Another day of crazy weather here. Fifty degrees in the morning, temperature dropped to about 10 degrees with whipping winds, then up a bit and snow with whipping winds. I’ve lived in this area my entire life, and I’ve never seen weather like we’ve had the past couple of years. It is changing right before our eyes, and there is a violent feel to the storms that wasn’t there even twenty years ago. But, you know, Al Gore is fat so climate change is a hoax.
There’s a reason we pick on the Koch brothers and those like them. There are real world implications, including the climate, our drinking water, etc. And we’re losing. to the big money boys.
I’m watching that show with Elliot Spitzer on CNN and they’ve apparently just given up and Parker doesn’t even show up any more to have him talk over her, but he just had a piece about the City of the Dead slum in Egypt. I wonder where ours will be in 50 years when our decline is far more pronounced and the majority of the nation is impoverished while our Galtian overlords live in gated communities…
BGinCHI
Maybe they’ll grace us by destroying our education system first so that we’re all too stupid to know how shitty things are.
Watching Howard Fineman on Lawrence O’Donnell’s show and wondering just how shallow the expert talent pool is.
Come on, are there no interesting people to be interviewed about politics and, say Egypt or Yemen?
wobblybits
Your such a Pollyanna.
stuckinred
@BGinCHI: Maybe you should have held your fire until this young man from Iowa with two moms spoke.
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
I have never in my life been so moved by the proffered generosity of anyone as I was by the people who emerged from their homes in the City of the Dead to offer my friends and I tea. They have nothing — nothing — and they wanted to give us tea.
Violet
You’re right, the weather does seem so much more violent than it did even ten years ago. Things are definitely changing. Anyone who gardens can tell you that. Climate change deniers are just stupid.
Find the crappiest part of any city, but a little bit away from the very heart of the city, and that’ll be the first slum. Pretty much the same the world over. The rest will be further and further out.
Redshift
In NoVA, on Monday they were predicting snow for Tuesday morning, later changed to freezing rain that would stop and start again on Tuesday night. By Tuesday that was changed to freezing rain on Wednesday morning and heavy rain all day today.
We got hardly any rain on Tuesday morning, none Tuesday night, and by early this afternoon it was nearly cloudless and sunny.
I think climate change has completely screwed up the weather-forecasting models, along with local career meteorologists’ sense for local weather patterns. I just wish someone would come out and say it.
stuckinred
@Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther: You should have heard Jim Cramer just screaming about how they hate Americans and were trying to hustle him at the pyramids.
Omnes Omnibus
@BGinCHI: I am available. I don’t know any less than the average talking head. I am reasonably articulate and presentable (esp. when compared to Fineman). I Have an interesting (comparatively) biography and I would be less expensive. Yet my phone does not ring.
Redshift
@Omnes Omnibus: Time to start the Balloon Juice Speakers Bureau! Very reasonable rates!
That’s setting the bar pretty low, but there’s a motto in there somewhere!
ericblair
Our Galtian overlords may talk a big game, but I doubt any of them who live in North America or Europe understands what it would mean to really drag this country down around them. I don’t see any armored S500s or Land Cruisers driving around Manhattan or DC, and nobody’s buying kidnapping insurance.
Being rich and living in a shithole country is a hell of a lot better than being poor and living in a shithole country, but you’re still in a violent shithole with diesel fumes for an atmosphere, silk pajamas or not.
arguingwithsignposts
The Somebody is supposed to be coming in tomorrow. praying the weather holds in St. Louis.
ETA: look at all the Business and Economics Editors we have up in the hizzouse!
ericblair
@stuckinred:
Cuz conning people into buying worthless crap against their better judgment is HIS job, dammit.
hilts
@BGinCHI:
Go to wnyc.org and click on The Brian Lehrer Show link. They’ve provided very good coverage of the Egypt story since it broke.
Interview from today’s edition of the Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC – Tarek Osman, author of Egypt On The Brink: From Nasser to Mubarak, talks about what’s happened in Egypt since President Nasser came to power in 1954 and what’s been happening on the streets this week.
h/t http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/2011/feb/02/egypt-brink-nasser-mubarak
You should also check out Globalpostdotcom and Democracynowdotorg
stuckinred
@ericblair: DING!
mai naem
I hate stupid people.
Southern Beale
Last month I read that CNN was talking about replacing Parker. Someone somewhere said they should put Elisabeth Hasselback in there instead. LOL. I hope that was a joke.
MsSkwEsq
My daughter was caught on a CTA bus on the drive last night. She left her job in the loop
at 3:00 pm to go home to her apartment in Wrigleyville (about 5 miles north).
All the busses and cabs were overflowing and would not stop for her. She called me sobbing,
unsure how to get home. She was wet, freezing cold and being blown off her feet by the weather.
