Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

They don’t have outfits that big. nor codpieces that small.

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

He really is that stupid.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

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

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

This is dead girl, live boy, a goat, two wetsuits and a dildo territory.  oh, and pink furry handcuffs.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Find someone who loves you the way trump and maga love traitors.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

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

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

So many bastards, so little time.

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

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Made It a Full Week

Made It a Full Week

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In what I thought would have been impossible just a few years ago, I have now made it an entire week without a phone thanks to AT&T’s “overnight delivery” promise for replacement phones. I’ve only talked on a phone once, and that was at my parent’s house.

I may honestly never go back. I still haven’t dealt with the Experian/Paypal stuff, but other than that, I am not missing a phone at all. I think my blood pressure might be lower. Now that I can stream videos via netflix and my Windows Media Center, I think the next step might be getting rid of cable. And then, inevitably, buying a goat, a generator, and moving to Montana.

Also, completely unrelated, but because of our commie socialist fascist Kenyan Muslim Preznit, I have had Stone Free going through my head for several days.

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80Comments

  2. 2.

    General Stuck

    I have had no land line for three years now, but only a prepaid cell to call out of. It is almost always off, unless I am expecting a specific important call. Everyone else that calls, has to put in a request via email and I might call them back, when I get around to it.

    I hate land lines and phones being on, and getting crank calls and wrong numbers and people I don’t want to talk to entering my home with a goddam ring.

    My big problem is now, the teevee I thought died, has mysterious come back to life. Zombie toob.

  4. 4.

    martha

    What, your visit to Wisconsin didn’t make you want to move here? We’ve got a lot of places–esp. north of hwy 8– where you can raise goats, llamas, emus, etc and go off grid and shoot guns and kill stuff and catch fish and act like a real ‘merican. But, the side benefit is that you’ll be, max, 5 hours from sin city–Madison–and all the goodness you can find here… just sayin’

  7. 7.

    BenA

    If it wasn’t for televised sporting events I would ditch the dish and pay TV… if it weren’t for my wife’s addiction to network television I might have already…. hmmm… I wonder how my HD reception using an antenna is.

    Mainly I pay a crapload a month for MLB and college football…. but there are online resources for both of those… that would be substantially less per month…

    There is the convience factor…. the media PC just isn’t there yet.

  8. 8.

    Ben Jammin' Cisco (formerly Indie Tarheel)

    OK, anybody see this:
    __

    “We cannot paint all of Islam with that brush. …We have to bring people together. And what offends me the most about all this is that it’s being used as a political football by both parties. And what disturbs me about the president’s remarks is that he is now using it as a political football as well. I think the president of the United States should rise above that.”
    __
    The govenor said he would not take a public stance on the Islamic center because “I don’t believe that it would be responsible of me to get involved and comment on this any further because it just put me in the same political arena as all of them,” he said.

    Buh-whaa?

  9. 9.

    General Stuck

    and moving to Montana.

    I already tried that, and loved it, but froze my ass off, so I moved south to the land of enchantment where Unicorns graze lazily year round, under the dry warm desert sun.

  10. 10.

    JonathanW

    Going from cable to just internet plus Netflix was one of the best lifestyle decisions I’ve made in a while. The biggest loss is live sporting events, but that’s what friends’ houses and sports bars are for.

  17. 17.

    BenA

    Ummm…. just another thought…. John you already live in West Virginia… wouldn’t moving to Montana be redundant?

  19. 19.

    Ross Hershberger

    I’m delighted John discovered the pleasure of no phone. I’m solidly in that camp, for reasons discussed in the earlier thread. We take the phone for granted and never see the damage it does to out psyche.

    I don’t watch TV either, which makes me even more of a weirdo. Never paid a cable bill in my life. I quit in the mid ’70s because I was too busy, stayed away because I was a big obnoxious snob and now I can’t stand to sit in front of the set. Mostly I can’t stand the news shows and commercials. There are and have been many worthwhile shows, and in the last few years with the rise of Netflix and online streaming my wife has talked me into watching a few. If I want to see Burn Notice, True Blood, 30 Rock, BSG, Buffy, Firefly, The Lost Room or Angel I’ll pay for it or wait for the DVD. But I just won’t spend 17 minutes out of every hour looking at commercials.

  20. 20.

    Pasquinade

    Haven’t watched tv since mid-90s. Used Netflix for a while to get Asian films.

    Now I get DVDs through local library/WorldCat for free. Reserve them online, so I only go to the library to pick them up.

    Most tv shows and feature films are simply not worth any price, so no wasted dollars when I turn them off and return to library basically unwatched.

    As for the goats…family member had some pygmy goats that would climb on my car…then defecate on the roof.

