No dumber idea has ever been formulated than the concept of “Peak Wingnut.” WTF was I thinking?
The weather has been crappy and rainy still, and I’ve just said to hell with it and ordered one of those light treatment machines and started taking Vitamin D a little earlier this season. I think I am in for another night of Psych Season One on Netflix while petting the dogs and suffering from Tunch’s icy glare. If I don’t make eye contact, he doesn’t hurt me.
HumboldtBlue
Well, don’t sweat it, Cole. it’s Doctober and Halladay just threw a no-hitter against the Commie Reds. It’s only the second no-hitter (post-season) in MLB history, now he joins Don Larsen. Also, Halladay threw a perfect game against the Marlins in May, so it’s a damn fine day, Cole.
The Main Gauche of Mild Reason
MAOIs are very popular in Canada for a reason.
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
Oh, I don’t know.
“Vice-President” Palin? That was dumber.
“I’ll just bring my big-ass assault rifle to this rally”? That was dumber.
“As your President, I will be bi-partisan”? That was just plain ignorant!
Rest easy, John Cole. As dumb as you may be, there are plenty who are dumber.
General Stuck
Oh Goody, an open thread. Maybe we can debate the Obama conspiracy to kill the PO some more.
I’m thinking when you add all the wingnuttery up from left and right, they should never touch one another, or else the anti-matter splosion will cover us all in stupid.
Cacti
I disagree Cole.
I would posit that peak wingnut, has, in fact been reached in Arizona.
Omnes Omnibus
@General Stuck: Green balloons with respect to the PO debate. I beg you.
Sir Nose'D
Agreed–wingnut, like the wind itself, is an inexhaustible resource. If only we could harvest it and meter it…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’ve been away from the internets most of today, and I log on to find out Olympia “Filibuster? Sure, Mitch, whatever you say” Snowe is criticizing “Congress” for not doing “our job”. She’s also very concerned about partisanship and polarization.
Bubblegum Tate
Peak Wingnut is a decent idea as long as you further explain that it can only be approached in perpetuity but never actually arrived at.
Batocchio
Ehh, it was wishful thinking, but not so bad in the grand scheme of things. It was still a much better idea than anything coming from the GOP, and much more optimistic. I’m inclined to think there can never be a peak wingnut, except perhaps on specific issues during a specific period in time.
General Stuck
Used to get so lethargic back east with the drearies, I built my own light box with a couple of flourescent racks and ordered special bulbs for them. This was back in the early 90’s when SAD was first being talked about and it was hard to find pre built lamps for a decent price. but never thought to take Vit D. I think it helped some, but winters, I would walk around all day like a zombie, half asleep on my feet. No problem with it out here in the desert, but the vitamin D I started taking has made some subtle but certain improvements in how I feel.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Jim, I think you might be being foolishly literal.
Garrigus Carraig
. [Deleted for stupid]
Omnes Omnibus
@Bubblegum Tate: Asymptote.
joe from Lowell
@Omnes Omnibus: Had to Google “Green Balloons.”
Well played, sir.
General Stuck
@Omnes Omnibus:
No need to beg, I agree with the green balloons, but was just doing some obligatory pre exasperation with that bullshit.
Often these things are like indestructable forces of nature from the left, but maybe it will end. someday.
I am silent on the topic henceforth,
Omnes Omnibus
@joe from Lowell: Thank you. It is in the lexicon.
Bubblegum Tate
@Omnes Omnibus:
Exactly.
Moses2317
The problem with “peak wingnut” is that it is never achieved. Just when you think the right wing cannot get any crazier, they outdo themselves. Two years ago, I thought that McCain nominating Palin and Joe the Plumber being a spokesperson for the right was absurd. Now, the Republicans have nominated Senate candidates like O’Donnell, Miller, and Paul that are exponentially worse and less qualified, and the conservative media used fabricated videos to destroy ACORN. Where does the crazy end?
