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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Dog Bites Man (This is Very Good News For John McCain)

Dog Bites Man (This is Very Good News For John McCain)

by Tom Levenson|  October 5, 20117:45 pm| 52 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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The sound of fifteen minutes ending.

Image: François Boucher,  Madame de Pompadour, 1756

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Previous Post: « Bank Conglomeration: This is Why We Occupy Wall Street.
Next Post: R.I.P. Steve Jobs (1955-2011) [Updated with Video of 2005 Stanford Commencement Address] »

Reader Interactions

52Comments

  1. 1.

    dmsilev

    October 5, 2011 at 7:46 pm

    That means that she’s going to change her mind in a week and decide to run after all, right?

    In much sadder news, Steve Jobs has died. RIP.

  2. 2.

    singfoom

    October 5, 2011 at 7:47 pm

    This isn’t the end of the 15 minutes, this is the beginning. Since she’s not running, she can go out there and talk to the folks about our American way of life and grift her way through the rest of her life.

    Maybe she’ll fade into the background, but she’s not leaving that limelight willingly, you betcha.

  3. 3.

    soonergrunt

    October 5, 2011 at 7:47 pm

    MSNBC is reporting that Steve Jobs has died at age 56.

  4. 4.

    arguingwithsignposts

    October 5, 2011 at 7:48 pm

    RIP, Steve Jobs.

    Here’s the page at Apple’s web site. They have an e-mail for remembrances.

  5. 5.

    Cain

    October 5, 2011 at 7:53 pm

    RIP: Steve Jobs.. it is an end of an era.

  6. 6.

    The Dangerman

    October 5, 2011 at 7:53 pm

    I had the Republicans nominating one of either Palin or Perry; clearly, I was FOS. Won’t be the last time.

    Still, I could see her leading a 3rd Party run (see last sentence, previous paragraph).

    I just don’t see Romney exciting their side; shit, maybe they’ll nominate Cain. Now, THAT would be a hoot.

    Edit: Pancreatic cancer is a bitch; RIP, Steve.

  7. 7.

    JCT

    October 5, 2011 at 7:54 pm

    I still have a cool pic of Steve holding open the door to the Apple Cube on 5th Ave the day it opened — stood in line in the rain with my teenager.

    Apple products have enriched my work and life.

    Way too young — so unfortunate.

  8. 8.

    Tom Levenson

    October 5, 2011 at 7:54 pm

    @arguingwithsignposts: Shit.

    That is all.

  9. 9.

    Jenny

    October 5, 2011 at 7:55 pm

    I’ve got 99 problems, and palin ain’t one of them.

  10. 10.

    Davis X. Machina

    October 5, 2011 at 7:55 pm

    I always liked the bit at the end where Sarah jumps on the tailgate of the truck with Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson and rides out of town…

  11. 11.

    DFS

    October 5, 2011 at 7:56 pm

    My dad brought home one of the very first 128K Macs one day.

    I hated that computer and I hated my father for it, because my friends with IBMs and Commodores had all the good games.

    Some things you just don’t appreciate so well when you’re a kid.

  12. 12.

    andy

    October 5, 2011 at 7:57 pm

    When he quit Apple I knew it was only a matter of time. Through his devices and software he brought people together, expanding the creative process and letting millions make things and share them.

    It’s a sad that individuals who make a positive difference seem to check out before their time, yet social parasites like Palin and Limbaugh keep scuttling along- stuffing their pockets and making things and people worse, not better…

  13. 13.

    Jenny

    October 5, 2011 at 7:59 pm

    Steve Jobs died on purpose just to push Palin off the front page.

  14. 14.

    Comrade Mary

    October 5, 2011 at 7:59 pm

    Steve Jobs was important, and I am sufficiently petty to take some twisted delight in the fact that his death will deprive the screeching harpy of a fair chunk of public attention.

  15. 15.

    Short Bus Bully

    October 5, 2011 at 8:00 pm

    Steve Jobs, best salesman on the planet, EVAR. Sold you something that you could get for half the price anywhere else by making you unofficially part of the cool kids club by proxy. What a bunch of bullshit.

    Also too, fuck Sarah Palin.

  16. 16.

    Social outcast

    October 5, 2011 at 8:00 pm

    Steve jobs will blow palin out of the news cycle. Nobody cares today, Sarah. Make another announcement Monday if you want the attention.

  17. 17.

    JCT

    October 5, 2011 at 8:00 pm

    @andy:

    It’s a sad that individuals who make a positive difference seem to check out before their time, yet social parasites like Palin and Limbaugh keep scuttling along- stuffing their pockets and making things and people worse, not better…

    We have a corollary to that in the Emergency Room, it’s always the nice folks who have the bad outcomes….

  18. 18.

    Mnemosyne

    October 5, 2011 at 8:01 pm

    My whole office is abuzz about Steve Jobs. Palin who?

  19. 19.

