Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Republicans in disarray!

75% of people clapping liked the show!

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

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

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

You are here: Home / Books / Saturday Evening Open Thread

Saturday Evening Open Thread

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Don’t know if there will ever be another BJ Book Group, but I’m looking forward to reading Wonkette‘s latest recommendation:

The U.S. State Department has been known to make noise about protecting free speech around the world. Writers and bloggers, the department says, should be allowed to publish their opinions even if they conflict with government dogma. But these freedoms are granted to humanity by the State Department under the strict condition that the people practicing the free speech live in a distant land, and that the government they annoy is just some bearded bogeyman religious regime like in Iran, or an inscrutable oligarchy like in China. Tell uncomfortable truths about U.S. policy, or so much as mention “Wikileaks,” and the American Authorities will hound you like a furious baboon (a furious baboon-hound, we mean). Hence the current jihad against Peter Van Buren’s We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People. We have read and reviewed this delightful book!
__
Van Buren is a Foreign Service officer who spent a year in Iraq (2009-2010) heading two “reconstruction teams” assigned to rebuild Iraqi infrastructure and “win hearts and minds.” What Van Buren saw in Iraq during the “civilian surge,” however, was mostly waste, futility, and criminal insanity.
__
It’s not often your Wonkette book reviewer recommends “topical” books, but we recommend this book wholeheartedly. It’s savagely funny, hugely entertaining and 100% free from political and media clichés. Best of all, it’s filled with vivid (and grimly hilarious) pictures of the actual “reconstruction of Iraq.”…

More information, and hilarity, at the link.

Any other recommendations for books… or other ways to spend a weekend?

Reader Interactions

113Comments

  1. 1.

    Betsy

    I posted this below for lack of an open thread, but now there’s this here shiny one…

    This seems to me like a Big Deal. But be warned – there is some horrifying violence discussed in this article. Not for the faint of heart.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/world/domestic-workers-convention-may-be-landmark.html?hp

    I just wrote both my senators the following:

    Dear Senator——,

    I’m writing to urge you to ratify the convention on the rights of domestic workers passed by the International Labor Organization of the UN, referenced in this article:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/world/domestic-workers-convention-may-be-landmark.html?hp

    These girls and women are some of the world’s most vulnerable, least visible workers, and they deserve our protection.

    Thank you.

  3. 3.

    Phylllis

    Reading The Age of Innocence on my Kindle. Waiting on Karl Marlantes’ new book, What it is Like to Go to War from the library.

  5. 5.

    General Stuck

    The 99% rebellion has swept into my little burg in the middle of everywhere, pitting fowl against The Man. The heavy hand of government stooges and their oligarchic puppetmasters have been stood up to in this little Pleasantville of the hi desert.

    SILVER CITY – Silver City District Court will decide whether a decision to fine a local resident for keeping chickens within the city limits is fair or foul.

    Polly Cook, owner of Javalina Coffee House, was fined $157 Aug. 17, 2011, and told to give up her chickens after a Silver City Municipal Court found her guilty.

    “I haven’t paid the fine and I haven’t gotten rid of my chickens,” Cook said Monday.

    Fuckin’ A Polly, We are with you fighting the finger licking good fight, so the banksters and other shifty profiteers and black helicopter types, don’t drive poultry out of our town, and out of our skillets.

    “I’m going to be using my gross receipts to fight this,” Cook said about her appeal. “It’s unbelievable, the amount of people I’ve had come up to me and tell me, ‘Fight the good fight.'”

    Air fucking borne!!

    Let Polly Cook her chickens.

    “Get rid of the chickens, contained or not,” he wrote. “This is a town, not a farm town. If she (Polly Cook) wants chickens, then let her move outside of the city limits.”

    Bankster fascist, no doubt.

    Amber Luikart is one of Cook’s supporters and created the Facebook group “SC Chicken Revolution”

    Viva La Chicken Revolución!!

  10. 10.

    Amir Khalid

    If you’ll pardon a digression…

    I must object to the misuse of the term “jihad” in the quote from Wonkette. (And, for that matter, most places where it is used by non-Muslims who don’t quite understand the term.)