While talking to her, an ‘out of service’ bus pulled up and the door opened.
The driver asked her where she was going, when she told him, he told her to hop on
as he was going to go in service and he’d get her home eventually.
After picking up an overflow crowd of Loop commuters, the ‘express bus’ pulled onto Lake Shore
Drive. Six terror filled hours later that bus driver jumped the right hand curb and wiggled the bus
off at Belmont. He then snaked around on the inner drive until he let my daughter off at Addison.
The winds knocked her to the ground repeatedly as she walked the three blocks west.
Luckily she made it home OK but extremely shaken. That bus driver was fantastic —
stayed calm and was determined to get his passengers home safe. I so thank him!
As for the City saying it was poor judgment for drivers to take LSD, I say:
so why did the city allow all those busses on the drive? Why didn’t they close the drive
Southern Beale
@Violet:
I’ve mentioned this before but remember a couple years ago when the wingnuts were all like ‘Har har har that is CRAZY stoooopidest Hollywood Librul idea EVER” over that movie where climate change causes extreme winter weather that basically destroys New York? And here we are a few years later and these same people are all like “Har har har we haz extreme winter in New York that PROVES climate change is phony!”
Can’t win for losing with these assholes. I mean cripes, they made a fucking summer blockbuster movie about what’s happening right now and it’s like they’ve all forgotten it.
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
@stuckinred: I’ll be honest – I got ripped off in Cairo, too. No collection of people that big will be populated entirely and solely by angels, and when people are poor, they tend to try to get money out of those they perceive of as rich (and Americans abroad are often hated for our sheer arrogance as travelers, no matter where).
But I loved Cairo, loved it. And almost every time I have had a direct experience with an Egyptian, anywhere, that Egyptian has been both warm and generous. In Cairo, random men talked trash about me as I passed them by, but as soon as I needed help, it was the easiest thing on earth to find.
BGinCHI
@stuckinred: No kidding. That kid was awesome. I hope others get to see him.
They should just make him the president of fucking Iowa.
Nick
This is because Obama is a corporatist and didn’t use the bully pulpit.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
The Dallas-FW area, including way out east here in Rockwall, has shut down it’s schools for the third day tomorrow. Tuesday it was ice, and because of the temp staying well below freezing, not much ice melted, making the roads and parking lots pretty bad. But, we’re figuring tomorrow is about electricity. A lot of school systems are contracted with electric companies to allow power shutdowns for lower rates.
The state did rolling blackouts today – the state – and they’re talking about brownouts to businesses above I30 in order to keep power to houses. I30 runs east-west and roughly divides the metroplex in half.
More of that wonderful Republican run state: We’re on our own power grid and cannot take care of electricity of everyone in our state.
BGinCHI
@Omnes Omnibus: You’re high on my list when I get my show.
Oprah gonna call any day now.
It’ll be on our “Live From America’s Dairyland (with beer)” segment.
bkny
i’ve seen no cable coverage of the cyclone hitting australia right now:
Tens of thousands of residents and tourists had fled as the storm barrelled towards shore, while others followed advice to bunker down in bathrooms, sheltering from flying debris behind mattresses. The state disaster co-ordinator, Ian Stewart, warned them to prepare for roofs lifting off, windows exploding and older buildings “collapsing like a house of cards”.
Gusts of up to 186mph were detected, with readings taken by an offshore weather station which Yasi demolished as it passed. Meteorologists said that, in size and strength, it dwarfed Cyclone Tracy, which flattened the city of Darwin in 1974, killing 71 people. Ms Bligh described Yasi as “a monster, killer storm”, and said people in the danger zone faced “a very terrifying 24 hours”.
BGinCHI
@hilts: Thanks for the links. I’ve been listening to Brian Lehrer on the radio (Sirius). Love his show. And Democ Now is a must.
It’s my own fault for watching MSNBC and having expectations.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@BGinCHI:
Will that be a president in a good or bad way?
(Sometimes turning adjectives into verbs is fun.)
Odie Hugh Manatee
He who dies with the most toys, money and power, wins. That’s all they care about. In their lives, money solves all problems and their heirs will just have to suffer with it.
Really, combine the asshole deniers who get rich from pollution with the Jeebus-squeezin’ bible-humpin’ members of that apocalyptic death cult who believe that extreme weather means their guy is a-comin’ to save their asses by movin’ them to heaven and rainin’ misery on the heathens, and you have a match made in hell.
They want to make hell on earth for everyone but themselves, screw the children because all that matters is that they get what they want.
hilts
@Southern Beale:
Between Parker Spritzer and Piers Morgan, CNN is in a serious case of freefall.
BGinCHI
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): I see what you did there.