    JPL

    October 5, 2011 at 8:01 pm

    Steve Jobs was a visionary who changed the way we use technology. He will be missed.

    edit..who’s is this Sarah person .. She didn’t even give me cake..

  20. 20.

    Corner Stone

    October 5, 2011 at 8:02 pm

    @The Dangerman:

    Still, I could see her leading a 3rd Party run (see last sentence, previous paragraph).

    That takes a whole hell of a lot more work than going the trad route. And less media adulation.
    Nope.

  21. 21.

    Corner Stone

    October 5, 2011 at 8:03 pm

    @Short Bus Bully:

    Steve Jobs, best salesman on the planet, EVAR. Sold you something that you could get for half the price anywhere else by making you unofficially part of the cool kids club by proxy. What a bunch of bullshit.

    I like where you’re going here. Is there a second stanza?

  22. 22.

    JPL

    October 5, 2011 at 8:06 pm

    @andy: What was surprising to me was I just spoke to an adult son who knew Jobs was going to beat it. He worked until the end of August. He chose to live while he could and maybe there is something to that.

  23. 23.

    Arclite

    October 5, 2011 at 8:10 pm

    Sucks that Jobs died so young. I actually got a shock reading that he was dead. I despise Apple’s walled garden and strong arm tactics, but there’s no denying that they’ve been the biggest technology trendsetter over the past decade, and extremely influential over the past three.

  24. 24.

    chopper

    October 5, 2011 at 8:11 pm

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    figured it was coming. he’s one of those dudes who would quit only when he’s about to croak.

  25. 25.

    Mnemosyne

    October 5, 2011 at 8:16 pm

    I was trying to find a Salon piece about Jobs from a few years ago in their Brilliant Careers series, but it looks like they’ve taken them all down. Feh. Basically, it was positing him as the greatest marketer in history because he was able to figure out what people would want if it was invented, not just what they said they wanted.

    Say what you will, haters, but he’s the one who put the internet in everyone’s pocket. Other people had other ways of doing it, but he’s the one who figured out the way that would be the most popular and the easiest for the largest number of people. I know a 101 year-old woman who looks things up on her iPad every day.

  26. 26.

    Marty

    October 5, 2011 at 8:16 pm

    If you refresh her facebook wall you can see her scrubbing the comments in real time. That’s one way to find amusement.

  27. 27.

    Short Bus Bully

    October 5, 2011 at 8:16 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    Is there a second stanza?

    Only this: A lot of people want their tech to LOOK like future tech. Enter: Apple. Others just want to get the job done and want it cheap. Enter: Me.

  28. 28.

    Linda Featheringill

    October 5, 2011 at 8:17 pm

    Nice painting.

    I seem to remember something about Madame Pompadour having the cutest . . . . . personality.

  29. 29.

    Warren Terra

    October 5, 2011 at 8:17 pm

    I’m in Short Bus’s camp about a lot of what Apple has achieved – I think it’s a triumph of marketing and human interface, not of technology, and I get furious with every new Apple product launch at how the press treats them like they invented a product from scratch when it has obvious predecessors – but let’s not overlook that word “triumph” there. Apple’s innovation may have been mostly in marketing, but it was unbelievably good at that, and achieved levels of success with their marketing of some products (windows-based interface, MP3 player, recreational smartphone, lightweight tablet) that I think they genuinely did speed the world towards embracing those product ideas. It’s not really Apple’s fault, and certainly not Jobs’s fault, that the media treated each new campaign as being a brilliant new product, when in fact it was just a brilliant new sales pitch for their version of a preexisting product – but, again, emphasis on brilliant.

  30. 30.

    Corpsicle

    October 5, 2011 at 8:21 pm

    @Short Bus Bully: Wow, great job on combining douchebaggery and factual inaccuracy in the same post.

  31. 31.

    Regnad Kicn

    October 5, 2011 at 8:21 pm

    @Warren Terra: Dood. Interface is the tech, here.

  32. 32.

    Arclite

    October 5, 2011 at 8:24 pm

    @Short Bus Bully:

    Only this: A lot of people want their tech to LOOK like future tech. Enter: Apple. Others just want to get the job done and want it cheap. Enter: Me.

    This describes me. Although, with my new Samsung Infuse smartphone and my custom built PC with black sci fi styling and blue LED fans, I’ve sort of got it both ways these days…

  33. 33.

    Arclite

    October 5, 2011 at 8:30 pm

    I think it’s awesome that the grifter’s thread got totally hijacked by the death of someone who actually accomplished greatness in his life: Steve Jobs.

  34. 34.

    Uncle Clarence Thomas

    October 5, 2011 at 8:31 pm

    .
    .
    @Short Bus Bully:

    Others just want to get the job done and want it cheap.

    Macintosh has always had a lower total cost of ownership – which doesn’t even include all the wasted time – and has always been the favored platform of creatives (“makers of things”). However, if all you need to do is data entry or web browsing, practically any working device will do.
    .
    .

  35. 35.

    robertdsc-PowerBook

    October 5, 2011 at 8:31 pm

    Also too, fuck Sarah Palin.