    A jihad is any righteous effort — not necessarily (and, indeed, rarely) one involving force of arms. True, war in a righteous cause qualifies as jihad; but so do the far more common, non-violent efforts to make the world a better place, and oneself a better person. And by the tradition of the Hadith, the latter kind of jihad is by far the greater.

    A person trying to expose the truth, such as Peter van Buren, is the one conducting jihad. Those who mount a whispering campaign against him are the enemies of jihad.

    And now, m_c will hijack this thread trying to pick an argument with me. Sorry about that.

  15. 15.

    beltane

    @Bnut: What, you mean you don’t own a yacht? How can you survive without a least one yacht?

    Isn’t it nice that Yachts International lets dirty poor people such as ourselves peer into their website? Now go out and hug a rich person just like Laura Ingraham says.

  16. 16.

    Corner Stone

    May I suggest a review of Capitulation: The Mindset and Mental Errors of the Weakminded as the next entry?

  19. 19.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Amir Khalid:

    Alas, “jihad” has some of the problems that “war” has in the United States. Such as the “war” on poverty, the “war” on cancer, the “war” on terror, the “war” on drugs, the “war” on Christmas, and, last but not least, Bill O’Reilly’s “war” on the ACLU for defending the Bill of Rights.

    My favorite response to the “war” on terror thing is that it’s pretty much the equivalent of a “war” on flanking maneuvers. You’re warring on a damn tactic.

  20. 20.

    Bruuuuce

    I know it’s old, but I’d love to see B-J discuss Sinclair Lewis’ It Can’t Happen Here. Because it came close to happening here, and still could if enough people are suckered persuaded into voting against their interests Republican in 2012 or thereafter.

  21. 21.

    Chris

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Course, it ain’t a war on terror any more than the war on crime is a war on crime. It’s a war on Other People, specifically Islam as far as most of the conservative base is concerned.

    I’ve been wondering since the Ground Zero Mosque if George Bush would be the last Republican President to publicly say that fighting terrorism and fighting Islam weren’t the same thing. What with the teabagger shibboleths and litmus tests and all.

  23. 23.

    MikeJ

    Has anybody read All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis? I just loaded it on my nook but haven’t started yet.

    Yesterday I read a cracking good sci-fi adventure, Ready Player One. Great fun, a one sitting read, although being in the demo meant that I actually solved one of the puzzles before the people in the book. Not great lit, but a good read.

  25. 25.

    Chris

    @Bruuuuce:

    If you’re talking about Nazi books, I enjoyed Paxton’s “An Anatomy of Fascism” too, but that’s a very different kind of reading material… I’ve never read “It Can’t Happen Here,” but I wouldn’t mind if that was the next one.

  26. 26.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Chris:

    My criticisms of George W. Bush are of course too many to list without taking over the entire thread, but I’ll say this; two of his notions, that we’re not warring on Islam and that Latinos are not terrible people have been thoroughly rejected by the 27%, which is probably why they consider him to be a “liberal.”

  28. 28.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I’m in Savannah this weekend. Work-related, although I fully expect to enjoy myself (once I recover from having to be sentient alive at 7 o’clock in the A fucking M tomorrow). And because Monday’s a holiday, I’ll earn some sweet comp time for working/travelling on normal days off.

    I’m too tired from the drive, and need to turn in early because of the thing at sparrow-fart tomorrow, so I’m just having a drink and bite of supper in the hotel. But if anyone knows Savannah and wants to give me a suggestion for lunch and/or dinner tomorrow, I’d be glad to see your recommendations. NOT Paula Dean’s place, please.

  30. 30.

    Uncle Clarence Thomas

    .
    .
    @General Cluck:

    Viva La Chicken Revolución!!

    I thought Nevadans paid their taxes and bartered for goods and services such as medical care with chickens, General Cluck.
    .
    .

  31. 31.

    Chris

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    I agree on both counts.

    I never thought much of it at the time. If you’d brought it up for most of his presidency, I’d probably have said wow, okay, so he’s not a bigot, what does he want, a cookie? I appreciate it slightly more now that the teabaggers are laying bare just how much of his constituency (e.g. almost all of it) is viciously bigoted, and just how important that is to them. He was still a horrific president, but I appreciate that he’s not quite as bad as he could have been.