It’s hard not to swear when thinking about Iowa politics.
I also had nachos and white wine for dinner. I blame the soy chorizo.
Southern Beale
@hilts:
Serves them right. Whatever happened to just covering news? Now they have to get all opiniony, like the world needs more of that. Where can you go to watch the fucking NEWS anymore?
BGinCHI
@Southern Beale: Tosh.0.
Redshift
@ericblair: Our Galtian overlords don’t seem to be real big on thinking about anything beyond what’s good for them and their immediate circle over the next several quarters.
These are people whose feeling are hurt because they’re being criticized as if the financial crisis was their fault! Policies which make them richer and screw over everyone else are GOOD! by definition; the concept that they could lead to a country they wouldn’t want to live in is just inconceivable.
Omnes Omnibus
@BGinCHI: I’ll be waiting by the phone, but I won’t be holding my breath.
hilts
@BGinCHI:
Do you ever listen to Terri Gross, Diane Rehm, Tom Ashbrook, or Warren Olney?
MSNBC is sometimes capable of doing good reporting, but their decision to continue airing true crime documentaries on the weekend is disgusting. If MSNBC truly aspired to be taken seriously, they’d stop airing LockUp and To Catch a Predator immediately.
BGinCHI
@Omnes Omnibus: We can’t afford to pay you extra for holding your breath.
Let’s be reasonable.
Now, get a case of mixed New Glarus and stay ready.
freelancer
Watching Richard Engel reporting live on MSNBC. Oh My God.
BGinCHI
@hilts: I wish Dave Davies would just take over for Teri Gross. The show is great but she is a terrible interviewer. I know people like her, but she’s awful.
I like World View, too. Chicago show so not sure how available it is.
Bob
@BGinCHI: here is the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSQQK2Vuf9Q&feature=player_embedded
wobblybits
@freelancer: Brian Williams (gag) Why is he there? I get why Engel is there but Brian Williams?
Maude
@MsSkwEsq:
Your post ran off the side. Could you please re post it? I want to know what happened to your daughter.
BGinCHI
@freelancer: 20 minutes behind (recorded it). I hope the army blasts the pro-Mubarak assholes.
BGinCHI
@Bob: Thanks for posting. Anyone interested in seeing a young person stand up for same sex rights, you have to watch it. The guy is so eloquent, esp for an engineering student.
kdaug
It was 74 two days ago. Tonight’s low is 16 (same as last night). Forecasted high for Sunday is 63.
martha
@BGinCHI: oh, oh, can I audition too? OO and I can carpool down to your studio…I’ll bring your choice of WI’s best brews…Lakefront, Capital, New Glarus, Potosi, Furthermore, whatever…
freelancer
@wobblybits:
My FSM, he’s such a canned ham.
General Stuck
Who we are really losing to are the idiots living in old Dixie. Look at the Senate, and the GOP is almost all southern wingnut. The Koch boys and girls would have better manners if they weren’t protected by the nihilistic fools a third of the country sends to Washington. And I know there are some good folks that live in southern places, as I grew up there.
But when push comes to shove, it isn’t really about the Koch’s and banksters of the world. It is about eternal butthurt rebellion from those who never agreed with provisions in the document we live by, and are willing to drag us all to hell for the sake of pride and prejudice.
Punchy
Cleveland Cavs just lost #22 in a row. One away from the record. So there’s that. Maybe the USSC can invalidate this season’s NBA sked.
Loneoak
Have I mentioned how awesome the Packers are yet today?
GO PACK!
wobblybits
@freelancer: Did he just elude to ‘Mad Max”? Can he just let Engel talk?
Boudica
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): Our power went out twice this morning for 15 minutes each time here in Southlake. I heard that the problem was power plants were offline for maintenance (usually less demand this time of year) and were caught with their pants down.
Maude
@BGinCHI:
I can’t satnd Terri Gross. She had Joan Didion on and she asked some of the most cruel questions I have ever heard. Ms. Gideon had lost her husband and then her daughter in a year’s
time. Gross is a shallow prick.
martha
@wobblybits: Yep. Deep, he’s so deep. (Actually, he’s less irritating to me than Katie or Diane, but that’s not saying much…)
debit
@freelancer: Oh my god.
BGinCHI
@martha: Well, one of the show’s mottoes is: “Beer is the sincerest form of flattery.”
So yeah, you’re on the list.
Well played.
Oh, also curds, please.
martha
@BGinCHI: Done. Depending on your schedule, I might be able to procure really fresh ones!
alwhite
@stuckinred:
NO! Nobody should ever have to hear that ass holler about anything. That he is allowed on TV & permitted to speak on anything, let alone investment matters is a sign of how vapid and worthless the infotainment industry in America is.
freelancer
@BGinCHI:
No, but you may see a driver of a truck (ostensibly a pro-Mubarak supporter) beaten viciously, perhaps to death, and placed in the bed of the truck. Disturbing to see it live, to say the least.
