Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

He really is that stupid.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

This fight is for everything.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

As long as McCarthy is Speaker, the House will never be in order.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

You can’t love your country only when you win.

A consequence of cucumbers

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

Their freedom requires your slavery.

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56Comments

  2. 2.

    Warren Terra

    Since this is an Open Thread, I’d just like to wish everyone a happy Palindrome Day today, 2011 11 02.

    Enjoy it appropriately and fulsomely – won’t be another one until February (21 February 2012), or until 2020 if you’re consistent about how you format your dates.

  5. 5.

    Violet

    Since this is an open thread, does anyone know anything about Biometric Screening? It’s something that the company is “encouraging” us to do for our health insurance. By “encouraging” I mean not charging another $50/month in costs if we do it. Seems to be some kind of check of basic stuff like cholesterol, BP, etc. Seems incredibly invasive to me.

    I know, I know, I’m very, VERY lucky to even have health insurance. I’m grateful. But last year we had to take a health assessment. This year we do the health assessment AND the biometric screening. What’s up next year? Installing a camera in our kitchens? Making us wear a monitor to make sure we don’t eat or drink too much? Where will it end?

    Plus, they say it’ll be confidential, but I’m quite sure that if someone is a big risk, that info will somehow magically become available to the company.

    Our health system sucks.

  6. 6.

    scav

    I’m just musing and grinning a lot at the thought of various talking heads bemoaning the lost days of traditional ‘mercan society where a black man could make sexy jokes in front of women without comment.

  7. 7.

    PeakVT

    “These measures were agreed… as punishment after the vote at UNESCO,” a senior government official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

    Via the other Cole.

  10. 10.

    Steve

    @Violet: I have been hearing more about this sort of thing lately. It seems to be a growing trend.

    If they say it is confidential, then it is very likely to remain confidential as there could be big trouble under HIPAA et al. if the company got its hands on the information and fired someone for being a health risk.

  14. 14.

    Professor

    @Violet: It is some kind of electronic digital form of identification. It involves among other things, taking digital images of you pupils, facial bone structure etc. Just like a DNA. These things do NOT change with with age necessarily. In my neck of woods, we use that method for our passports. This ensures that nobody can fake our passports! But there are several ways to skin a cat (not TUNCH)!

  15. 15.

    Mnemosyne

    @Violet:

    They do it here at my Giant Evil Corporation, with some pretty major incentives. You get $100 for filling out the health survey, $100 for doing the biometric screening and $100 if you have a normal BMI. You can either take (heavily taxed) cash or put the money into your Flex account. However, none of it is mandatory — you get the extra money if you do it, but there’s no penalty (like higher insurance costs) if you don’t.

    I’ve been pretty open with my bosses about my various issues (like having finally been diagnosed with ADHD at 42!) but, then, I’m in entertainment where everyone has a shrink, so it’s no big deal. If I were in a different field, I would worry more.

    ETA: “Biometric” in this case means checking your cholesterol, BP, weight, etc. I’m pretty sure it’s not the same thing as getting a biometric ID that someone referenced above.

  16. 16.

    General Stuck

    The Cain Mutiny is in full swing, gobbling up every ounce of political oxygen in the media, and no doubt giving Karl Rove the galloping vapors watching the GOP POTUS clown car sprout wings and a tale. Perry needs to give one of his folksy speeches, then shotgun a can of Lone Star brewski on national teevee. We be good to go then.

  17. 17.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @Warren Terra:

    Palindrome Day

    At first glance I read “Palindrone” and was thinking it was a day for hunting wolves with unmanned helicopters or something.

  19. 19.

    Mnemosyne

    Since it’s an open thread, I found Bryon Widner’s story absolutely fascinating as he went through months of extremely painful laser surgery to have his facial tattoos removed after he left the White Power movement. Hard to argue that people can’t change when they’re willing to go through months of physical pain to prove that they have.

  21. 21.