  32. 32.

    Uncle Clarence Thomas

    .
    .

    so much as mention “Wikileaks,” and the American Authorities will hound you like a furious baboon

    That’s because President Obama has got this, so chill the fuck out.
    .
    .

  33. 33.

    Amir Khalid

    @Chris:
    I’m all too aware that a Tea Party president — President Cain? — might well be that crazy, but reality would surely intervene (he said optimistically). A Republican president still has to stay on friendly-enough terms with the Saudis, simply because it would be crazy to jeopardize America’s access to Saudi oil. The State Department would surely not endorse giving Israel a free hand to … oh, I see what you mean.

  34. 34.

    catpal

    I heard about that book while briefly listening to NPR and the interview had some great quotes that should be Headlines.

    “In Iraq, we had money everywhere.”

    “It was literally in boxes you had to step over. At one point in time, I had $100,000 in a safe in my office.”

    “I felt like a drug dealer pulling out bundles of money.”

    I keep pointing this out to those so-called, suddenly-now fiscal conservatives.

    Interview here

  35. 35.

    cathyx

    Since this is an open thread, I’m going to ask for help. I’m going to be 1970’s Cher for halloween and I need some help. I’ve got the wig, and I’m going to make some pants, but I’m not sure what style top to wear. Pictures? Suggestions? Nothing risque please.

  38. 38.

    Bruuuuce

    @Chris: Thanks for the rec; I’ll definitely put it on the list.

    FWIW, I read It Can’t Happen Here after a mention by David Neiwert at Orcinus, which I wish he were still writing; I appreciate his hard work at Crooks & Liars, but his solo work, especially the material on fascism and neofascism, was always fascinating to read.

  39. 39.

    Cat Lady

    @cathyx:

    Bell sleeves, lots of fringe, bare midriff. Indian (feathers, not dots.) Can you find a cute little blonde girl who wants to be a boy to go with you?

  45. 45.

    B W Smith

    @SiubhanDuinne: I love Savannah. You should have fun. I have three suggestions. Moon River Brewing on West Bay is great for lunch. It is a fun, upbeat and moderately placed restaurant.It reminds me of Sweetwater Brewery in Atlanta. For elegant and pricey dining, you could try Elizabeth on 37th or The Olde Pink House. It would have to be dinner because I don’t think they serve lunch on Sunday. Both are kind formal so don’t show up in jeans. There is a pretty good seafood restaurant on the causeway going out to Tybee Island but I can’t remember the name, Williams, maybe. It’s casual and not expensive. Be sure to go to River Street Sweets. They have the best pralines you will ever taste outside on New Orleans.

  48. 48.

    B W Smith

    Oops, no editing…I meant Moon River Brewing was moderately priced, not placed. BTW I hate Paula Dean’s Lady and Sons…way overrated.

  50. 50.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @B W Smith:

    Thanks for the suggestions! I’ve been here before, but always with conventions or conferences or groups. This is the first time I’ll have a modicum of choice. I don’t wear jeans ever, but assume casual slacks and a jacket are okay for Elizabeth or Olde Pink. I’ll check before I embark.

    Thanks for the praline tip. Love pralines, and also want to find someplace that sells really peppery (as in cayenne-hot) benne treats. Maybe River Street Sweets can take care of that, too.

  51. 51.

    Cacti

    Normally I don’t care that much about the American League playoffs, but…

    As long as the Rangers have George W. Bush as their guest of honor, I always know who I’ll be rooting against.

  52. 52.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @cathyx:

    Nothing risque please.

    You can’t go as 70’s Cher, then :P

    On Edit: I see I owe too many people to mention without breaking WP a refreshing fizzy beverage.

  54. 54.

    handsmile

    @Bruuuuce: (#21)

    A month or so ago, I tossed that very recommendation (It Can’t Happen Here) into an open thread, but there were no bites. Happily, it seems you have sparked some interest.

    With each passing day, Lewis’s fable of the electoral triumph of a fascist party, operating under the guise of populism, in the United States and its consequent imposition of tyranny seems alarmingly prescient.