  21. 21.

    Michael

    OT, but an important OT.

    “Burn a Koran Day” has been looming large in the minds of our emo conservopundits, as Christian pastor Jones continues to scream “Look at Me” like a coffee and sugar addicted 3 year old.

    This fine bit of work was discovered at some point along the way. It is a highly offensive N-bomb rant directed out of that fine conservative white Christian bastion down in Florida, and consists primarily of white trash pastors and congregants using the N-word and whining about black racism and persecution agin’ white folk.

    youtube.com/watch?v=oOR09X1h_mE&feature=player_embedded

  23. 23.

    Martin

    @Ross Hershberger: My God, you must not realize that if you have an erection that last more than 4 hours, you should consult a physician immediately.

    That’s such an important medical advisory that they repeat it every 7 minutes on TV. Must be some kind of boner virus out there or something.

  26. 26.

    kindness

    OK, so you have it all….except a Mac. Yea, I know, having a PC is ‘normal’ and Windows 7 is much better than it used to be, but it’s still a crappy PC. Unless you are playing games, a big shot blogger such as yourself should go full on commie and buy the Mac. It costs more and is so worth it.

  32. 32.

    Ross Hershberger

    My God, you must not realize that if you have an erection that last more than 4 hours, you should consult a physician immediately.
    That’s such an important medical advisory that they repeat it every 7 minutes on TV. Must be some kind of boner virus out there or something.

    Good point. Further, I’ve never seen the video of the Rodney King beating or the OJ ‘car chase’. And really, what have I lost by missing out on those cultural events?

  33. 33.

    martha

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, but you can claim an honor that sets you apart from lots of southern Wisconsinites–you both know about hwy 8 and you’ve been nort’ of there! In some circles, you are taken very seriously for that. I’m not kidding…but you probably know that.

  35. 35.

    MattF

    I downgraded my cable service a few weeks ago to “limited basic”. Seriously overdue, since TV-watching had fallen off the bottom of my regular to-do list several years ago. I’m still hanging on to the networks and PBS, though; not entirely sure why.

  37. 37.

    elmo

    Never get just one goat. You have to have at least two, or they get very lonely. I have eleven. Next spring I expect to have more.

    And yes, until I started parking my truck where the goats couldn’t get to it, they would routinely sleep on the roof and leave poop all over the hood.

    But they come running to greet me every evening when I come home, and eagerly push their heads into my hands for petting. They’re like puppies. Big puppies, granted. With horns. That can’t be housebroken. But other than that, just like puppies!

  38. 38.

    gelfling545

    @kindness: Through no fault of my own I have been stuck using a windows 7 netbook for a few months. While 7 is less bad than the previous iterations, my kids complain that whenever they drop by I’m muttering “I hate Microsoft.”

  40. 40.

    Martin

    @Ross Hershberger: I’ll never forget the OJ car chase. I live in SoCal, so it was every fucking local station, but my wife and I were out shopping for a present for a friend of ours and we were in a Best Buy kind of store but one dedicated to TVs and stereos, without all of the computers and DVDs and crap. Every giant TV had the chase going showing the jerky helicopter shot zooming in on the car to try and catch a peek of OJ. Everyone in the store was ready to barf from vertigo from having that projected on every surface in the place.

  41. 41.

    Ryan S

    I bought myself a RoKu back when they first came out and I will never pay for cable TV again. Netflix is so much cheaper.

  42. 42.

    Lori

    Hi, John. Have you considered Skype? You can *immediately* (as in, seconds) get an online number, which includes voicemail. Easy to check messages, or to call from the online number, from anywhere you have an internet connection. And it’s super-cheap.
    Although the plan to get a goat and cancel cable sounds good, too.

  46. 46.

    Sentient Puddle

    @Lori: Or hell, there’s phone support in Gmail now too and probably extra features with Google Voice that I’m unaware of. Or the iPod Touch could probably double as an effective phone via Skype and/or Facetime. Or…

    Man, now I’m beginning to wonder why I even have a cell phone.

  48. 48.

    quintillian

    @JonathanW:

    I agree. Ditched the directv and went the way of Roku and have been mighty happy since. Live sports is the only thing I miss, but friends, the sports bar, and online radio have pretty much made it painless, and it made me prioritize the games I *really* want to watch.

  49. 49.

    Culture of Truth

    [ martin sheen voice in apocalypse now ]

    “never get a goat. absolutely goddamm right.
    cole got a goat. he went all the way.”

  51. 51.

