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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread

Open Thread

by $8 blue check mistermix|  September 16, 20117:48 am| 53 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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For your enjoyment, this video and an open thread, all for free.

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Previous Post: « Electoral College Roundup
Next Post: You Can Always Tell A Harvard Man (And Woman)… »

Reader Interactions

53Comments

  1. 1.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    September 16, 2011 at 8:04 am

    Off to work. Nice and cool outside. Under 50 degrees.

    That is all.

  2. 2.

    schlemizel - was Alwhite

    September 16, 2011 at 8:21 am

    finished my 18th treatment yesterday – 15 left. The actual pain is minimal right now & the Dr. seems surprised by that, he says I am in better shape then should be expected. I have found that my taste is not gone, but gone to hell. Everything tastes like shit, metallic & chemical, gag inducing sludge. While I could swallow food the only way I can eat now is to drink liquids to get through it as fast as I can. Got an Rx for an anti-nausea drug that helps a bit. Lost 8 lbs last week. Not the diet plan I would recommend though.

    I’m sick & tired, can hardly stay awake for more than a few hours at a time.

  3. 3.

    Lee

    September 16, 2011 at 8:26 am

    Got an Rx for an anti-nausea drug that helps a bit.

    Do you live in a Rx MJ state?

  4. 4.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    September 16, 2011 at 8:29 am

    Today I’m wrapping up two laptop repairs, changing out the heater core and alternator on the wife’s car and then fucking off for the rest of the day.

    If it’s nice I may drag the motorcycle out and go for a ride.

    @schlemizel – was Alwhite:

    Whoa, that sounds pretty rough. It’s good that the doc is happy with your progress so far. Watch the health and eat as best you can.

    Good luck and I hope the news stays good at your end.

  5. 5.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    September 16, 2011 at 8:31 am

    @Lee:

    Good idea, that’s what I use for nausea too. Should have thought to ask that…lol! Probably too much anti-nausea drug. :)

    Too much?! Never!

  6. 6.

    Ivan Ivanovich Renko

    September 16, 2011 at 8:32 am

    So why do I have an ad inviting me to join Ron Paul’s “Constitution Day Money Bomb” on Saturday?

    Like I’m gonna give that fucker anything but an upraised middle finger.

    (It was a rhetorical question, before anyone actually tries to answer, ok?)

  7. 7.

    jeffreyw

    September 16, 2011 at 8:40 am

    @schlemizel – was Alwhite:
    Pretty food pics help?

  8. 8.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    September 16, 2011 at 8:42 am

    @schlemizel – was Alwhite:

    Try powdered whey protein mixed with milk, juice or water, whatever you can handle. I lived on it when my jaws were wired shut. Broth, too.

  9. 9.

    schlemizel - was Alwhite

    September 16, 2011 at 8:44 am

    @Lee:
    Nope – would be interested to see if it helped

    @jeffreyw:
    Oh God NO! – I can’t watch the food channel because EVERYTHING looks good. I saw a Papa Johns commercial & craved pizza so bad (and I don’t like PJs). its torture.

  10. 10.

    PurpleGirl

    September 16, 2011 at 8:55 am

    @schlemizel – was Alwhite: I hope the treatments are successful and that you feel better real soon.

  11. 11.

    Mino

    September 16, 2011 at 8:56 am

    Jebus love me–It’s raining this morning.

  12. 12.

    jeffreyw

    September 16, 2011 at 9:01 am

    @schlemizel – was Alwhite: Oops! Sorry!

  13. 13.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    September 16, 2011 at 9:08 am

    @schlemizel – was Alwhite: Thanks for putting it all in perspective this morning. I hope science has progressed enough to help you beat your disease and humanity has advanced enough to care for the rest of you. Peace.

  14. 14.

    JPL

    September 16, 2011 at 9:09 am

    @schlemizel – was Alwhite: It’s amazing that you already finished half of the treatments. I’m sorry that you are feeling awful and hope that the next weeks pass quickly.

  15. 15.

    schlemizel - was Alwhite

    September 16, 2011 at 9:11 am

    @Comrade Javamanphil:

    I have taken to calling the treatments the Total Perspective Vortex. Only problem is I ain’t Zaphod Beblebrox baby.