Winning Progressive
steviez314
steviez314’s 1st theorem (you need math notation in this blog):
The limit of wingnut, as wingnut approaches Obama, = infinity.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
Sorry to hear your weather has been poor. In Chicago it has been blue skies and sun all week and it will continue into the weekend. Saturday night I have tickets for the USA-Poland friendly at Soldier Field (woo-hoo!).
I love Indian Summer in the Midwest. There is no better time of the year.
Alwhite
Peak wingnut is a wish many hold dear to their heart. Its based on the hope that humanity has some, tiny, redeeming feature and the belief that the latest load of stupid HAS to be as bad as it can get.
But fear not, there is worse yet to come & stupid to be piled on top of the heap. Like the recession, peak wingnut will only be recognized by experts reading the goat entrails sometime after it has passed.
danimal
I’m disappointed that Balloon Juice is only the 26 ranked listing on “green balloons” Google searches. I thought we had beaten that codeword senseless.
Eric U.
I would like to think that this is similar to Zeno’s paradox in that there is, in fact, a limit which defines peak wingnut. However, they are capable of getting louder.
Roger Moore
On a complete tangent, anyone who hasn’t seen it yet should see the latest from xkcd. It’s fabulous, even if blogs are only a tiny corner and Balloon-Juice is too tiny to see.
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
Riddle me this: The damn new FYWP blog stats page actually changes my stats backwards and forwards, up and down.
Hey, you got this many views! No, you got ten fewer! Wait, if you look at the bar graph, it’ll show 7 more! No, you got twenty more! No, you got fewer! More! Fewer! More! Fewer!
FYWP. I need to invest some damn money in my fucking blog.
beltane
@Alwhite: Peak Wingnut will only be achieved when they are guilty of actions, not just words, so repellent to the human psyche that the tormented finally turn on their tormentors.
danimal
I still believe in Peak Wingnut and will, like Charlie Brown in the pumpkin fields before Halloween, anxiously await the return of sanity in our conservative brethren after the messiness of the election.
/mainstream elite journalist
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
@Roger Moore: Oh, that comic made my morning!
Has anyone figured out why “xkcd” had an asterix after it on the map?
PS “Jungle-Bay Mountains of ‘It’s Complicated’ ” – heh!
Mark S.
OMG! This is the funniest thing I’ve read in weeks! Todd Palin was pissed at Joe Miller for giving a less than enthusiatic response to the question of whether Sarah is qualified to be president. He sent Miller an email, which included this line:
That’s the most work Sarah’s done in two years, and you blew it, Joe.
JenJen
@HumboldtBlue: Pffffft! Was hoping my Reds would make the record books, but didn’t imagine it going down quite like that.
Best post-season pitching performance I’ve ever seen. Gotta hand it to Halladay, as much as it pains me.
Mark S.
@Mark S.:
I was laughing so hard I forgot to put a link in.
uloborus
I really feel we reached peak wingnut last year. The trick is that you stay there at the top of that mountain awhile until they’re humiliated so badly they finally notice. So we’re still dishing out death panels and bombing Iran and fruit loopy Tea Jerker candidates, and probably will be for awhile. They’re not getting crazier. They’ve plateaued.
JGabriel
John Cole:
Maybe, but it did lead to the entirely useful concept of The Wingularity. You shouldn’t kick yourself too hard over it.
.
beltane
@uloborus: They’ve plateaued for now but if they take Congress the crazy will spike up in ways we cannot even imagine. This, combined with the fact that the Republicans are widely detested by the public at large, will lead to some interesting developments. Blowback’s a bitch.