BGinCHI
@Maude: She never prepares.
Interviewing the Coen Bros a few weeks ago, she kept asking them questions about True Grit that were idiotic. They were patient; they said “No, but….” and then answered with something else.
You could hire a 10th grader to do her job.
Violet
@wobblybits:
Richard Engel is really good. He lived in Egypt for four years and speaks Arabic fluently. I think he’s got one of the best takes on the whole situation among the American reporters.
BGinCHI
@martha: As long as they squeak the teeth that will do.
wobblybits
@Violet: and Brian Williams is there why again? I have listened a bit to Engel’s reporting (split time between MSNBC and Al Jazeera) and he does so without speculating or going over board but BW, not so much.
Omnes Omnibus
@martha: After 12 years in the minor leagues, I don’t try out.
The Republic of Stupidity
@Nick:
Has Joe Barton issued another apology yet?
Chris
I keep saying, call it “global storming”… :-)
BGinCHI
Oh, now Williams on with Engel. It’s like having Brad Garrett on but without the comedy smarts.
Hey Brian, look up dilettante in the dictionary.
martha
@Violet: Ack, Ed Schultz takes over. He gives me a headache. Richard Engel is really good.
Buck
@wobblybits: Something tells me that Brian Williams is a Brit Hume-wannabe.
I don’t know why that is.
hilts
@Southern Beale:
The PBS NewsHour may have some shortcomings, but in my opinion, it’s still head and shoulders above anything on cable news. You should also check out the BBC. For news from a left viewpoint, I like Democracy Now with Amy Goodman, Free Speech Radio News (fsrndotorg), GritTV with Laura Flanders, and the various members of the Media Consortium (themediaconsortium.org).
I’m not against opinion per se. For me, the problem is the people serving up opinion on cable. I wish I could trade Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, etc right now for Eric Sevareid, Howard K. Smith, Dan Schorr, Edwin Newman, Marvin Kalb, Roger Mudd, and Bill Moyers.
wobblybits
@martha: agreed on both counts
freelancer
Oh and now the American audience watching this unfold gets the Ed Schultz narrative. Great, what? Was Jello Biafra not available. I despise this dude. He’s a hack, the equivalent of every “anchor” on primetime Fox, but for the Left.
wobblybits
@Buck: You might be on to something there.
Loneoak
@BGinCHI:
I just had my first New Glaurus this winter. Great stuff. I have a bottle of their cherry beer in the fridge — I brought it home in my luggage from Xmas.
Bob
@martha: I just turned off the Tvee, How long will Ed last in this time slot?
You Don't Say
@BGinCHI: I thought the same thing when Chris Matthews had Joan Walsh and David Corn discuss Vinson’s ruling.
Hey, anyone know what’s up with Andrew Sullivan? He’s been gone for more than a week. I know he was ill but was expected to be back sooner than this.
Violet
@wobblybits:
I dunno why Brian Williams is there. Nor Katie, Diane, Anderson, etc. I have been wondering how they’ll get out to the airport when/if they need to go. It doesn’t seem like it’s getting any safer.
hilts
@wobblybits:
It’s the GRAVITAS factor. The MSM has to trumpet a story’s importance by sending its top anchors to the scene.
BGinCHI
@Loneoak: Have you had that one before??
The cherry New Glarus is, hands down, the best fruited beer made in the world. Yes, in the world. I’ve had many, many lambics and fruited beers from all over and it just crushes the others.
I’m giving it a 42 out of 10 on the deliciousness scale.
Please report back.
srv
Try not to spit up on your laptop:
BBC Interviewer: Do you believe in Democracy?
Mort Zuckerman: Totally.
BBC Interviewer: Totally?
Mort Zuckerman: Yes
BBC Interviewer: Without question?
Mort Zuckerman: Yes
BBC Interviewer: In the Middle East?
Mort Zuckerman: Uh. Well… No. The Middle East is a culture…
alwhite
You want to know what it will look like? We have seen it in variation several times. You won’t want to be brown, or Jewish, maybe Catholic (remember one of the ‘K’s in KKK wsa for Katholic) or gay, maybe atheist – its tough to figure out who all the ‘others’ will be but you can bet there will be others and the great unwashed will be told how all their problems stem from those others. There will be violence and evil done as we swirl around the drain. The rich will tsk-tsk all this bad behavior from the safety of their gated communities or shelters abroad.
But it will not be limited to the US, as resources dry up and the weather gets worse and worse causing famine no place will be really safe. If anyone survives they will live in a miasma of 19th century squalor, 20th century waste (nuclear and biological sludge) and 21st century diseases. They will envy the dead.