    Hill Dweller

    Ugh. The link to Pierce’s blog didn’t show up in my last post. Just go read it at his place.

  23. 23.

    The Moar You Know

    @Hill Dweller: Haven’t even read it yet, but I can never pass up a chance to mention just how much I loathe that right-wing ass-kissing jerk Brokaw.

  26. 26.

    burnspbesq

    Santa Anas are blowing. That’s why you’re crabby, ABL.

    Fire season came late this year, but it came. It always comes.

  27. 27.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @The Moar You Know: “the Polonius of the Corn Palace”. Beautiful, and so apt since, IIRC, Polonius the fool thinks he’s a philosopher? I don’t see Brokaw becoming the new Bill Moyers, maybe the new David Broder. I have to say I was disappointed in O’Donnell for not challenging Brokaw’s “both sides have their Limbaughs”. O’Donnell is easily the clubbiest of MSNBC talking heads, even moreso than Tweety.

  28. 28.

    Mnemosyne

    @WereBear:

    Depends on the program — here at the Giant Evil Corporation, they don’t charge you extra depending on the results, but you don’t get the extra cash if your results aren’t within the parameters.

    I wonder if it also has to do with state law, though — California still has halfway decent worker and consumer protections, so it’s possible that California law doesn’t allow them to use the results that way.

  30. 30.

    Hill Dweller

    Benen has a nice rundown(and good links with more details)of Brewer’s power grab in AZ.

    This dovetails nicely with Pierce’s take on Brokaw’s ‘both sides do it’ horseshit. Brewer is going to destroy a committee with 2 Dems, 2 Republicans and an Independent because the redistricting map they came up with wasn’t partisan enough.

  31. 31.

    WereBear

    @Mnemosyne: What annoys me about the parameters is that they are often meaningless; cholesterol, for instance, means nothing, while the triglycerides, as a marker of inflammation, are very valuable.

    My cholesterol is considered high, but my triglycerides are very low. Fortunately, I have an enlightened doctor who pronounces me healthy; which I believe I am.

    But I’m “supposed” to be on statins!

  32. 32.

    Mnemosyne

    @burnspbesq:

    “There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands’ necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.”
    __
    – Raymond Chandler

  33. 33.

    Mnemosyne

    @WereBear:

    I wouldn’t say that the markers are necessarily meaningless, but they definitely require interpretation. It’s the problem with all metrics — the numbers themselves are useless if you can’t put them into a context.

    ETA: For example, it’s silly to insist that someone who’s overweight but also has normal blood pressure and cholesterol is unhealthy, but if someone is overweight with high blood pressure and high cholesterol, it’s probably safe to say that they need to try to reduce some or all of those metrics.

  34. 34.

    Brachiator

    Meanwhile, the GOP doubles down in pointless religious bigotry:

    Kentucky governor criticized by GOP challenger for Hindu ceremony

    Should the governor of Kentucky be praying to the Hindu gods?
    __
    That’s the question being raised by the Republican challenger to sitting Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat, who participated in a Hindu “ground blessing” ceremony Friday for a manufacturing plant operated by an India-based company.
    __
    The Republican, David Williams, who was trailing Beshear by 29 percentage points in a recent poll, has decided there was something untoward about it.
    __
    “To get down and get involved and participate in prayers to these polytheistic situations, where you have these Hindu gods that they are praying to, doesn’t appear to me to be in line with what a governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky ought to be doing,” Williams said, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.
    __
    Williams added: “He’s sitting down there with his legs crossed, participating in Hindu prayers with a dot on his forehead with incense burning around him. I don’t know what the man was thinking.”

    It’s enough to make the baby Ganesha weep.

  35. 35.

    catclub

    @efgoldman: I certainly agree he is pumping out a Benen-like quantity (and quality, or better) of material.

    Is there any highly prolific blogger on that right that is any good? I thought the standard (pun intended) there was Doughboy Loadpants and his notable aversion to work.