KRK
Dude, after “fattyfattytwobyfour” you should count your blessings it’s just an icy glare. You’re supposed to defend Tunch from the commenting hordes, not join them.
tim serbo
foks, the foreclosure scandal just took an extremely ominous turn. reuters is reporting that the senate, in the proverbial dead of night, used arcane procedure to unanimously pass a bill (already passed by the house–wtf?) that makes it much harder for homeowners to challenge foreclosures executed with dodgy documentation. specifically, it requires state courts to accept as valid documents notarized in another state. and it’s extremely disappointing to learn that the bill was passed at Pat Leahy’s behest. it’s now awaiting Obama’s signature. this one’s worth making a fuss over.
i’m a retard (hi, Trig!) with things internet, but if you google the following phrase, the story pops right up:
Bank foreclosure cover seen in bill at Obama’s desk
asiangrrlMN
2-0 Twins, bitchez. Homerun for Cuddy! (2nd inning).
uloborus
@beltane:
Please. They’ll be lucky to take the House. The Senate is utterly out of their reach. Although if they do get the House things will get weird enough.
John Bird
Wingnut is a renewable resource, is the problem.
Comrade Mary
Battered Human Syndrome. Very sad. (Or, depending on Tunch’s appetite and the evolution of his thumbs, a very tasty dish.)
J.Kevin
@Mark S.: Nice. @30. L’fd. to the truthiness.
stuckinred
@asiangrrlMN: They moved out of the Hump Dome huh?
gbear
I took a scooter ride thru Michele Bachmann territory this evening. Hardly any Bachmann signs out – way fewer than last year. There were actually more lawn signsfor the Democratic candidate Teryl Clark. Very very surprising. Could be that the eastern portion of her district may finally be sick of her.
edit: Go Twins!
Joseph Nobles
@Mark S.: You’re behind the times. That was yesterday. Today @SarahPalinUSA was tweetin’ about there’s no there there and the lamestream media does it again.
Cat Lady
@asiangrrlMN:
Yay! FTFY. Also.
PurpleGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes, I was just thinking that. Peak Wingnut is an asymptotic function — approaching the zero line but never crossing it. It’s gets incrementally closer and closer.
kindness
It isn’t uncommon for me to sit on the couch with a dog under each arm, lying there sleeping. There’s something wonderfully serene and zen like in that period of time. I hope they like it as much as I do.
The smile on a dog is priceless.
Give Tunch time too though. You know you’ll love it.
gbear
@gbear:
Oops, not last year. Two years ago. How time flies.
John Bird
Sarah spent all morning working on a Face Book post for Joe.
calipygian
I was reading the original “Peak Wingnut” post and it noted that Red State had noted that Obama was molested as a child by a man who was a commie and probably his grandfather.
Whatever happened to that story?
Good times, good times…
AnnaN
Sorry to hear you are feeling down. Move to Colorado – no SAD here, mild winters, it’s lovely. A little nut-jobby, politics-wise, but much better than it was 10 years ago.
And I think you are exaggerating about Tunch – he looked positively benevolent in that last picture you posted of him.
John Bird
Today, my wife, Sarah Palin, spent all morning working on a Facebook post.
Palin, former governor of Alaska, reported through her husband that she spent “all morning” posting on a social networking site, Facebook.com, that began as a vehicle for hook-ups between college students.
CORRECTION: We had previously reported that Sarah Palin, former governor of Alaska, had spent “all morning” posting on the social networking site Facebook.com. Palin had actually spent the entire morning writing a single post for the site, but then decided not to post it after all because of a dispute with the subject of the post. The Times regrets the error.
beltane
@PurpleGirl: Now you’re giving me nightmares.
JMY
Just realized that Congress passed the Intel Authorization Bill & Reducing Over Classification Bill & the prez is will sign them both tomorrow.
The Reducing Over Classification Bill is interesting b/c I read a Frontline/PBS interview of Walter Pincus of the WaPo in 2006 and he talked about how the DoD would classify stuff just to do so or because they thought it was embarrassing which results in millions IIRC of classified documents.
John Bird
PALIN FACEBOOK FLAP: JOE-POST A NO GO
John Bird
LENO: So you hear about this, this Facebook thing with Sarah Palin? The Joe Miller thing?
MINOR: No I did not hear about it.