But, then again I’m just an optimist.
Loneoak
@BGinCHI:
Yes, I had one. And bought another to bring home for a special occasion. Deeply saddened that I can’t get it regularly in CA, but I’m trying to talk the beer guy at Whole Foods to look into it.
Bob
@Buck: That’s really mean.
Buck
@srv: Good God…
wobblybits
@Violet: I’m sure they will get out. I’m more worried about the pro-democracy protesters than overpaid newsreaders who have an out. :/
Buck
@Bob: Sorry. :-(
BGinCHI
@Loneoak: Nope. Don’t waste your time.
NG only sells in the state of WI.
It violates my civil rights, but they do it.
Maude
@BGinCHI:
I stopped listening to her. Couldn’t take anymore.
Re: weather,
When I was a girl, the snow came up over the roof tops. There were 10 foot long icicles, the winds blew at 170 miles an hour with gusts up to 299 mph. The temps went down to minus 1200 degrees F.
And that was in the summer.
BGinCHI
@Maude: You must have grown up near Bill O’Reilly.
kdaug
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
Well, shit. I got family in Rockwall. Been there for 30 years or more. I know it’s grown since I last was there, but maybe you know ’em.
Dale and Perry?
Bob
@You Don’t Say: He posted a short message on Monday. He said the doctors told him to get bed rest. Something wrong with his lungs. He said not related to his HIV status.
hilts
@martha: @freelancer:
I’m glad MSNBC killed Ed Scultz’s Psycho Talk segment, now I just wish they’d kill his show altogether.
For me, the only thing worth watching on CNN is GPS with Fareed Zakaria. He’s the only cable news host I can think of who doesn’t dumb down his program to the lowest common denominator.
Buck
I have led such a sheltered life. I have never heard of “fruited beer.”
Having been raised up in SE KY, I know how to make my own elderberry wine. But fruited beer???
Violet
@wobblybits:
Oh yeah, me too. I’m far more worried about the protesters. But it’s interesting to me to watch this unfold in real time. I somehow don’t think that when the networks sent their top news anchors that they thought it would turn this violent. It seems like things are changing so quickly that there is little guarantee that big name news people will be safe. Everything seems very fluid and very uncertain.
Omnes Omnibus
@BGinCHI: That’s what all the complaining about the Commerce Clause is gonna get you. If you think it’s bad now, just wait and see what happens if the the Sup. Ct. overturns the ACA.
wobblybits
@Violet: agreed. I think that BW and company envisioned him pontificating from a location overlooking the place where democracy was born with his leather jacket flapping in the gentle breeze.
BGinCHI
@Buck: It’s an old, old tradition. Belgium and Holland have really fine examples, but so now do many American breweries. It can be sublime when it’s done right, but it has to be done right. If it’s a beer that has “honey” or “wheat” in the name and then fruit I’d avoid it.
scav
@Buck:
Lucky you, to have such a thing still to discover.
Frank
The skin gun it looks like a potential medical miracle.
But science has never done anything important.
Bob
@Buck: just for you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21NCH2sPlhc&feature=player_embedded
Violet
@wobblybits:
LOL. Yeah, that’s pretty much it. It never fails to crack me up how news anchors always wear khaki vests or leather jackets or whatever when they travel to newsworthy locations.
I’m watching all this on MSNBC. This is insane. I can’t imagine how this is going to work out. One of the “Breaking News” alerts said “Americans who want to leave told: ‘Report to airport immediately.'” That sounds pretty ominous.
scav
@BGinCHI: I’ve had some good Weisses.
General Stuck
Fuck me. Not even 8:30 and already 1 degree F out.
New Yorker
It does seem that way at all months of the year. This has been a vicious winter in New York, not because of the cold, but because of the intensity of the storms.
And this comes on the heels of summer in which twice the city was struck by tornadoes. It’s not just the winter storms that are more violent, but the summer ones too.
Well, one can always hope for a massive volcanic eruption to cool the earth off for a while. Pinatubo gave us about 5 years of cooling. We need something several orders of magnitude stronger.
J.W. Hamner
Just put my latest attempt at duck confit in the fridge… this is the first time I’ve tried a really low temperature braise (200 F) and I’m really quite pleased with how it came out. Unfortunately I can’t really know how it worked until I make cassoulet with it, but it seems very promising.
wobblybits
@Violet: The State Department just tweeted for Americans to wait until morning curfew to lift before getting to airport.(posted 4 minutes ago)
BGinCHI
@scav: Fruited?
kdaug
Looks like they torched the truck on the bridge with the guys body in the bed.