  16. 16.

    El Cid

    September 16, 2011 at 9:13 am

    Jimmy Carter was on Rachel Maddow’s show last night. He thought it was a really good idea for Obama to have drafted the jobs bill and then use the “bully pulpit” to sell it directly to the American public.

    Fucking emobagger.

  17. 17.

    kdaug

    September 16, 2011 at 9:16 am

    @Mino: Wanna trade? I can set you up with some (newly) sub-100 desertification…

    Putting on some insane chicken soup in the crockpot this AM. Way too much garlic, ginger, and Hatch Green Chilies. A heapen’-handful (i.e., “no, seriously, that’s too much”) of Kamfir lime leaves in a cheesecloth. Udon noodles and some leftover rice at the end. Served with tortilla chips, cilantro, and extra lime juice on top.

    If it don’t clear out your sinuses, it ain’t soup. And if you don’t like it, get the fuck out of my kitchen.

  18. 18.

    cleek

    September 16, 2011 at 9:16 am

    @El Cid:
    and if there’s one guy who Obama needs to listen to about being a successful President, it’s Jimmy Carter.

  19. 19.

    MKSinSA

    September 16, 2011 at 9:19 am

    @Mino: Same here in Central TX! I think it’s called rain … just been too long since I last saw water fall from the sky.

  20. 20.

    Mino

    September 16, 2011 at 9:23 am

    @cleek: Still have the hate on for Carter?
    He might say a thing or two about Blue Dogs and shivs in the back.

  21. 21.

    Mino

    September 16, 2011 at 9:23 am

    @MKSinSA: Are you in San Antonio?

  22. 22.

    El Cid

    September 16, 2011 at 9:26 am

    @cleek: Unemployment was down ever single year under Carter until the Fed began cranking up interest rates. There was much greater income equality and distribution. And so forth. Carter was leading in the polls to Reagan pretty much right up until the Iranian Islamic fundamentalist forces in the revolution took the hostages.

    Of course, if the standard now is that Jimmy Carter is too unstable a firebrand ‘prog’, then it perhaps might be time to retire the stereotype.

    Oh, I forget — the new gospel is the absurd history that not only did “the [white] left” have its very real inept or even harmful effects, this vastly powerful force actually torpedoed every single Democratic opportunity for victory since Hubert Humphrey, so, fuck you you radical leftist / William Calley-supporting Georgia governor Carter.

  23. 23.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    September 16, 2011 at 9:27 am

    @schlemizel – was Alwhite: :) The first Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster is on me when you are better.

  24. 24.

    Mino

    September 16, 2011 at 9:27 am

    @kdaug: Well it sounds delicious. And I already have the desert–had it for 9+ months pretty much.

  25. 25.

    kdaug

    September 16, 2011 at 9:40 am

    @MKSinSA: No, wait… y’all are getting rain?? I’ve heard of the sky-water legends, but I have no empirical evidence to support the myth.

  26. 26.

    cleek

    September 16, 2011 at 9:42 am

    @El Cid:

    Unemployment was down ever single year under Carter until the Fed began cranking up interest rates.

    so, good things are to the President’s credit and bad things are not?

    There was much greater income equality and distribution.

    and, punk rock was born! the late 70’s were a glorious time.

    i have no idea what you’re trying to say in the 2nd and 3rd paragraphs. you’re apparently speaking in some kind of code that i wasn’t trained in. my fault!

  27. 27.

    MariedeGournay

    September 16, 2011 at 9:43 am

    Amusing video.

  28. 28.

    Phyllis

    September 16, 2011 at 9:53 am

    Breezy and much cooler here. And we’re supposed to see skywater today and tomorrow. Gonna need the long sleeve t-shirt for the football game tonight.

  29. 29.

    BruinKid

    September 16, 2011 at 10:16 am

    Saw Garfunkel & Oates in concert with Sarah Silverman a few weeks ago here in L.A. They are so incredibly awesome, beautiful, and raunchy as hell.

    And I saw a screening of the new Ph.D. Comics MOVIE last night, where the cast and crew showed up as well for a Q&A session afterwards. :-)

  30. 30.