    General Stuck

    @Mnemosyne: This is what the pro left doesn’t get about the bully pulpit, that it rarely works all that well with congress when Obama’s own party controls it, and can actually do harm,. see Carter, and especially in a very tough election where Obama is not on the ballot and they greatly fear losing their majorities. They are going to do what have to to survive. If it includes agreeing with Obama, that’s fine, but they will ignore his wants otherwise.

    The bully pulpit can work on the wingnuts by going over their heads directly to the public and voters, especially in an election stretch run.

  55. 55.

    Dork

    By just north of, I mean walk 100 yards south to the RR tracks then another 25 yards and you on Hwy 8.

    /scribbles down directions, makes note to visit this Fall

  56. 56.

    dms

    Stupid question:

    How are you streaming movies from Netflix? To your TV or just to your computer/laptop? I know how to do it to the laptop, at least those that are streamable from the Netflix site, but are you able to view them on your TV? The reason I ask is because my wife bought this “machine” that supposed to allow you to stream from Netflix, but it doesn’t work with wireless.

    As you can see, I’m not a technical genius.

  58. 58.

    slag

    I strongly recommend your proposed course of action. My life has improved ten-fold since getting rid of television. I don’t know what I’m missing and I honestly couldn’t care less. It’s a good thing. Now that TDS and Colbert are available online, that is.

  59. 59.

    tfitz

    so agreed about phones, hate them completely. the converter box is fine for me, since I mostly watch PBS and if there is series I really want to see I can buy it on Amazon. Other than that, DVDs out of the library. Resisting the consistent push on TV to upgrade to the latest greatest smartphone is a mute button candidate. Oh and actually reading a book always delights, no Kindle here.

  61. 61.

    BenA

    @dms:
    I can do it any number of ways since I own a ton of crap. :)

    I can use NetFlix from my PS3, my Wii, my plasma TV, and I have an desktop PC plugged into the plasma TV as well (media PC)… All work to some degree or another… I’ve gone with just using the new plasma TV to watch Netflix… it works very nicely… I think my next toaster will probably come with netflix streaming video built in… it’s crazy how many things have it now.

    I can’t recommend using wireless for streaming video it just doesn’t work as well as running a network cable to wherever you’re TV is. You could probably plug your laptop into whatever TV you want without too much trouble, if you’re happy with your laptop’s netflix quality. What kind of TV do you have?

    What’s the machine? It probably works okay and you’ll get more consistent results if you run a wire to the machine and the TV…

  62. 62.

    BenA

    @tfitz:
    I love the kindle though… other than some sort of oddball Orwellian worries… I’m fine with it.

    Basically for the amount I read it makes sense… I don’t have to figure out what to do with the old books I bought. I don’t have to deal with the crazy at the local library, and I don’t kill any more trees.

  63. 63.

    LT

    admins: Could you ax that last comment of mine and keep this one? Thanks much.

    Fuck, I didn’t make that connection at all! “They talk about me like I’m a dog!” Too fucking much.

    And that song has been wandering in and out of my head for months. That and “Let Me Stand Next to Your Fire,” which has a drum sound that activates every hallucinogenic I ever took.

  64. 64.

    Steeplejack

    @dms:

    The reason I ask is because my wife bought this “machine” that supposed to allow you to stream from Netflix, but it doesn’t work with wireless.

    Well, you need some sort of connection to the TV. Netflix has some links on its front page that give some information on how to do it. The choices are basically to go through (A) a game box (Wii, Xbox, PS3), (B) an Internet-connected Blu-ray player, (C) an Internet-connected TV or (D) a Roku box.

    One of my infrastructure projects this weekend is to implement this very thing (Netflix streaming) on the big-ass TV. The BATV has a network connection on the back, so I am hoping I can just connect it to the router and be in business. If your TV is not Internet-ready like that, you’re going to need one of A, B or D above.

    The BATV (Samsung) also has the ability to connect wirelessly to the Internet, but that requires an add-on gizmo that I don’t want to pay for.

  65. 65.

    James E. Powell

    @General Stuck:

    and they greatly fear losing their majorities.

    I guess that fear of losing their majorities explains why they are going to drop their usual routine business and put the president’s infrastructure/stimulus bill up for a vote right away.

    And this goes much more for the senate than the house. What is with those people? Do they prefer being in the minority? How is that possible?

  67. 67.

    quaint irene

    I hate land lines and phones

    Land lines have one use. During a power failure you’ll be the only one on your block with a working phone.
    *******************************************

    More painful was being without a computer and internet for four days, the last time it had to go into the shop.
    But was amazed how much more work I got done in other areas.