    Robert Paxton’s The Anatomy of Fascism (as recommended above by Chris #27) is simply authoritative on the subject.

    Another related work of fiction is Nazi Literature in the Americas, by the late Chilean author, Roberto Bolano. This purports to be an encyclopedia of fascist writers and other literary figures in North and South America. Contrary to its forbidding title, the novel is quite amusing in its parade of mediocrities and charlatans.

  56. 56.

    Bruuuuce

    @cathyx: Sure. Headband’s okay. For good images of her during the time you’re thinking of, try searching “Sonny and Cher Show” at Google Images.

  59. 59.

    cathyx

    @MikeJ: That’s the one picture I got that I’m replicating the pants of. Fur vest or indian with fringe vest? The top is what I was struggling with.

  60. 60.

    Bruuuuce

    @handsmile: Another one for the list, then. Thank the gods for ebooks, or I’d be hauling a trailer just for the “To Read” list (rather than carrying them all around on my phone). I love physical books, but for convenience, nothing beats etext.

  62. 62.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @cathyx:

    Alice in Wonderland. Hair band pulling the hair back off the forehead. avoid for Cher look.

    You want a band similar to a classic Indian headband that encircles the head parallel to the ground.

    If it still doesn’t make sense I will try to find pictures for you of what I mean.

  63. 63.

    Chris

    @Amir Khalid:

    Well, that’s one reason why I seriously hope the Masters Of The Universe manage to keep control of the Republican Party (as opposed to having their hand forced too much by the teabagger base). I’m not thrilled to see how their “we are at war with Islam!” belief would translate into foreign or civil rights policy.

    As for placating the Saudis, though… the Saudi royals have always had a great relationship with our political and business elites. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind an upsurge of Islamophobia over here too much, as long as it wasn’t directed too close to them (and their relationship with the MOTU can help guarantee that it wouldn’t be). If, say, it were just a few American Muslims getting rounded up Palmer Raids style, the Saudis wouldn’t give a damn, and the spice oil would still flow.

  65. 65.

    Corner Stone

    If you can’t imagine yourself in a thong with fishnet stockings then maybe Cher isn’t the icon for you.

  66. 66.

    Chris

    @Bruuuuce:

    I think parts of it are available online (at Amazon for example) if you want to check it out. Like Handsmile says, it’s pretty authoritative. Good overview of how fascism arose and evolved during its rise to (and eventually control of) power. Also some good overviews of fascism in a lot of different countries, which helps explain not only why it came to power in Italy and Germany, but why it failed to come to power in other countries like France or Britain.

    Thanks for the Neiwert recommendation, I’ve never read anything by him but I’ll throw him onto the list too. Fascism’s as morbid a subject as it is fascinating.

  72. 72.

    Svensker

    @cathyx:

    Head band would not be really accurate, but as an homage, it could work…:)

    ETA: And I see she’s wearing a headband in the top pic on my link. See what getting old does to the memory?

  74. 74.

    cathyx

    Ok, so I’m thinking I should incorporate some Indian style with the headband and either fur or fringe vest, my striped bell-bottoms, and fur boots. If I can find the right halter top, I’ll add that too, for you desperate guys.

  75. 75.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Now, see, this is why I LOVE Balloon Juice. Where else could you find detailed instructions on what to wear as ’70s Cher, a discussion about books on the fascistic takeover of the United States, restaurant and dress code recommendations for Savannah, yachts as necessities of life, and a lovely nuanced definition of “jihad” in one thread? I love this place.

    SD +3

  78. 78.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @cathyx:

    I sort of don’t think it matters how thin or thick the headband leather strap is, because I doubt there are going to be that many Cher Nazis checking for authenticity.

    I could be wrong.

  85. 85.

    Nellcote

    Recommending Sarah Vowell’s “Wordy Shipmates”. Aside from being short, humourous and shocking in places, it gets to the fundamental divide in much of our current politics. Bonus proto femist Anne Huchinson!

