Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

“But what about the lurkers?”

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

People are complicated. Love is not.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

I really should read my own blog.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

This fight is for everything.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Everybody saw this coming.

Let there be snark.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

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Reader Interactions

110Comments

  2. 2.

    burnspbesq

    The headline on the NYT page got me thinking that “the 50 workers” are going to take a place alongside the 47 ronin in Japanese cultural iconography.

  3. 3.

    JGabriel

    Hey, seems like you haven’t been around in a while, Erik. What’s going on? I hear you’re doing some good stuff over at Forbes, although that seems a kind of odd choice for good stuff. Pearls, swine, etc.

    Of course, I’m sure the people at Forbes would think the same of us here at Balloon Juice … if they knew who we were or gave us any thought at all.

    .

  6. 6.

    TBogg

    Not to argue with you but… I fucking hate that song. It used to come on the radio every morning when the alarm went off and my delicate wife could be heard to mutter: “That band should die in a fucking plane crash.”

    So, to sum up: not a fan.

  7. 7.

    Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)

    “…cuz none of them can stop the time.”

    I have a weakness for Rastafarian hogwash.

  8. 8.

    Mark S.

    I finally got my bracket done. At first it told me the balloon juice group was full and I was going to cry myself to sleep. For some reason it worked the second time. It said there were 499 entries before I joined, so that makes me the lucky 500th!

  9. 9.

    mr. whipple

    This is a jaunty uplifting type of song that makes me want to thrown them in a melting reactor.

  10. 10.

    sfinny

    Rule number 349 is do not listen to music videos after midnight. That darn song is firmly in my head and surely won’t help my insomnia.

    But hey, good to see you Ed.

  14. 14.

    jnfr

    I’m hanging around the house worrying. Mr. J is away on a business trip so I’ve got nothing else to do but watch the news and worry.

  15. 15.

    Omnes Omnibus

    If you bring m_c down on this place again, you and I will have words. I don’t want to drive to Arizona, but I will do what needs to be done. Just sayin’.

  19. 19.

    sfinny

    @wag: Man I love that song to bits. Sadly my cassette tape has broken and I have not yet moved into this decade as far as music delivery. Still have my walkman held together with duct tape.

  20. 20.

    Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)

    @Omnes Omnibus: I’m pretty sure she’s still bansville.

    freelancer does an awesome m_c impression if you need a fix though.

  22. 22.

    freelancer

    I can’t stop listening to the leaked Explosions in the Sky album.

    Also, this song that was used in the Friday Night Lights series finale is so full of win, I can’t listen to it without breaking out in goosebumps.

    Good to have you back EDK. I was gonna say, now that you’re letting your freak flag fly, you’re not allowed to do anymore GBCW posts.

    Here’s one more EITS track from “Take Care, Take Care, Take Care”, called “Let Me Back In“. Let it just sit and play for 5 or 6 minutes, and it goes from minimalistic to bursting with creativity.

  26. 26.

    JGabriel

    E.D. Kain:

    Well, I think it’s a noble cause [the WI recall effort] with a decent but not great chance of success.

    If the Dems & unions can collect enough signatures in the top 4-5 districts, then I think they’ve got a pretty good shot at the recalling the 3 State Senators necessary to flip the WI Senate.

    In one district, the Democrat has a wide lead, while Democrats in two districts have narrow leads, according to DKos/PPP. Make the further observation that, in a recall election focused on collective bargaining, the Democrats are likely to be more motivated — then their turnout is likely be higher, increasing that narrow lead.

    It’s still a while away, but I think the odds are pretty good, let’s say 2-1 in favor of the Dems. Provided that they can get the signatures, and that the petitions survive the inevitable legal challenges.

    .

  27. 27.

    Mark S.

    Here is Nate Silver’s bracket. Using wussy mathematical models, Nate boldly predicts all four top seeds in the final four. Using real Merkin gut instincts, I’m picking only three top seeds.

