO NOT show fear or shock! You only feed them exactly what they want if you respond in this manner. Don’t duck and run from them, face them head on and smack them down flat. They don’t like attention outside of yours so make waves, big waves. Get them the attention they are trying to avoid. Our daughter set up a blog where she posts their crap and one of them even went there, trying to further harass her. It was epic fail on his part and he ended up leaving her alone because all she did was rewrite his posts in rather creative ways and other people started dropping her blog by to join in on picking on the idiot. She started that by inviting friends (offline & online) to drop in and beat up on him and that finally drove the creep off.

    They lose their stiffie real fast when they get pushback that they are not expecting. Kick’em in the virtual junk!

  139. 139.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @jwb:

    I am convinced that we need the Republicans to regain power because we need to let them finish driving the car off of the cliff. I really think that we need a full blown catastrophe, bigger than the Depression, before people will give a shit about reality and what has been going on. This country is really fucked up and I don’t see us doing anything but delaying the inevitable disaster that will come when we crash and burn. I wish this was otherwise, I really do, but we are living in such a clusterfuck of messes that I see no other way out. I hoped that Obama winning would empower the Democrats to get behind him and start that “change” but it is clear that our pols are in it for themselves and their sponsors. Republicans are fucking insane, the press is less than worthless and the Democrats are busy snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Shit actually gets done and the manic progressives and professional left are doing everything they can to kneecap the party and discourage other voters from voting, all in the name of idealogical purity and the perfection of the utopia that exists in their ideas. They act all butthurt and refuse to continue to push for change using positive messaging, nope, negative messaging is the mode they are in and that is it. They want a disaster this fall, they want to be proven right, to be able to say “I told you so!”, all to prove their point.

    I am voting, my wife is voting, our daughter is voting and everyone in our immediate families are doing the same thing. We are voting for the closest thing to sanity that we have, Democrats. If you pansies want to stick your voting hand up your ass and sit on it then just STFU and do it! My family and I don’t give a shit about your incessant whining about this issue or that issue. We have bigger problems that we are facing and life is not a one, two or three issue deal, it comes at you full force and it never stops until you eat dirt. You deal with it or you hide. I rarely come in and say that I intend to vote but these selfish, whining fuckwits think the world revolves around them and their issues and they have to trumpet their bullshit 24/7.

    For all I care, they can FOAD & DIAF. If we are going to crash as a nation, then as Bush said, “Bring it on” because that is exactly what they want. If the Repubs win then we deserve the resulting epic disasters and endless sideshows that will follow.

    The crazy fuckers are revved up to vote and the so-called sane are giving up. The crazy have their excuses to do stupid shit and vote while the sane seem to think that they get to do stupid shit and not vote. Stupid gits.

  140. 140.

    Xenos

    @Bill E Pilgrim: Since I arrived a couple hundred km to the East of you I have been able to get some much needed psychological distance from American politics. I still have wingnut friends emailing me and pre-gloating about the elections. At this point it feels like disaster tourism to come on these sites and read up on things.

    Not there are not serious problems here, too, with a similar inability of the political process to address them. I just can’t follow the news reports well enough to catch the details. It gives me a chance to be a low-information person, which is a form of blissful ignorance.

  142. 142.

    TheStone333

    Having grown up in Lancaster County, PA, I feel compelled to point out that I have yet in my 32 years to see a fat Amishman. I’m sure the scrapple and the shoofly pie and the whoopie pies aren’t great for the ol’ ticker, but it is amazing what manual labor at 4:30am can do for the waistline.

  143. 143.

    Xenos

    @Yutsano: Luxembourg. But I was born in Lancaster county, PA – but my parents moved before I was old enough to get Scrapple on the school lunch menu. My brother is still a bit traumatized.

  144. 144.

    Svensker

    @Yutsano:

    This is what baffles me. If you stay home on election day and the Republicans win the House, what do you gain by this? I know there are a lot of folks who feel that their vote needs to be “won” but I for the life of me cannot fathom this psychology.