    Mmm, starbursts.

  36. 36.

    waratah

    October 5, 2011 at 8:46 pm

    How long have been holding this painting in reserve for a post of Miss Prissy? I love it Tom.

  37. 37.

    batgirl

    October 5, 2011 at 8:49 pm

    I’m shocked, just shocked, to find Sarah Palin not running. /sarcasm

    Where is jwest? Wasn’t he telling us just the other day that Palin would be the GOP nominee for President?

  38. 38.

    The Moar You Know

    October 5, 2011 at 9:04 pm

    I want to know who paid her to bow out, and how much.

  39. 39.

    Corner Stone

    October 5, 2011 at 9:14 pm

    @The Moar You Know:

    I want to know who paid her to bow out, and how much.

    Sheesh, are you kidding?
    No one on the planet outside of some RedState simples ever thought she was going to try a run.

  40. 40.

    de stijl

    October 5, 2011 at 9:39 pm

    @JPL:

    who’s is this Sarah person .. She didn’t even give me cake..

    There is no cake. The cake is a lie.

  41. 41.

    Tom Levenson

    October 5, 2011 at 9:39 pm

    @waratah: I believe that Madame Pomadour and Madam Palin were fated to meet.

    You betcha.

  42. 42.

    RossInDetroit

    October 5, 2011 at 10:18 pm

    Microcomputers and I go back to the mid ’70s. I remember when an Apple computer was a circuit board sold from an ad in the back pages of Byte. I liked that Apple because they were hands-on machines & that’s my orientation.
    But they had to become something different to be the dominant brand. Apple now is the Disney of the personal tech field. I get why that is, and what other choices I have for my own purposes.

  43. 43.

    Irony Abounds

    October 5, 2011 at 10:29 pm

    @Marty:

    Her not running is going to cause the economy to dip. Having all of those facebook scrubbers laid off because of lack of interest in her facebook page is gonna hurt. Of course, she’ll blame Obama for the increase in unemployment.

  44. 44.

    cckids

    October 5, 2011 at 10:29 pm

    @Tom Levenson:

    I believe that Madame Pomadour and Madam Palin were fated to meet.

    i have to object on behalf of Mme Pompadour. She was intelligent, talented & educated; she was a power behind the throne of Louis the XV. She considered Voltaire a friend & corresponded with him regularly. Doubtful that Sarah knows or respects anyone of similar depth of thought.

  45. 45.

    Joe

    October 5, 2011 at 10:41 pm

    I’m with cckids. Madame Pompadour hid the galleys of Diderot’s Encyclopedia in her chambers to save them from the bonfires of the Catholic censors. I’ve always admired the lady.

  46. 46.

    Harv

    October 5, 2011 at 11:06 pm

    Shorter Sarah: “Presidentin’ is hard work”

  47. 47.

    Tom Levenson

    October 5, 2011 at 11:06 pm

    @cckids: Well, there is that. But that picture, you have to admit, works for the story, don’t it?

  48. 48.

    Splitting Image

    October 6, 2011 at 12:00 am

    Well, there is that. But that picture, you have to admit, works for the story, don’t it?

    Not really. Not if you know much about the lady. As a couple of people have already remarked, Pompadour had exquisite taste and a longer list of accomplishments than nearly all of the men of her day. If I wanted to sully her memory by comparing her to a modern Republican, I’d probably choose Karl Rove.

  49. 49.

    Death Panel Truck

    October 6, 2011 at 12:47 am

    Others just want to get the job done and want it cheap. Enter: Me.

    I paid $1,300 for my former iMac. It lasted eight years, and still worked when I replaced it. My brother owned three PCs in the same time period.

    I bought a new 27-inch screen iMac last year. Paid $1,600 for it. This thing will last 10 years.

  50. 50.

    JenJen

    October 6, 2011 at 1:42 am

    Leave it to Sarah to finally miss the media news cycle.

    I’ll cop to occasionally trolling the comment section of Mediaite. And, for the first time ever, I gotta say the liberals are winning. And it’s pretty fun.

    My favorite exchange so far? A pissed-off Palinite saying that she was a liberal creation and liberals made her rich; a liberal responding that libs didn’t give her money; the Palinite saying “no but you gave all your money to Odumbi!” and someone else coming along to say “So you gave your dollars to a slacker sitting on her couch, we gave our dollars to the guy sitting in the White House. Thanks for making our argument for us.”

    In a way, we should enjoy this moment to its fullest. We’ve waited a long time.

  51. 51.

    gelfling545

    October 6, 2011 at 7:44 am

    Actually, this is one thing that MIGHT be good news for John McCain Some people will forget what he tried to do to our country without Palin reminding them every 10 seconds.

  52. 52.

    grumpy realist

    October 6, 2011 at 1:49 pm

    Madame Pompadour will continue to be remembered and written about in history books. Sarah Palin? In 40 years she’s going to be the answer to a trivia question on a political wonk test.

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