    Is it just me or is the Southeast bracket pretty weak?

  28. 28.

    MattR

    @asiangrrlMN: For the record, that outfit is beyond the limits of what I am willing to subject Ellie to. You can try to convince Cole to put Lily in it though.

    @Mark S.: Yes. Yes it is.

  30. 30.

    BR

    @burnspbesq:

    Indeed.

    The level of dedication it takes to go into those nuclear plants, with radiation, fires, earthquakes, and hydrogen explosions… it’s hard to imagine.

    I also never knew how big the long-term cleanup effort might be:

    To clean up the Chernobyl site after the accident, the Soviet Union conscripted workers in proportion to the size of each of its republics, and developed a system to limit their exposure.
    __
    “They sent up to 600,000 people in to clean up the radioactive debris around the plant and build a sarcophagus,” said Dr. John Boice

    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/world/asia/16workers.html

  31. 31.

    burnspbesq

    @freelancer:

    My senior year in college, I did morning drive two mornings a week on the campus radio station, so I got to decide what came on a thousand people’s radios when the alarm went off. It’s an awesome sort of power, and sad to say, I abused it egregiously.

    Example: the morning of the MCAT and GMAT, the song that reverberated around campus immediately after 7:00 a.m. was (this will come as no surprise to you) “What Do You Want from Life?”

  32. 32.

    asiangrrlMN

    @MattR: Aw, come on. She would be soooo cute in it! But, I do think Lily would actually wear it with a modicum of good humor. Or, for laughs, I can try to get Cole to coax Rosie into it. Snort.

  33. 33.

    burnspbesq

    @Mark S.:

    It’s not just you. The Southeast is the weakest region.

    “Our Kyrie’s back and there’s gonna be trouble …”

  34. 34.

    suzanne

    I’m great, thank you. Loving my new job almost as much as I love having a paycheck. (HOLY SHIT I GET MONEY NOW!) How are you, ombudsman?

  37. 37.

    MattR

    @burnspbesq: Pitt could lose in the second round or it could make the Final Four. I think your Blue Devils are gonna get through (enjoy that kiss of death) along with Ohio State and one of the Big East teams in the Southwest, Louisville or Notre Dame.

    Watching the roast of Donald Trump. The Situation seems like slightly less of a douche than I imagined. He at least has the ability to laugh at himself.

  38. 38.

    wag

    An interesting take from the Times on the meaning of Godzilla to the japanese people in light of the current events there. I had always approached Godzilla as pure camp, without understanding the real roots from whence he sprang

  39. 39.

    suzanne

    @asiangrrlMN: Awww, thanks. :) Both the little one and the not-so-little one are great. I am looking forward to a pedicure this weekend as my first-paycheck-present-to-myself. I havw to buy some new work clothes, too, ’cause this place takes clothes seriously.

  43. 43.

    RossInDetroit

    I like that video but might not like the song without it.
    It reminds me of Blanche.

    I’m in a cranky mood so I’m listening to The Spinanes really loud.

  47. 47.

    burnspbesq

    @MattR:

    As it happens, I live ten minutes from the Honda Center, the site of the regional in which Duke will play if they survive this coming weekend. I will likely go to the Sweet Sixteen on Thursday night, but I will be on a plane en route to London when the regional championship game tips off on Saturday.

  49. 49.

    sfinny

    Lurker begging: I have a car that does not work (well it drives but has no brakes) that I want to donate. Many of the online donation groups seem suspect. Asked IAVA if they had any recommendations, but they don’t. Does anyone here have a group that is reliable?

  51. 51.

    burnspbesq

    The kid takes his road test for his driver’s license tomorrow.

    Tension around here is so thick you’d need a chain saw to cut through it.

  52. 52.

    Turgidson

    @TBogg:

    Ha! I wouldn’t go that far, but a couple of my close friends who I usually agree with about music got really obsessed with Edward Sharpe when that album came out, and I never got into it, then grew very tired of it as they made me listen to it in their cars and such to try to get me to change my mind.