Omnes Omnibus
@scav: I’ve also had some good vices, but that’s another story.
martha
@Bob: Not soon enough. I have to say, I didn’t mind him on the radio before he amped it up and became mr. msnbc. Now, can’t stand him on either.
Violet
@kdaug:
I can’t look away but am not sure I want to watch it. It’s like war p0rn or something.
scav
@BGinCHI: nah, standard Weisses. If you meant they fruited it on top of that . . ! Most Am. beers are like Am remakes of movies. Buyer beware.
wobblybits
Ah, thanks Brian Williams, I didn’t know it was a simple as the President’s failure to tell Mubarack to step off and tell the protesters we got your back led to the changes in the attitudes and tone of the demonstrators and demonstrations. (It is always the simplest explanation, isn’t it?)
I am reminded why I was watching Al Jazeera and ignoring the U.S. press.
You Don't Say
@Bob: Thanks. He said he had bronchitis earlier so maybe a bad case of that.
scav
@Omnes Omnibus: Careful, what with BGinCHI bringing up that these are fruited vices, you could get quite the reputation (and perhaps quite enjoy deserving said reputation). . .
Buck
@BGinCHI: and @scav: I can’t wait to try it!
@Bob: Cool, thanks! I loves me some Elton.
@General Stuck:
Post a pic of yourself first, big-boy. (tee-hee-hee)
Steeplejack
@Redshift:
I’ve been wondering about that. I also live in NoVa, and it seems like the local forecasters–even Weather.com–have been wrong about almost everything this winter. The big exception was the rush-hour snow last Wednesday. They called that pretty accurately. But mostly they have been very inaccurate about snow and winter precipitation. I take a more than passing interest in the weather because I am living the no-car, urban hiker lifestyle, and the forecasts seem a lot more inaccurate than they have been in years past.
Buck
I hate moderation hell.
JGabriel
I tend to consider myself an agnostic, but Bill O’Reilly may have just driven me to atheism — because if God really existed, she would never let herself be defended with a rant this fucking stupid.
So … thanks, Bill. For making an atheist of me.
.
Nutella
@Maude:
I copied MsSkwEsq’s comment so it’s more readable:
BD of MN
@BGinCHI: I would agree with you on the 42 out of 10 for the New Glarus, but you need to try a Kasteel Rouge, preferably on tap, it’s the same sort of cherry Belgian deliciousness, but from Belgium directly. (and you can get it without having to drive to Wisconsin…) I gave it about a 45 out of 10…
@Loneoak: Don’t hang on to your bottle too long, it’s not something that will last for years. Not enough alcohol to offset the staling…
Omnes Omnibus
@scav:Fruited or fruity? My vices have tended to be more straightforward.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@kdaug: I don’t know anyone by that name, but I’ll have to run those by my wife. She’s the social one; I’m a programmer.
hilts
@wobblybits:
NBC is ignoring Brian Williams’ natural talent. His strong suit is sketch comedy not journalism. Did you catch him hosting SNL awhile back? He’d make a great addition to the Not Ready for Primetime Players.
scav
@Omnes Omnibus: Then I’ll warp back and quote myself:
Omnes Omnibus
@scav: Actually, when we were in Bruges last year, my wife had couple of cherry beers. I tasted there but was not a huge fan. I’ve had some very good raspberry lambics, but the cherry things have not floated my boat.
hilts
@JGabriel:
Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann would be roommates in a mental hospital, Sean Hannity would be selling hot dogs at Yankee Stadium, Glenn Beck would be cleaning lavatories, Rush Limbaugh would be working at Dunkin Donuts, and Bill O’Reilly would be running a falafel stand.
hilts
h/t http://www.salon.com/news/guns/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2011/02/02/allen_west_concealed_carry
freelancer
OH, FUCK YOU ED SCHULTZ!
kdaug
@hilts:
Unpossible. No donuts left.
hilts
@freelancer:
I’m not watching his show. What did he do this time?
hilts
@kdaug:
How about this? If God existed, Rush Limbaugh would be working at Taco Bell.
scav
@Omnes Omnibus: I’d probably agree on your cherry v. raspberry ranking (Thor preserve me from the Peach). The lambics are grand but I still prefer the basic Trappist Wild Yeast beers. Play with those implications as you best see fit.
hilts
ATTENTION, Brian Williams fans!
BW will be pontificating with Charlie Rose in seconds. Also, Jake Tapper will be weighing in.
scav
Wasn’t somebody asking about volcanoes earlier? There is this from yesterday that may have gotten lost in the scramble: Japan volcanic eruption forces residents to flee. Second eruption in a week and blew out windows 5 miles away.
freelancer
I’m just watching live coverage. And he started bitching about how the Obama administration wasn’t going on national television at 11 EST, nor was he allowing the Press Corps access to their moment to moment decision-making process. As though we need a split-screen live feed to the Oval, and that the State Dept press release that US Government flights out of Egypt will, for all practical purpose, cease after Thursday. That’s a pretty bit wink and a nod as far as what the administration is thinking.
