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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread: Disappointing

Open Thread: Disappointing

by Anne Laurie|  January 7, 20114:03 pm| 52 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Bring on the Brawndo!

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(Jim Morin via www.gocomics.com)
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How has the long arc of history further disappointed you today?

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52Comments

  1. 1.

    licensed to kill time

    January 7, 2011 at 4:07 pm

    The long arc of history has disappointed me by not fixing the unclosed italic tag at comment #65 in the thread below!

    We’re running out of oxygen, Captain!

  2. 2.

    James K. Polk, Esq

    January 7, 2011 at 4:07 pm

    Obamacare fail win.

  3. 3.

    jeffreyw

    January 7, 2011 at 4:08 pm

    Homer thinks that thing is named “Curiosity”.

  4. 4.

    General Stuck

    January 7, 2011 at 4:13 pm

    In the asylum, it is difficult to single out one nut from all the other nuts.

  5. 5.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    January 7, 2011 at 4:14 pm

    That one made me laugh out loud.

    Now, Anne, can you find someone to fix the italics problem on the last thread?

  6. 6.

    Comrade Kevin

    January 7, 2011 at 4:14 pm

    If you want to have some fun, go look at mentions of @janehamsher on the Twitter today. Sheesh.

  7. 7.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    January 7, 2011 at 4:17 pm

    @James K. Polk, Esq: The comments were hilarious in that. You can just tell that some people were shocked that someone might speak positively about ACA. My favorite part of the article was:

    Of course, there is the nagging banter as to how Obamacare is leading us down the road to socialism.
    __
    Let it go, folks.
    __
    Private market insurance companies are experiencing significant growth because of a tax break provided by the PPACA. I may have missed the day this was discussed in economics class, but I’m pretty sure this is not a socialistic result of federal legislation.

  8. 8.

    Alison

    January 7, 2011 at 4:17 pm

    How has the long arc of history further disappointed you today?

    By not getting to Spring yet.

    Seriously. Done with cold. Hate cold. Want warmth.

  9. 9.

    jl

    January 7, 2011 at 4:18 pm

    @jeffreyw:
    Good show of restraint by the cat. I never had a cat like that.

  10. 10.

    Southern Beale

    January 7, 2011 at 4:22 pm

    Just curious: what is it with Republican Congress Critters and simulated lesbian sex?

  11. 11.

    Chat Noir

    January 7, 2011 at 4:26 pm

    @Alison: You and me both! I have a blanket draped around my shoulders and a heater-fan going to try to take the chill off. I’m ready for April.

    @jeffreyw: That face is so cute. And Homer looks like he’s gotten quite big.

  12. 12.

    liberty60

    January 7, 2011 at 4:27 pm

    Rut roh-
    Just when Fox thought they had ginned up a War On Christianity pretty good, the Moozlims have to go and do this…

    Egyptian Muslims form human shield to protect Christians

    Damn them wily Moozlims! Acting all librul like!

  13. 13.

    WereBear

    January 7, 2011 at 4:27 pm

    @jl: You never had a cat who could restrain themselves?

  14. 14.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    January 7, 2011 at 4:28 pm

    @James K. Polk, Esq: Now for the unmoderated version:

    The comments were hilarious in that. You can just tell that some people were shocked that someone might speak positively about ACA. My favorite part of the article was:

    Of course, there is the nagging banter as to how Obamacare is leading us down the road to soc-ialism.
    __
    Let it go, folks.
    __
    Private market insurance companies are experiencing significant growth because of a tax break provided by the PPACA. I may have missed the day this was discussed in economics class, but I’m pretty sure this is not a soc-ialistic result of federal legislation.

  15. 15.

    liberty60

    January 7, 2011 at 4:29 pm

    @Southern Beale: Well, in Mary Bono’s favor, at least it was the lobbyist licking her, not the other way round, as with most Congresscritters.

  16. 16.

    Ash Can

    January 7, 2011 at 4:30 pm

    @James K. Polk, Esq: Great link. Ungar kicks some serious ass, especially in the comment thread.

    @jeffreyw: My goodness, Homer looks so grown up!

  17. 17.

    Chat Noir

    January 7, 2011 at 4:30 pm

    @WereBear: Speaking of cats, I love the pix you’ve posted recently of Tristan. He is a little dolly and looks as if he’s growing quite nicely. Is he and/or Olwyn on the Pets of Balloon Juice calendar?

  18. 18.

    Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther

    January 7, 2011 at 4:41 pm

    On the one hand, the cartoon genuinaly made me laugh.

    On the other hand, the first thing the founders/framers would do, actually, is notice all the women and non-white men — including OMG the President — around them, and be HORRIFIED.