LENO: Yeah, turns out Christine O’Donnell is going to suck my dick.
[LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE]
Mike in NC
The next Congress may well give “Peak Wingnut” a real run for the money. We’ll know soon enough what crazy shit they come up with, like a subpoena for Bo to find out how much it costs to feed the Obama family dog.
MattR
@asiangrrlMN: I hope you’re at least a little bit concerned with the power I currently hold over you.
asiangrrlMN
@stuckinred: We don’t talk about it because it’s a welfare stadium.
It’s now 3-0 with Hudson stealing home.
@MattR: I’m at a friend’s house so I am not relying on your powers yet!
KG
@JGabriel: that may have been the commentariat’s greatest moment.
KG
@asiangrrlMN: aren’t they all welfare stadiums? Seriously, what was the last privately financed stadium? Dodger Stadium? (Excluding the issues with how the land was, um, obtained)
James E. Powell
@Moses2317:
With Miller, Paul and Angle likely to be US Senators, we can be assured that there is no peak wingnut any time soon.
parsimon
Does this mean you’ll be avoiding hyperbole in future?
MattR
@asiangrrlMN: But soon, my pretty. Soon. Bwahahaha!! (EDIT: And get the heck off this blog and go be social)
@parsimon: I’d bet my life on it.
Nick
So, there’s this
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/10/06/gop-message-polls-better-than-democrats-slogans/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+wsj/washwire/feed+(WSJ.com:+Washington+Wire)
PurpleGirl
@beltane: I’m sorry.
Did you take calculus or advanced mathematics in college? Then you would be familiar with the idea of incremental changes and asymptotic functions. (I dropped calculus but I have a talent for typing mathematics and making it look good graphically so I spent a few years typing the word asymptote, asymptotic, etc.)
General Stuck
This is for all you worry worts over the Catfood Commission cutting SS. No fear, Nancy the Great has it all under her purdy thumb.
Read the rest of it. The commission fix was in alright, just not toward damaging SS once iota.
calipygian
You know, maybe the concept of peak wingnut IS valid after all. Peak oil doesn’t refer to when the oil is gone, but how to the oil that remains is in difficult areas and is hard and expensive to extract, such as in deep water areas and Athabascan Tar Sands. So think of Wingnut as originally found in reasonably easily mined sources such as William Buckley, early Newt Gingrich and Ronald Reagan – reasonably respectable, easily believable as conservative “thought” (although Newt has turned into the Ghawar of Wingnut – originally prolific and easily tapped, but now the wingnut is of much lower quality and takes a lot to pump it out). Now Wingnut is found in increasingly inaccessible and unstable reservoirs, just like oil. Fields named Sharron, Sarah and O’Donnell – fields that were previously untouched because of their hard to grasp, low quality wingnut but now worth tapping because of the price of wingnut has shot up so much that those hostile fields are now worth tapping.
I think there is something to peak wingnut. Remember – peak oil theory says that before peak is reached, the price of oil will ocillate wildly. So will the price and quality of wingnut.
I really have to quit sniffing glue.
MikeJ
Holy shit! Dino Rossi is accusing Patty Murray of going to the *other* Washington to vote!
Vote for me and I swear I will never, ever leave Seattle!
arguingwithsignposts
@KG:
Field of Schemes has your answer (it’s “yes”).
Garrigus Carraig
@KG: AT&T in San Francisco.
TaMara (BHF)
@AnnaN: Ssshhh! Don’t tell everybody.
John Bird
LETTERMAN: So! Sarah Palin and Facebook. Wow!
SHAFFER: The Joe Miller thing?
LETTERMAN: The Joe Miller thing, the very same. Joe, he’s uh, ummm mrrrhhh errnnn…
[LAUGHTER]
SHAFFER: He’s a character.
LETTERMAN: Yeah, but Palin. Wow. Facebook. That’s a day job now.
[LAUGHTER, SCATTERED APPLAUSE]
LETTERMAN: You know what this means, don’t you?