    I guess I tried the same shit on them to try to get them to like Deerhunter, with the same results. The issue, of course, is that I’m right and they’re wrong. Microcastle >>> Edward Sharpe.

  59. 59.

    Comrade Mary

    Here’s something a little sweeter and mellower: Mission Bells by Armistice, an impromptu Canadian supergroup composed of Coeur de Pirate — the lovely girl with all the tats — and the lead singer from Bedouin Soundclash.

    Oh, and HI! ERIK!

  61. 61.

    BR

    @sfinny:

    You can contact your local PBS station and donate it to them (they do it via an agency that handles the donations). Just search for your local station and “car donation” in Google.

  63. 63.

    sfinny

    @asiangrrlMN: My local radio station is WNYC which hosts the car talk guys. Personally I love them and already donate annually. Was hoping that I could find someone who needed this more, but will probably end up with your suggestion.

  64. 64.

    PanAmerican

    Japan says it is ready to ask the US military for help in battling the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant, the AFP news agency reports.

    Asahi newspaper reports that according to TEPCO, the operator of the troubled nuclear power plants in Japan, US military personnel were involved in fighting the fire in Reactor Number 4 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

  65. 65.

    RalfW

    @burnspbesq: Sky news now reporting all reactor staff withdrawn.

    Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the workers dousing the reactors in a frantic effort to cool them needed to withdraw. “The workers cannot carry out even minimal work at the plant now,” Edano said.

    It must be really, really bad. May FSM have mercy.

  66. 66.

    sfinny

    @BR: Thank you both to you and asiangrrlMN. Sounds like that is good option and giving a donation now is especially rich. F/U defunders of NPR, I am giving my car, that doesn’t work. Well maybe it is not quite the strong statement but I try my best :-).

  69. 69.

    Calouste

    France is urging all its nationals to leave Japan and has asked Air France to make planes available for the evacuation. Two planes are already underway.

  70. 70.

    opie_jeanne

    @RossInDetroit: A good friend who teaches voice in the Lancaster, CA area also directs choir at her local Methodist church, and she has a choir made solely of womens’ voices. She just got back from a convention in Chicago and posted this on her FB page. She’s really fired up right now.

  74. 74.

    RossInDetroit

    @Comrade Mary:

    That’s a really nice song. I hear all the time that ‘modern music all sucks’ but only from people who make no effort to find stuff they like. Yes, a Canadian boy with a learner’s permit is popular. Ignore him and follow your own taste.
    Thanks for the nice recommendations today. I spent the afternoon listening to Neko Case and now I’ll have to go find more Beatrice Martin.

  76. 76.

    Chris Wolf

    I’ve heard the song a million times, never saw the video…I gotta say that they look exactly as I imagined them.

  77. 77.

    Mart

    Alabama Arkansas??? why the hell the shoot in the desert west?

    Me thinks with the Grammy’s giving a nod or two to Mumford and Sons and Arcade Fire; the “industry” is giving this genre a shot at the next “grunge” movement. (Lord knows they need something.) My 24 and 22 year old’s and their “hippie” friends dig it. OK by me, as I spent my whole life making them listen to music I like, not teen pop or the ugliest of rap/death metal. Electric folk worked for me in the late 60’s and early 70’s; these groups work fine now.

  79. 79.

    opie_jeanne

    @GregB: My adult daughter has been living with us temporarily and I hear this coming from her room sometimes.

    The lead singer’s voice reminds me of someone else, but I can’t think who.

  80. 80.

    Uriel

    Cudlip! you can’t stop the signal with your Big White Christian Bwana moral equivalence head fake! Why aren’t you talkin about the demographic time bomb and how Assanges system-killer is actually WAI so far?
    It is running RIGHT NAOW! Admit it, Doug J trolled you at LOG. NAOW i’m AABTTHWNHHCLDGSGWVEGSGD!