    We’re wise to admire the framers, because they were visionaries. Be that as it may, we’ve come a lot farther down the road toward perfecting the union. They were, after all, the authors of the “3/5” clause that Congress chose (in a criminally cowardly fashion) to not read.

    /cranky ellaesther is cranky.

  19. 19.

    Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther

    January 7, 2011 at 4:43 pm

    @liberty60: I have a feel that the gentlepeople at Fox would not find the Copts terribly “Christian.” If you see what I mean….

  20. 20.

    Origuy

    January 7, 2011 at 4:44 pm

    Since the Russian Orthodox Church never went along with the heretical Pope Gregory, today is Christmas for them. С Рождеством, everybody!

  21. 21.

    Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther

    January 7, 2011 at 4:44 pm

    D’oh! Blog flog fail.

    I wrote about how the arc of human history has failed me on the Eve of Twenty-Eleven:

    http://emilylhauserinmyhead.wordpress.com/2010/12/31/the-suckage-of-human-history-on-the-eve-of-2011/

  22. 22.

    Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther

    January 7, 2011 at 4:44 pm

    @Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther: Shit. “Genuinely”

    /cranky ellaesther can’t spell

  23. 23.

    Mumphrey (formerly Renfrew Squeevil (formerly Mumphrey Oddison Yamm (formerly Mumphrey O. Yamm (formerly Mumphrey))))

    January 7, 2011 at 4:47 pm

    That cartoon kind of scares me. We need to do everything we can to hold this country together. The people who wrote the Constitution–well, the ones who really had a big hand in it; a lot of them were drones–were truly amazing people. It’s true, they had their flaws, as we all do, and we need to be forthright about those flaws; they weren’t gods, and we shouldn’t think of them as such. But the big guns at that convention, Madison, Franklin, Hamilton, Washington, William Paterson, Oliver Ellsworth, Roger Sherman, James Wilson, Gouverneur Morris and a few others I can’t think of offhand, these guys were amazingly farsighted. They were amazingly wise about the psychology of people, both ordianry people and people holding power. This is all the more astounding as there was no such field as psychology in 1787.

    They worked and worked through a broiling summer to hash out a system that would hold up over time, and they really did pull it off. When you look at it, the wisdom of separating power really is incredible, since nobody had ever really tried it before, at least not as thoroughly as power is spread out in the Constitution. And it isn’t only the separation of powers between the 3 branches of the federal government, though that’s what we most often think of first. There’s seperation between state, local and federal offices, and between the people and the government. It’s this separation, the tension between the various holders of power, that keeps anybody from gathering truly destructive sway.

    Beyond that, they had the wisdom to try what they had set up and give it a fair shake. They didn’t panic and throw out the whole system at the first sign of any trouble. As an aside, I’d say that it’s this lack of faith in the institutions of government, the institutions of democracy, that has been such a problem for so much of Latin America for so long. Too often, and we saw it a year and a half ago in Honduras, people look at a leader in office, decide he’s disastrous (rightly or wrongly), and rather than wait out his term, and trust the institutions of governing to be stroonger than any one guy, they overthrow him, and all too often, dump the whole democratic system as well.

    Anyway… So even when there was a chaotic presidential election in 1800, even when Jefferson overreached his authority and Justice Marshall had to step in and overrule him, American politicians, and Americans as a whole, had enough faith to trust that what they’d set up was strong enough, well-built enough, to stand up through the storms that had come already and would come again.

    And they knew enough to know that they didn’t know everything, and they left the Constitution open to change. When people talk abut “original intent” like the Framers were minor gods, they do the Framers a real disservice: they imply that the Framers believed they knew all, and didn’t think the people in later years might need to tinker with the Constitution now and then.

    So, where I’m going with this is that I truly pray we can hold together as a society. We all know that when somebody asked Franklin what the convention had put together, his answer was, “A republic if you can keep it.” I pray every day that we can keep it, as I look around, and I just don’t know if we could pull of writing something like the Constitution today. A convention would be hounded by yammering, brainless pundits day and night. Sean Hannity would be stirring up the teabaggers to burn down the convention hall–with enough weaselly words that he could plausibly deny he meant it if anybody took him up on it. It might be hard even to keep any convention teabag-free, and if too many of those freaks ever got a toehold in a convention, who knows how abominable the result would be.

    We have a truly sublime Constitution. And I hope we can keep it, since if we fall apart and have to begin anew, I think we’re pretty well fucked.

  24. 24.

    liberty60

    January 7, 2011 at 4:51 pm

    @Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther:
    I think the style guide at Fox news states that when the Copts are victims of Muslim extremists, they are Christian; when they are treated kindly by said Muslims, they are…

    Oh, look! A pretty blond girl has gone missing!

  25. 25.

    Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)

    January 7, 2011 at 4:55 pm

    Bootie 2010. Really solid this year.

    Bootie 2009 was a disappointment but it appears the franchise is back on its game. Maybe because Girl Talk released an album? Prop 8 rage coming through? I’m just glad the usual suspects have rediscovered syncopation.

    I’d love to chat some more, but it’s a house cleaning party up in this piece!

    (Skip the Ke$ha song. zzzzz.)

  26. 26.

    Ash Can

    January 7, 2011 at 4:59 pm

    @liberty60: That didn’t really happen; it was all staged by George Soros and his pinko commie propaganda machine.

    /Fox viewer

  27. 27.

    Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)

    January 7, 2011 at 5:05 pm

    @Comrade Kevin: would you kind enough to provide a summary for us who can’t because twitter is blocked.

  28. 28.

    jeffreyw

    January 7, 2011 at 5:05 pm

    @jl: There is a reason they are called “snapshots”. LOL

  29. 29.

    burnspbesq

    January 7, 2011 at 5:10 pm

    @James K. Polk, Esq:

    So, wait a sec. I thought the Republicans were small business’ best friends. Why are they agin’ something that small businesses like? Mah hed hurtz.

  30. 30.

    Mumphrey (formerly Renfrew Squeevil (formerly Mumphrey Oddison Yamm (formerly Mumphrey O. Yamm (formerly Mumphrey))))

    January 7, 2011 at 5:16 pm

    @Mumphrey (formerly Renfrew Squeevil (formerly Mumphrey Oddison Yamm (formerly Mumphrey O. Yamm (formerly Mumphrey)))):

    Sorry about putting that up twice. Didn’t mean to. Might be good to yank one down…

  31. 31.

    jeffreyw

    January 7, 2011 at 5:18 pm

    @Chat Noir:
    @Ash Can:
    He’s getting some growth on, by spring he’ll be bigger than Bea but he’ll really need to pack in the tuna before he catches up with Toby.

  32. 32.

    jeffreyw

    January 7, 2011 at 5:20 pm

    @jeffreyw: Some moar Homer.

  33. 33.

    Maude

    January 7, 2011 at 5:22 pm

    @Mumphrey (formerly Renfrew Squeevil (formerly Mumphrey Oddison Yamm (formerly Mumphrey O. Yamm (formerly Mumphrey)))):
    Monarchy was a must to avoid. Bloody Mary and Elizabeth the First were enough to make anyone setting up a framework for a Republic make sure religion was not decreed by the government.
    No religious test was also vital. btw, when the religious question was asked during one of the primary debates, I thought it was against the basic foundation of this country to ask such an awful thing of a candidate.

  34. 34.

    Joseph Nobles

    January 7, 2011 at 5:24 pm

    In the spirit of the no-doubt-Luntz-approved addition of “job-killing” to any reference of the health care LAW, I’m now adding “American-killing” to any reference to the repeal bill. It’s fun!

    I capitalized “law” above, because some of our elected representatives seems to have forgotten the ACA is no longer a bill. Perhaps a little less turning the Constitution into a marginalized political prop like the Anthem and the Pledge and a little more attention to Schoolhouse Rock would benefit this Congress greatly.

  35. 35.

    Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther

    January 7, 2011 at 5:26 pm

    @liberty60: By God, I think you’ve cracked the code!

  36. 36.

    trollhattan

    January 7, 2011 at 5:32 pm

    This just in: O’Reilly sez tides are mysterious proof of dog, can’t be explained.

    http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/bill-oreilly-thinks-tides-are-proof-#comment-1746624

    head/desk

  37. 37.

    sukabi

    January 7, 2011 at 5:39 pm

    @Mike Kay (Chief of Staff):
    here’s a few:

    TheChickAbides RT @PROTIPZ: Here we go, I’m gonna flip #followfriday on its head. I’ll follow anyone who blocks and reports @janehamsher for being a bullying shit. about 1 hour ago via tGadget

    missb62 RT @BrettR4763: RT @PROTIPZ: Block and report @janehamsher who, I kid you not, dishonestly harasses dissenters at their place of work. about 1 hour ago via TweetDeck

    BrettR4763 RT @PROTIPZ: Block and report @janehamsher who, I kid you not, dishonestly harasses dissenters at their place of work. about 1 hour ago via TweetDeck

    changepat RT @BrnEyeSuss: @dylanratigan and @JaneHamsher should get together so they can wallow in self pity of depression about 1 hour ago via TweetDeck

    not sure what it’s in response to exactly… but she’s seriously pissed in someone’s wheaties.