SHAFFER: What’s it mean David?
LETTERMAN: We’re gonna send Christie over there to suck Leno’s dick.
[LAUGHTER, GROANS]
LETTERMAN: What?
SHAFFER: Now, David come on.
LETTERMAN: I’m just teasing you, Christie. You’ve been, errhh, practicing on that five-string, I hear.
O’DONNELL: Well, David, Christians aren’t supposed to lie.
LETTERMAN: Beautiful. Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Christine O’Donnell and Mr. George Santana.
SHAFFER: Carlos.
LETTERMAN: What?
[SONG: “BLACK MAGIC WOMAN”]
General Stuck
@JMY:
Clearly, Obama is being his usual worse than Bush self, with the secrecy shit. Probly signed it with invisible ink.
Steeplejack
@Roger Moore:
That’s a really funny map. I see Balloon Juice somewhere on the Liberal Blogs peninsula, north of the Bay of Flame, with a good view toward the New York Times islands and the smaller Krugman islet but protected from Huffington Post by the impassible mountain chain.
Linda Featheringill
OT, but it is an open thread [she said defensively]:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/06/AR2010100600255.html?hpid=topnews
Article about white working class favoring Republicans. And how this is a big problem for Democrats.
So how is that new? This segment of the population has been conservative and has favored Republicans for as long as I can remember. Well, let us say since 1960.
Or is this another case where WaPo decides to take a poll to learn what everybody already knows?
Steeplejack
@danimal:
Typical mainstream elite journalist fail. I think it is Linus who awaits the appearance of the Great Pumpkin.
asiangrrlMN
God.Damn.Mutha.Fucker.
El Tiburon
@General Stuck:
At least you now admit the conspiracy existed. I guess you also believe he faked his birth certificate as well.
Steeplejack
@JGabriel:
The genius line from that thread, which still makes me chuckle:
General Stuck
@El Tiburon:
firebaggers have no sense for snark. very lame dude.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: You know, that moment has probably passed.
eemom
just in case anyone not into this no-hitter whateverathingie is bored this evening, there’s an unusual amount of Win on display over at memeorandum, including but not limited to
Matthew Continetti joins Miller-Todd mano-a-mano;
“None of the above” leading in Nevada Senate race;
Bob Woodward officially makes ass of self with Hillary ’12 VP rumors;
Rick Sanchez apologizes, volunteers to do 40 hours of
Jew-mediacommunity service;Howie Kurtz thinks “Everybody’s Talkin” about him;
and my personal favorite
“Romney Deathwatch.”
Maybe they are under new management there or sumpin.
Omnes Omnibus
Watching “The Seventh Seal” while reading this blog is a strange experience.
General Stuck
@Omnes Omnibus:
Every thread is a new game of chess with the devil.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Omnes Omnibus: Is that the chess with death movie?
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yep… and the Black Death.
ETA: Such a cheerful movie. Angst, plague, and death all in one film.
Nathanael
There *is* a natural peak wingnut, but it comes *after* the fascist takeover of government, after the invasion of Poland, and sometime around the realization that the country has just lost a world war. For the *second* time.
I don’t want us to get to peak wingnut.
asiangrrlMN
Damn. Bases loaded, Twins hitting, two outs. 4-3 Yanks. EEEEPS!
ETA: Rookie gets a walk! 4-4.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
Is that on? What channel?
Ah, TCM. They are bringing it with the thunder tonight. The Third Man is up next, and then Max Ophüls’s The Earrings of Madame De . . . Both classics. The movie after that is Lola Montes, which I’ve never seen, so I might have to DVR that.
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
Stay frosty, girl. FTFY.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: Time magazine film critic Richard Corliss is picking for the night.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
Who is it? He/she is going old-school all the way. Right out of my film curriculum in the early ’70s.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: Richard Corliss. I heard something about October being classics month.
asiangrrlMN
God. Damn. Fuck the fucking Yankees. 6-4 Yanks.