  86. 86.

    cathyx

    @Nellcote: I suppose the time between late 60’s and early 70’s. No bangs but still in bell bottoms. I have pictures of myself during that time and I looked like kind of like that. Except I was about 10.

  90. 90.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @B W Smith:

    I agree about the voice, but seriously, go to your local Barnes & Noble and check out the magazine section (“Food ‘n’ Shit”) and just have a good look at her face. Skeery.

  96. 96.

    burnspbesq

    @MikeJ:

    “Has anybody read All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis? I just loaded it on my nook but haven’t started yet.”

    Yes. Well reported, well written, and infuriating. You won’t enjoy it, but you’ll be glad you read it.

  99. 99.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Bnut:
    @Bnut:
    @Bnut:
    @Bnut:

    Okay, wild guess here, is it sort of like Rule 34? And Roll Tide?

    (Already knows before hitting Submit that will be modded for too many links. Going to bed. Does not care.)

  101. 101.

    Sarah Proud and Tall

    Cher Nazis

    I infiltrated a group of Cher Nazis in the early 90s. It was a long couple of months. Those string and sequin outfits ride up horribly, and there’s absolutely nowhere to pin your swastikas.

  102. 102.

    keestadoll

    “A People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn is QUITE timely, and oddly enough, I’m just reading the chapter on the late 19th century Populist movement. Some of the quoted speeches are EERILY contemporary:

    “We meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political and material ruin. Corruption dominates the ballot box, the legislatures, the Congress, and touches even the ermine of the bench. The people are demoralized… The newspapers are subsidized or muzzled; public opinion silenced; business prostrate, our homes covered with mortgages, labor impoverished, and the land concentrating in the hands of capitalists.

    The urban workmen are denied the right of organization for self-protection; imported pauperized labor beats down their wages; a hireling standing army… established to shoot them down… The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes… From the same prolific womb of governmental injustice we breed two classes – paupers and millionaires…” Oh, and not quoted in APHUS but from the same speech:

    “We have witnessed for more than a quarter of a century the struggles of the two great political parties for power and plunder, while grievous wrongs have been inflicted upon the suffering people. We charge that the controlling influences dominating both these parties have permitted the existing dreadful conditions to develop without serious effort to prevent or restrain them.”

    Christ all mighty.

  103. 103.

    suzanne

    @efgoldman: I had adult braces, too. At one point, the orthodontist put these torture devices in my mouth to correct my overbite that worked similar to a headgear. He assured me that I’d be able to eat normally, speak normally, and then he said that I’d still be able to “enjoy my lifestyle”. I asked what that meant, and he squirmed and said, “You know, your lifestyle.” them I realized that my orthodontist was calling me a whore.

  104. 104.

    Corner Stone

    @SiubhanDuinne: There’s only one class of junkie. If they thought they could pull the fillings from the corpse of a buried dead child to sell for junk they would.
    Like I said, predictable.

  106. 106.

    Cermet

    Right – like any of this is true. Next, someone will say that a C-5 filled with twenties was flown into Iraq with say, eight billion dollars and somehow, all the money disappeared without a trace … wait, that did happen. bush the ass licker and cheney the asswipe are war criminals and the greatest thieves this country has ever selected via a junta.

  107. 107.

    Samara Morgan

    just checkin to see if im timed out again.
    do you know what you balloonjuicers are?
    the 21st century equivalent of geo-centrists.
    you think the world revolves around America.
    maybe it did…..but pretty soon it wont any longer.

    vox populi, vox anon

  109. 109.

    Samara Morgan

    That is why the book i recommended is worth a read.
    Galtung– i dont know why AL doesnt want you to see this, but his daughter was on Utoya. She is the girl that lived.

    And because after the Arab Spring….the American Fall.

  110. 110.

    4jkb4ia

    The Finkler Question. Completely awesome–really clever and really funny. Was waiting for a chance to say that for weeks.

    (Disclaimer: My Mom couldn’t finish it and is waiting for me to tell her what it was about.)

  113. 113.

    Samara Morgan

    Again, AL….Khalid doesnt know what hes talking about.
    you do not need witnesses to become a muslim.
    Khalid belongs to some sort of maftoon islam i guess.
    hahahaha

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