    Paul in KY

    September 16, 2011 at 10:30 am

    @cleek: That was just too easy for you, wasn’t it?

  31. 31.

    cleek

    September 16, 2011 at 10:35 am

    @Paul in KY:
    most things are.
    cause i’m awesome.

    @Mino:

    Still have the hate on for Carter?

    “still” ? do i have a reputation for hating Carter?
    “hate” ? i don’t hate Carter. he’s just not high on my list of successful presidents.

  32. 32.

    FlipYrWhig

    September 16, 2011 at 10:40 am

    @El Cid:

    Jimmy Carter was on Rachel Maddow’s show last night. He thought it was a really good idea for Obama to have drafted the jobs bill and then use the “bully pulpit” to sell it directly to the American public.
    __
    Fucking emobagger.

    Did he think that by doing so Obama would definitely make the jobs pill get passed? Because that was the key to the “bully pulpit” conversation: the “emobagger” position was that Obama got worse bills than he could have because he didn’t use the bully pulpit enough. IMHO it’s a good communications and campaign strategy, next-to-useless legislative strategy.

  33. 33.

    FlipYrWhig

    September 16, 2011 at 10:43 am

    @El Cid: Of course, as you know, the white left despised Jimmy Carter, giving rise to the Ted Kennedy primary challenge.

  34. 34.

    Mino

    September 16, 2011 at 10:46 am

    @cleek: And one could argue that Reagan had a most successful presidency. He retired in good regard and his VP won election. But it rather does make a difference what the aims of their respective presidencies were, does it not? What rational economic historian, looking at our own times, would not prefer the successful one be reversed.

  35. 35.

    Mino

    September 16, 2011 at 10:49 am

    @FlipYrWhig: The pattern seems to be get elected, get drawn right by the coalition of Republicans and the right wing of your own party, infuriate the left, lose influence.

  36. 36.

    schlemizel - was Alwhite

    September 16, 2011 at 10:51 am

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    I have this dr. approved concoction – 1 cup whole milk, 1/3 cup dry milk powder, a protein mix (the actually recommend Carnation Instant Breakfast because it is cheap) its about 400 cal. I sometimes add vanilla ice cream (Haggen-Daz has the highest cal count I could find). And a banana.

    I have casein protein powder that I am using until it is gone, supposed to be slower digesting.

  37. 37.

    schlemizel - was Alwhite

    September 16, 2011 at 10:53 am

    @BruinKid:

    I LOVE G&O – I wish I could see them live, that would be a real treat!

  38. 38.

    FlipYrWhig

    September 16, 2011 at 10:57 am

    @El Cid: F’rinstance, Carter’s speeches on energy and conservation used the bully pulpit for all it was worth. Excellent! Did it lead to legislative victories? There’s a distinction, I think, between how presidents should raise consciousness about issues and how they should shepherd legislation through a Congress where even his own party is hesitant to act on those issues.

  39. 39.

    FlipYrWhig

    September 16, 2011 at 11:04 am

    @Mino: Pretty much, except that I think that you’re implying that “infuriating the left” _generates_ the loss of influence, and I wouldn’t say that. Maybe “the left” should think about their persistent state of fury and consider grading on a curve, so to speak, rather than convincing themselves that the Nth Democratic president is betraying them way worse than the N-minus-1th Democratic president ever did. President N-minus-1, that guy was a fighter who knew what he stood for, not like President N, who keeps stabbing them in the back and getting pushed into compromises.

  40. 40.

    Mino

    September 16, 2011 at 11:04 am

    One caveat, just to be fair to my previous statement. I was not paying much attention to the details of polictics back in Carter’s time; in fact, a lot of Americans were exhausted by all the sturm&drang and just wanted some normalcy. Perhaps Carter was a little Blue-Doggy, himself– his background would suggest that.

  41. 41.

    flamingRedDingo

    September 16, 2011 at 11:14 am

    hadn’t heard of Garfunkel & Oates before this. Thanks..

    Reminds me a bit of Stephen Lynch, but honestly, I think these two pull it off better…

    Pregnant Women are Smug is hilarious…

    Cheers.

  42. 42.