  68. 68.

    kindness

    @gelfling545: Point of honesty required- I do have Windows 7 installed on my Mac in addition to OSX. Some programs just aren’t yet out there in Mac format only so yes, I still give Microsoft money (I bought the Mac Office too). But my machine works every time. Always. Hooked up to a 26″ widescreen Samsung I could watch movies if I wanted. I don’t. I use the TV for that.

    Nice beast though.

  70. 70.

    Violet

    Having access to 911 is about the only thing you really, truly need a phone for. And hopefully you’ll never need that.

    I did run into a car rental place that would not let me rent a car unless I could provide them with two phone numbers. At the time I was unemployed, so didn’t have a work phone, so only had one phone number. We were camping, so didn’t have contact info, like a hotel, so no phone number there. After arguing about it with the rental car employee at the counter, I finally just made one up. Used a local area code and just made up the rest. She dutifully typed it in. Stupid rules.

    I lived without electricity for quite some time. No computer, no phone, no TV, radio ran on batteries. Finally I just quit caring. Very blissful.

  71. 71.

    Shinobi

    You’re probably going to want more than one goat. If you have a few you can use their milk to make butter and cheese. One of my not-yet-in-laws does this and it is quite delightful.

    (They also have two baby cows . The baby cows try to nurse from the goats while they are being milked. I have been informed this is not as completely hilarious as it sounds, but I thing their assessment may be inaccurate.)

  72. 72.

    Scott

    John, don’t you live in West Virginia? So I’m curious what moving to Montana would do for you vis a vis living off the grid.

    I mean, the most populous city in your state has a population that is 10,000 people LESS than the capacity of the football stadium at the University of West Virginia fer fucks sake!

    It seems to me that your present geographic location more than fits the bill for off the grid living should you choose to go that route. And I would imagine that you will not have to drive as far, living where you do now versus Montana, should you need to get to your local militia outpost in order to rearm yourself or to lay in a fresh stock of ramen and beef jerky.

  74. 74.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Culture of Truth: I did not know who she was until about a month ago, and now I hear about her all the time. Yet, I have never seen the damn show.

    @Michael: I read that as ‘Burn a Korean Day”, and I thought I better dust off my, “I’m Taiwanese” button just in case. People are fucking stupid.

    Cole, a phone really isn’t all that necessary. And, there’s good living in MN. I’m just sayin’.

  75. 75.

    silentbeep

    Um, this is a scary trajectory. I’m pretty reclusive myself, but really? Not so great when you need to call 911 and you have no phone to do it.

    I love the phone. I like having long drawn out conversations with close friends and family, when I can’t see them anytime soon. If I don’t want to talk on the phone, I don’t. When I want to talk on the phone, it’s great for communicating subtleties and nuances in tone and volume. Text isn’t enough. I’m not skyping yet, but maybe I will.

    Maybe Google phone would be better for you? I’ve heard good things about it.

  76. 76.

    mclaren

    @General Stuck:

    My big problem is now, the teevee I thought died, has mysterious come back to life. Zombie toob.

    And God is speaking to you through it. And telling you to get up on the roof with a sniper rifle, right?

  78. 78.

    jhh

    Last I heard, broadband isn’t in rural Montana, which is far less populated per sq km than W Va. Satellite pseudo-broadband ain’t fast enough for Netflix (too much latency). This could be fixed by using the now abandoned VHF and UHF analog TV channels for long distance wireless data comms. A research group I used to head in Australia has done some work on this that shows it is feasible.

  79. 79.

    jhh

    Last I heard, broadband isn’t in rural Montana, which is far less populated per sq km than W Va. Satellite pseudo-broadband ain’t fast enough for Netflix (too much latency). This could be fixed by using the now abandoned VHF and UHF analog TV channels for long distance wireless data comms. A research group I used to head in Australia has done some work on this that shows it is feasible.

  80. 80.

    jhh

    You don’t need AT&T to have a phone number if you have broadband. Use Google Voice VOIP (now integrated totally with Gmail) to get free calls to US and Canada and an incoming number to boot. Skype gives you similar capabilities, but you have to pay to call numbers (rather than other users on computers) and you have to pay to get an inbound number.

    If you have lots of international pals (I do), you can set up (free) Ring2Skype to give you dial in numbers in places like France, Germany, and Australia so that your pals there can call you on Skype for domestic phone call charges only (of course they can get you for free from a computer).

    The other new telco giant killer is the new Amazon Kindle 3G ($189), which not only lets you buy e books cheaper than dead tree ones over the air from most countries an English speaker would be likely to visit, but also gives you FREE wireless browsing in all these place. It’s black and white, but you can still do your email, read Balloon Juice and even passable Google Mapping. I reckon this is going to cut deeply into the nice little telco earner called “international data roaming.” And while doing this it can store thousands of books and play music, also.

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