  38. 38.

    cleek

    January 7, 2011 at 5:49 pm

    i bet the authors of the constitution were doing facepalms (wig powder everywhere!) the first year month week their creation met actual legislators.

    on the bright side, NPR actually called the GOP out for being hypocritical shitwads today! they actually reported how the GOP is happily ignoring their own rules about the deficit when it comes to things they want.

    now if NPR would just learn that control of the House is not actually control of Congress.

  39. 39.

    Jay C

    January 7, 2011 at 5:56 pm

    @burnspbesq:

    So, wait a sec. I thought the Republicans were small business’ best friends.

    They are. It’s just that when it comes to BIG Business, the GOP aren’t just “friends”, but supine submissive f*ckwhores – who know really well where the wads of cash left on their dressers comes from; and don’t want to rock that boat under any avoidable circumstances.

    The whole “Obamacare Fail” nonsense is, AFAICT, just so much political posturing for the teabagger crowd – Big Health makes out just fine under the PPACA as passed, and that’s all that counts. Oh, they’ll make a big show of blathering away about “soshulism” and “death panels” and “job-killing”; and maybe even pass a repeal through the House: either the Senate and/or President Obama will kill it dead, and the GOP (breathing a sigh of relief) can go back to doing what it does best: failing to deal with the nation’s problems, then blaming somebody else for the mess.

    @Mumphrey (formerly Renfrew Squeevil (formerly Mumphrey Oddison Yamm (formerly Mumphrey O. Yamm (formerly Mumphrey)))):

    And Mumphrey: what you said. Twice.

  40. 40.

    Linda Featheringill

    January 7, 2011 at 5:57 pm

    @jeffreyw:

    Homer is growing!

  41. 41.

    Linda Featheringill

    January 7, 2011 at 5:59 pm

    @James K. Polk, Esq:

    Nice article!

  42. 42.

    cleek

    January 7, 2011 at 6:01 pm

    @cleek:
    … and that the GOP can’t actually “repeal Obamacare” by controlling only one chamber of Congress.

  43. 43.

    Comrade Kevin

    January 7, 2011 at 6:06 pm

    @sukabi: She apparently had one of her minions figure out where one of her detractors worked and called him/her at their job with a bunch of harassing questions, from what I have been able to figure out.

  44. 44.

    Linda Featheringill

    January 7, 2011 at 6:09 pm

    @Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther:

    I have a feeling that the gentlepeople at Fox would not find the Copts terribly “Christian.” If you see what I mean….

    You mean their skin is dark and they dress funny and they speak a foreign language and their theology veers off in the other direction frequently?

    Yeah.

  45. 45.

    Uncle Clarence Thomas

    January 7, 2011 at 6:15 pm

    .
    .
    Balloonbaggers will note that I have asked Mr. Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com to tell you not to jump into the lake. It is hoped that those so advised will proudly live up to their creed and do the exact opposite, as they have so loudly and so fiercely promised they will do.
    .
    .

  46. 46.

    Calouste

    January 7, 2011 at 6:20 pm

    @Mumphrey (formerly Renfrew Squeevil (formerly Mumphrey Oddison Yamm (formerly Mumphrey O. Yamm (formerly Mumphrey)))):

    the wisdom of separating power really is incredible, since nobody had ever really tried it before,

    Separation of powers wasn’t exactly an original idea of the Founding Fathers, although they were the first to implement it since the Roman Republic.

  47. 47.

    Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)

    January 7, 2011 at 6:23 pm

    @sukabi:

    @janehamsher who, I kid you not, dishonestly harasses dissenters at their place of work.

    This reminds me of Glen Close’s psycho character in “Fatal Attraction” who kept harassing Michael Douglas at work. Sadly, this means, she’s only days away from breaking into the White House and boiling Bo.

  48. 48.

    Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)

    January 7, 2011 at 6:28 pm

    @Comrade Kevin: where did you hear this? this is fascinating. And by detractor, do you mean someone posting on her blog or someone who post stuff of their own blog?

  49. 49.

    AAA Bonds

    January 7, 2011 at 7:23 pm

    @Mike Kay (Chief of Staff):

    do you mean someone posting on her blog or someone who post stuff of their own blog?

    This is the endpoint of the internet.

  50. 50.

    Mumphrey (formerly Renfrew Squeevil (formerly Mumphrey Oddison Yamm (formerly Mumphrey O. Yamm (formerly Mumphrey))))

    January 7, 2011 at 9:05 pm

    @Calouste:

    I don’t know much about the Roman Republic. How far did they go with seperation of powers before corruption and the men on horseback dragged everything down? There was only one house if I recall rightly, the Senate.

  51. 51.

    Comrade Kevin

    January 7, 2011 at 11:59 pm

    @Mike Kay (Chief of Staff): Someone on Twitter. I believe he also used to post at Daily Kos, and may have commented here, as well.

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