    Mnemosyne

    September 16, 2011 at 11:20 am

    Plugging away on my new pre-Code movie blog, but I want to get a few more reviews under my belt before I open for business.

  43. 43.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    September 16, 2011 at 11:52 am

    @FlipYrWhig:

    Of course, as you know, the white left despised Jimmy Carter, giving rise to the Ted Kennedy primary challenge.

    Carter’s problems dealing with a Democratic Congress did not come from the left (white or otherwise) however. They came because he didn’t forge good relationship with the (mostly Blue Doggy) Democratic Senators needed to get legislation thru The World Greatest Deliberative Obfusticating Body, a mistake that Obama and his team have bent over backwards not to repeat. Case in point being the way that Carter mishandled his rollout of changes to federal water policy which backfired badly with Senators, especially those from the western US where the Bureau of Reclamation and its projects were a sort of concrete lined horn-of-plenty from which all goods things flowed.

    ETA: in other words Carter shot himself in the foot (when it came to dealing with a Senate controlled by his own party) by attempting to be all bully and no pulpit, and got his ass handed to him on a platter for his trouble.

  44. 44.

    Amir Khalid

    September 16, 2011 at 11:54 am

    Has anybody seen this Atlantic Monthly story about Elizabeth Warren yet? It looks like good news for liberals.

  45. 45.

    TooManyJens

    September 16, 2011 at 12:00 pm

    @El Cid:

    Jimmy Carter was on Rachel Maddow’s show last night. He thought it was a really good idea for Obama to have drafted the jobs bill and then use the “bully pulpit” to sell it directly to the American public.
    __
    Fucking emobagger.

    Carter failed to hit on the key points of firebaggerism: he didn’t call for the President to be primaried, he didn’t gleefully predict that he would lose next year, and he didn’t call him a secret right-winger who wants to destroy Social Security and Medicare, hates gays, and doesn’t care about black people. Hell, he didn’t even call him weak and inadequate. Carter needs to step up his game if he’s going to join the Hamsherite ranks.

  46. 46.

    Mino

    September 16, 2011 at 12:27 pm

    @FlipYrWhig: Sometimes I feel like the infuriated left is Cassandra. They are more often right than wrong in seeing the end result of policies, and nobody listens to them.

  47. 47.

    Ben Cisco

    September 16, 2011 at 12:40 pm

    A very cool 58 degrees with rain inbound here in Banktown. Just got tasked for three new builds; they’re going to start sticking people on the roof soon ’cause we’re out of space.

  48. 48.

    AnnaN

    September 16, 2011 at 12:40 pm

    Sigh. NSFW that!

  49. 49.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    September 16, 2011 at 12:44 pm

    @schlemizel – was Alwhite:

    I think Creation I.B. has a lot of sugar in it. I bought non-trendy powder at Target that was fairly inexpensive.

  50. 50.

    Joseph Nobles

    September 16, 2011 at 2:11 pm

    Hey, the Economist noticed that Megan McArdle was talking out her posterior re: Solyndra.

  51. 51.

    Anonymous37

    September 16, 2011 at 2:20 pm

    Best correction ever:

    Correction, Sept. 16, 2011: This story originally misidentified the title of the Sir-Mix-a-Lot song that Sarah Palin sang along with. It is “Baby Got Back,” not “I Like Big Butts.”

  52. 52.

    TooManyJens

    September 16, 2011 at 2:32 pm

    @Joseph Nobles: What were the odds?

  53. 53.

    Brachiator

    September 16, 2011 at 3:58 pm

    Don’t know if this great send up of Ayn Rand from gizmodo has been mentioned in an earlier open thread:

    That pretentious kid from high school/college/life who cited Ayn Rand quotes about the glory of self-interest and the triumph of the free market, despite being kind of a broke-ass loser? He’s about to start masturbating: Atlas Shrugged, the app.
    __
    Now, the sterile prose and pseudo-philosophy of Ayn Rand can accompany you to the beach, or on the bus! The $15 iPad version contains the full unabridged text, with lots of talk about skyscrapers and stoic men and whatnot, along with audio and video recordings of Ayn Rand herself, should you need to perform an enhanced interrogation on someone.

    Good times.

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