Way to play media WATB and firebagger in the same moment. “Wah! A foreign country is in Chaos! I wanna talk to the head of our country RFN! No fair!”
Dude, go fuck yourself.
ETA: Back to Maddow, she is an FSMsend.
asiangrrlMN
Crap. Watching Richard Engel on MSNBC. Not good.
@Omnes Omnibus: You and I should do a show called News from the Heartland–or some shit like that. We can joke about Cheeseheads v. Vikes during the commercial breaks.
freelancer
@asiangrrlMN:
I don’t have cable. For those of you with DSL but not cable that want to follow along, here is a link.
MikeJ
@hilts: I misread that as Brian Wilson fans. Makes more sense that way.
You never convince me Brian Williams has fans.
asiangrrlMN
@freelancer: I ‘have access’ to cable. justintv is good, too. This is just sobering. Brian Williams is doing a decent job, but I prefer Engel. Who should be back any second now.
kdaug
@hilts: Better. Think he’s got the fake meat thing down pat.
freelancer
@asiangrrlMN:
I know, I’m just putting out info as to where to look. As matoko_chan is so fond of quoting, “Can’t stop the signal”.
jaxtra
i agree wholeheartedly. 20 years ago i started to get sunburned, began saying that something going on with the ozone layer. ever year since i have been noticing steady increases in the severity of storms. living in colorado, san francisco, north carolinas outer banks, and now minnesota. been thinking that it is too late, we are in it, mother nature is pissed and it time to pay the piper. this is nothing, wait till next year and the year after. how many more? your guess is as good as anyones. so, cheers!
suzanne
I bragged too much. It’s 27 degrees outside. In Phoenix. I was wearing a tank top and flip-flops the other day, and I felt like hot shit.
asiangrrlMN
@freelancer: Cudlip.
@suzanne: You are hot shit. It’s minus one here. I love it.
kdaug
@jaxtra:
That’s what my liver says.
freelancer
@suzanne:
I feel worse for Stuck, at the moment. He’s gonna hafta cradle Charlie in a fetal position under 5 blankets for them both to make it through the night.
That said, nothing is worse than having a freezing home. Hugs, and keep an eye on the little ones.
suzanne
Oh, I don’t mind the cold myself. Personally, I think it’s great. However, it’s hard on both the minis. The wind, however, had me fearing for my windows today—it’s really whistling out there. Sounds like a Halloween sound effect.
However, I’ve learned my lesson (again!) about jinxing myself by bragging.
Jeanne ringland
@Violet: You know what really shocked me? Looking at the climate zones in the Sunset Western Garden books. I have one from around 1978, one from 1992 that belonged to my mother-in-law, and newer one from 2001. The zones have all shifted in that brief period and by quite a bit in some areas.
I showed it to my 92 year old dad who had tried to give me some baloney about there being no climate change, and even he was astonished. Then he blamed it on Nature and said we couldn’t do anything to fix it.
Jeanne ringland
@ericblair: Not to mention that there is a point where one finally has Enough Money. We are Angels baseball fans and watch these guys quibble over a couple of million dollars when it comes to their next contract (and no comment is necessary, we know we are screwed this year).
hilts
@freelancer:
Who’s the “he” that you’re referring to? In a previous thread, I linked to an article from The Hill about the WH press corps pissing and moaning that the White House isn’t giving them a nanosecond by nanosecond account of their response to the Egypt crisis. What did Ed Schultz say tonight to piss you off?
Tattoosydney
@General Stuck:
It’s been 96 degrees here all day. If you want I can put some of the heat in a box and send it over to you.
asiangrrlMN
@Tattoosydney: That better be Fahrenheit, or you’re a walking crispy critter. How you be, hon? I am mad because the big snowstorm of the Midwest totally skipped over my part of MN>
Tattoosydney
@asiangrrlMN:
Do you really mean it’s -18 degrees Celsius, or do you weirdos stop using your stupid fahrenheit thing when it actually gets cold and swap over to our much more normal system?
Either way, at this point, I am slightly jealous of your cold weather.
Jeanne ringland
@J.W. Hamner: We’re making cassoulet too (first time) in about a week, and using duck instead of goose to make the confit.
General Stuck
@Tattoosydney:
Please do. Address it New Mexico
Tattoosydney
@asiangrrlMN:
I’ve gotten used to talking in fahrenheit since I started chatting on here. The day started off at about 90 degrees at 7.30am, got up to 97, dropped a bit and now it’s back up to 96. It is apparently going stay at about 94 overnight and all day tomorrow.