    (Sorry, with makoto banned, I thought someone should step up and welcome you back in a manner you would find familiar, and dare I say, comforting… Yes, I dare.)

  82. 82.

    Mnemosyne

    The Giant Evil Corporation that I work for announced today that they will match employee contributions for Japan to the Red Cross or Save the Children, so I’ll probably be doing that after I get paid this week. And probably throw some (unmatched) money to Doctors Without Borders, too.

  86. 86.

    opie_jeanne

    @Mnemosyne: Driving to Phoenix from LA today we were trying to find a radio station and I stopped on one long enough to hear Rush ranting about only giving to liberal charities because the Japanese were a bunch of rich bastards and we shouldn’t send our money to them, only to liberal charities. I swear, I still don’t know what the feck he was talking about even though I know it was supposed to be sarcasm. One of the charities he mentioned was Doctors without Borders. Are they in the cross-hairs these days?

  88. 88.

    Yutsano

    @burnspbesq: May the saints and angels have mercy on you tomorrow. Cause the drivers of California won’t. Ganbatte kudasai.

    @asiangrrlMN: If I get the new rig in the next few months I’ll be donating my old car, which will be sweet for them since it runs and drives and they can sell it instead of trashing it. Though I keep waffling on making the jump just yet. I got the cash it’s not that, I’m just being a wuss.

  89. 89.

    opie_jeanne

    @Mnemosyne: I realize I came in on the station mid-rant, but the rant still makes no sense at all. I can’t figure out what the starting point was, because who just writes a freakin’ check to a foreign government instead of to a charity, when giving to a cause?

  96. 96.

    Suffern ACE

    @opie_jeanne: He didn’t want us to help Haiti because it was too poor. Can’t help Japan because it is too rich. He’s just picky, that’s all. It’s the scene in Goldilocks that is often deleted.

  97. 97.

    Peter

    I doubt anyone is going to top El Cid’s masterpiece from the last thread m_c had with us. That was incredible.

  98. 98.

    freelancer

    @Peter:

    I doubt anyone is going to top El Cid’s masterpiece from the last thread m_c had with us. That was incredible.

    If you had a link, I’d be more than willing to concede the prize. The “Cid” is a brilliant and funny guy.

  101. 101.

    Dennis SGMM

    @sfinny:
    A few months ago we donated a car to NPR. Like you, I had tried a couple of other organizations but they wanted me to jump through all of the hoops. NPR took care of it with one phone call and their truck arrived just when they said it would to pick up the car. They even provide you with the necessary form for your tax deduction.
    Edit: They also provided the form for release of liability.

  103. 103.

    suzanne

    Awww, matoko got banned?! Sad. How I enjoyed her senseless, linguistically-challenged ranting.

    This is what happens when I go and get a job. I miss stuff.

  106. 106.

    RossInDetroit

    @GregB:

    This tune by Florence and the Machine has been my ear worm lately.

    The Dog Days are Over.

    There’s a whole lot of modern R & B sound in that. It makes more sense if you close your eyes and ignore the weird visual spectacle. A little Amy Winehouse maybe?
    I can see how that would get stuck in your head.

  109. 109.

    RossInDetroit

    @sneezy:

    Man, that song is awful.

    Meaning Florence and the Machine? Over singing is the modern style. It’s too bad. Not everything sounds best blasted flat out all the way through. Dynamic contrast matters. I’d like to hear what Holly Cole or Rachel Yamagata could do with that. It’s catchy.

  110. 110.

    sneezy

    @RossInDetroit:

    “Meaning Florence and the Machine?”

    I don’t know who Florence and the Machine are. I just mean that the song itself is awful. As soon as they start playing, I wish they would stop. Musically, I don’t like anything about it: not the whistling, not the rhythm guitar part, not the melody, nothing. To me, it’s unlistenable.

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