    It’s just human nature. I can feel it myself — I’m quite disheartened by the lackluster nature of pretty much everything Team O has done. I would still go out and vote for any Dem over any Rep in November, but I know lots of people who plan on staying home. Even tho they talk about how CRAZY the Repubs are and how disgusting. But partly they just feel incredibly discouraged and partly they’re feeling like “screw you, you get what you deserve American public” (I know, cut off nose/spite face); and partly they’re thinking wishfully that if things get really really bad (which consequences somehow they’ll escape), perhaps people will wake up and all do the right thing. It may not be logical but that’s what I’m getting from folks around me. Of course, if the Repubs win big, these people will also be the ones complaining the most.

  145. 145.

    Cat Lady

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:

    Um, you just took every word that I woke up with in my head this morning and put them right here where I could see them ordered in a nice coherent rant – well said. This is why I love BJ so much. Honestly, I agree with the need for this country to suffer. We’re addicted to our delusions – our dreams of never ending war not paid for, empire, services with no taxes, consumerism, excess, comfort, mindless thoughtless disregard for our environment and other cultures, and on and on. We need to all grow the fuck up, especially the firebaggers since they’re not crazy and should know better.

  146. 146.

    El Cid

    If there is a lack of enthusiasm and turnout by Democrats, it is not the fault of small numbers of commentators and bloggers who are complaining about this or that.

  147. 147.

    Alwhite

    I’m old and tired – I have worked for liberal candidates for 50 years – puting up yard signs, stuffing envelopes, attending caucus & convention, knocking on doors, donating money, making phone calls the whole nine yards.

    The only thing that has kept me going over the last 18 years is ths thought that once the conservative’s had fucked up the country people would return to the liberal way of running things. But instead we got Casper Milqutoast and his foul-mouthed CoS to do not quite enough to make thing better with no push-back against the wingnut insanity plus the pleasure of being called “retarded” “on drugs” and told to get fucked.

    Gee, I can’t imagine why I might lack enthusiasm.

  148. 148.

    Mnemosyne

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:

    I am convinced that we need the Republicans to regain power because we need to let them finish driving the car off of the cliff. I really think that we need a full blown catastrophe, bigger than the Depression, before people will give a shit about reality and what has been going on.

    Here’s the thing: people have been assuring me since at least Reagan that all we have to do is make sure things get really, really bad and the American people will wake up and change.

    Nah. Gah. Happen. And yet this myth persists on the left that all we have to do is let the Republicans run rampant and people will totally turn to the left to fix things. I understand why it’s a comforting myth — people on the left just want to be able to sit back and rest for a few years — but sitting on your hands while the right wing becomes more and more powerful is a recipe for fascism.

  150. 150.

    Betsy

    @Mnemosyne:
    @merrinc:
    @kdaug:
    @Odie Hugh Manatee:

    Thanks, all. I really really do appreciate it. Mnem, you’re absolutely right, and I’ve never responded at all – no engagement whatsoever. I just hit the report/block button.

    Odie Hugh – I know what you mean, but this guy goes beyond your standard-issue harasser – he seems to be actually psychotic, in the clinical sense, based on what he’s written. I’m not going to take any chances by engaging with him at all. If he were just a douchebag out for kicks it might be different, but this is a whole nother level.

    The good news is that in one of the messages he provided some information that would let me verify some claims about him, including that he is barred from entering the country. Assuming that’s true (which I’ll be checking with the relevant authorities) that would give me a little peace of mind.

  151. 151.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Cat Lady:

    I think I am speaking for more than a few people who are tired of the shit but refuse to give up. It seems we are fighting against a tide of rage on one side and hopelessness on the other, both intent on wreaking havoc for their own selfish reasons.

    @Mnemosyne: “Here’s the thing: people have been assuring me since at least Reagan that all we have to do is make sure things get really, really bad and the American people will wake up and change.”

    While I think we need to finish the drive off the cliff to get people to notice what a fucked up mess things are, I do not think that the drive off the cliff would result in things getting better. They won’t, in fact I am sure that it would continue to get worse before it would get better. We are up shit creek without a boat or paddle long as right wing insanity, Koch suckers, voter apathy, Democratic infighting and manic progressive sobbing rule the day. Since that is all I hear now I believe that this fall may be a disaster for both the Democrats and our nation.

    But the MSM will love televising the disaster and dissect how it’s all the fault of Democratic politicians. Imagine the ratings!

    /gag

  152. 152.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Betsy:

    Good luck with dealing with the creep. If he isn’t in the same country and barred from entering then that’s even better. Regardless, do not show him any fear. Fight back however you can and let him know that you are not going to take his crap.

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