Urgh.
Oh well, at least there are no cyclones too close by.
asiangrrlMN
@Tattoosydney: I’m talking Fahrenheit, bay-beeeee! That’s all us Reel ‘Murikans(TM) use! That’s not even the coldest it gets here.
@General Stuck: Do you have a heater? I’m guessing not. If not, how are you staying warm? And, how is Charlie?
General Stuck
@asiangrrlMN:
The ancient gas furnace is about half worthless. I do have a small space heater that is making it bearable. Charlie is fine with his thick coat of fur. i’ll be fine, just hope the water line doesn’t freeze up again. That really sucks big time.
asiangrrlMN
@General Stuck: Well, stay safe. I don’t want my favorite New Mexican General and his sidekick, Charlie to suffer frostbite or anything like that!
P.S. Space heaters are awesome.
Tattoosydney
@asiangrrlMN:
Jesus. I’m not jealous any more. I’m keeping my stifling heat, thanks.
freelancer
@hilts:
It was Ed. He took live footage as it was unfolding in another country, and morphed it into a second guessing of why, perhaps, isn’t the American government isn’t rushing in with the full might of American military power to empower these protesters, who might as well be 21st century Minutemen, and save them in the cause of pure FREEDOM. And that, if anything close to support of the anti-Mubarak forces was occurring, why the FUCK wasn’t it being transparently broadcast to the rest of the world?!
This was the framing given as Schultz and the rest of us watched events unfold live before our very eyes in a part of the world that is still, for all intents and purposes, still its own sovereign country. I found it immediately infuriating in its ignorance and shortsightedness.
General Stuck
@asiangrrlMN:
LOL. Thanks!!
hilts
@freelancer:
Thanks for your explanation. After reading your post, I’m very grateful that I missed Ed Schultz’s program tonight. MSNBC had no business throwing Ed into the deep end of the swimming pool. MSNBC clearly needs to do more tweaking of its primetime lineup and send Ed Schultz to the showers ASAP.
blogreeder
The thing about Climate Alarmist is that for all their talk of science, they can say things like: “…and there is a violent feel to the storms that wasn’t there even twenty years ago” and no one will call them on it.
Violet
@General Stuck:
Yep. That sucks. Have had that happen. You have no water while it’s frozen, and once it thaws you have to make sure you don’t have any leaks and fix them if you do. There is nothing good about that whole experience.
asiangrrlMN
@Tattoosydney: Why not? It’s the awe-sums. I am contemplating doing a nekkid-in-the-snow dance in order to get more snow.
asiangrrlMN
@asiangrrlMN: I would wear my fleece socks and flip-flops, of course.
Suffern ACE
@freelancer: The male members of our press corps and punditry have major masculinity issues. This is really on both sides of the political spectrum. “Hold on protesters! We’ll be there next week with our guns. If you can stand the beating a little while longer, we’ll be there firing shells into your cities until your government completely collapses and your society is in complete chaos.”
I don’t think this is what Obama really wants to say right now.
freelancer
@Suffern ACE:
No shit. That’s why any complication arising from these historical events will be his “fault”.
I used to wish for better leadership. Now I oscillate from the thought that we get what we deserve as a public, and wishing for a mature, educated media.
Arundel
I’m sorry to say I can’t stand Ed Schulz and his red face shouting at me like that. He has good points, but he’s unbearable and not telegenic in the least.
I wonder if that’s intentional.
Suffern ACE
@Arundel: He is panicking. Newt on the other thread calling on the ghost of Ronald Reagan to give us clarity is also panicking. These are men who panic for a living and like to spread it around so that they can get rich, or powerful, and maybe get laid. If they ever really had to stand up to a mob that was willing to beat them with clubs, they would shove old ladies in front of them before receiving a single blow themselves. First order dickheads regardless of ideology.
BruceFromOhio
Mmmm, swapping recipes for open-spit Overlord, with moonshine demiglace, served on a bed of fresh dandelions. Pass the salt!
Benjamin Cisco
@Suffern ACE:__
Yes, but first and foremost is the sincere desire to NEVER have to face the consequences for what they have wrought. Little wonder then that those who follow them are also lacking in courage and honor.
Donald G
It’s currently 12 below zero Fahrenheit on my front porch in Los Lunas, New Mexico. Someone tell me again why I left West Virginia for the Southwest… right, for milder winters. :)
mrmike
Y’know there are plenty of yummy regional beers out there.
I’m sure we could set up some sort of Balloon Juice beer swap collective thingy. I’d be happy to ship some Tyranena, New Glarus, Ale Asylum, etc. “yeast cultures in liquid suspension” and see what ended up coming back to me.
(Note: Shaggin’ in the Wood not included in this offer. Those are all mine)