S. cerevisiae
Damn Yankees.
aimai
@Moses2317:
Maybe someone else has said this but I do think it was a very useful hypthesis, in its day. But just like Iraq and Afghanistan were vietnam on crack, and just as Moses has observed, if I take his position correctly: the evolutionary life cycle of the wingnut was not fully understood originally. We can see, as Moses demonstrates, that Peak Wingnut must ever recede in front of us because it is a rapidly moving front in which the fittest wingnut survives and spawns successfully. We can’t say the movement progresses, since evolution doesn’t have a direction like that, but we can say that wingnuttery will continue to fill all potential ecological niches until it leaves no space for anything else. That’s what successful redistricting has brought us: the Michelle Bachmann’s of the world are simply the fittest to survive in their own little congressional district and they can’t be displaced by anything to the left, only by things crazier and further to the right.
aimai
kommrade reproductive vigor
In honor of Commenter # 7
Mnemosyne
@Steeplejack:
I don’t know why there isn’t more Ophuls on DVD. I had to buy Letter From An Unknown Woman from Korea because there isn’t a US version. Only his European films seem to be available.
It’s especially weird because all of his US films were on VHS.
John Bird
It wasn’t a conspiracy to kill the PO. It was merely a secret agreement between the White House and some big players in the health industry that the White House lied about to the public. That much is clear.
If it was a conspiracy, I think the media would have been in on it, and what really happened is that the media no longer does its job, really. A conspiracy would only be required if anyone was minding the store.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yeah, Corliss is old-school. He’s about 65, I think, so the selection fits what (I think) his taste would be.
Whatever. Great selections.
Will have to check the listings for the next week to see what other truffles are there to be sniffed out. On Sunday night I recorded F.W. Murnau’s Phantom (1922), but I haven’t watched it yet.
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
That is weird. I would have thought Criterion would have it all covered. Must be a rights issue somewhere in the background.
Now don’t get me started on why I can’t find a DVD of Philippe de Broca’s That Man from Rio, with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Catherine Deneuve’s little sister, Françoise Dorleac. A really good French screwball comedy, if you can believe that (and if my memory is any good).
Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim)
Gosh, I don’t suppose John’s current depression could possibly be in any part caused by the predictable after-effects of the massive alcohol abuse of the past weekend?
Naaaahhh…
Steeplejack
Now that the baseball game is over–FTFY!–I flipped over to watch a few minutes of The Third Man. Must try to remember to catch the end, where Alida Valli walks up the allée of chopped-off trees accompanied by the greatest zither music in film history.
Ah, YouTube, you rarely fail me. Althoug the “Third Man” theme is not in that clip. It is here (starting at 0:55).
General Stuck
@John Bird:
Obama never promised a PO. He never claimed to be pushing for one in a final bill. It was pretty much ho hum, with a hand full of broad things the bill should address, before he would sign it, that didn’t include a PO, but that was about it. Now if he was out there pushing hard publicly for the PO, and had made a secret deal to veto a passed bill if it had a PO, then that would be lying to the public, but that didn’t happen. He said he thought it was a good idea, but he doesn’t get to vote on bills. That would be congress. So how exactly did he lie to the public?
Mnemosyne
I have to say, this “Bad Universe” show (look, blogger made good!) is a WAY better fit with “Mythbusters” than anything else they’ve tried in this timeslot.
SRW1
Peak Wingnut is a wonder to behold, because it is the one area where the law of diminishing returns does not apply even though the approach to it is asymptotic.
kindness
@KG: The SF Giants stadium was privately financed, originally PacBell Park, now AT&T Park (obviously bowing to our Galtian overlords AT&T).
evinfuilt
On the bright side, Peak Oil at least has science behind it, it is inevitable. Idiocracy shows us that peak Wingnut has no known limit, it’ll always be 20 weeks away (just like Cold Fusion is only 20 years away.)