  37. 37.

    catclub

    @Brachiator: I suspect it was not pointless.

    I think that David Williams guy has not heard of all the Hindu gods. Some would be right up his alley.

  38. 38.

    piratedan

    @Hill Dweller: well the timing on this is nifty, as it precedes the possible Pearce recall and takes the focus away from his camp running a sham candidate. Makes me wish I was home so I could run for the state lege as a nobody candidate and my entire platform could be, “well at least I’m not a Republican”. The commission is a result of a public referendum because the people in the state didn’t trust the Lege to get it right and naturally the R’s can’t have that.

  42. 42.

    Violet

    @Steve: @Mnemosyne:
    Thanks for the input and insights. I think it totally sucks. At some point it’s got to be challenged legally. Maybe after 2014 when the new health care law takes effect?

    @WereBear:

    What I have heard is that people who opt for it find they need to have their parameters within certain bounds… or they get charged extra.
    _
    FYI

    So far they’ve given no indication that that is the case. They just said it’s voluntary, NOT that people will be charged more if they are out of parameters OR that they will be given a bonus for being inside parameters. They just want you to take it. That sort of thing is probably the next step.

    I fking HATE our health care system, particularly the insurance system.

  43. 43.

    Mnemosyne

    @Violet:

    I don’t necessarily have a problem with it IF it’s voluntary, IF it’s completely confidential, and IF there’s no penalty for not participating or not passing. But that’s a lot of IF’s for companies that aren’t ethical and/or aren’t bound by law to hit all of those criteria.

  44. 44.

    Brachiator

    And a little something tech

    The most popular free iPad app in the App Store is 7 Billion by the team at the National Geographic Society. The app offers a nice combination of text, videos, and photography to coincide with the arrival of Earth’s seven billionth person.
    __
    Free only for a limited time, 7 Billion explores what the arrival of the seven billionth human means to the world at large. To do so, the app provides a number of interesting features include an insightful video called “How big is 7 Billion?” which examines the demographic trends that got us here today and how it will impact us tomorrow.

  46. 46.

    boss bitch

    President Obama:

    “In God We Trust? I trust in God but God wants to see us doing our job and putting people back to work!”

  48. 48.

    Violet

    @Mnemosyne:

    I don’t necessarily have a problem with it IF it’s voluntary, IF it’s completely confidential, and IF there’s no penalty for not participating or not passing. But that’s a lot of IF’s for companies that aren’t ethical and/or aren’t bound by law to hit all of those criteria.

    I agree, so long as ALL those criteria are met. But that’s not how it works in the real world.

  49. 49.

    Mnemosyne

    @boss bitch:

    It would be nice if he could work in the “God will provide” joke, where a guy clinging to the roof of his house during a flood refuses help from a canoe, a boat and a helicopter and ends up drowning. He’s pissed off when he arrives in Heaven and demands that God explain why He didn’t help.

    God gives a heavy sigh and says, “I sent you two boats and a helicopter! What did you need, an engraved invitation?”

  50. 50.

    gogol's wife

    Since it’s an open thread, please let me vent about the fact that I’ve been without light, heat, telephone, or hot water since Saturday night, and the “estimate” for restoration is Sunday night at 11:00 — 8 days! I am so worried about my kittehs. They’re so unhappy and there’s nothing I can do for them except give them lots of food and water and blankets and then go someplace to warm up. They’re semi-socialized ferals who would not be happy if we moved them anywhere. Plus nobody else has power so there’s nowhere to move them too. Civil society has broken down, as far as I can tell. I only have internet at the office, and I don’t have any time to read BJ because I need to work every minute I can. I wonder how many BJ people in New England (esp. stupid Connecticut) are in the same boat. But I guess I won’t find out because they have no internet either.

  51. 51.

    catclub

    @gogol’s wife: Instead of snarking on how too many regulations forced the Electric companies to cut repair crews, I will suggest(hope) that they are overestimating the time to repair. Underpromise/overdeliver is a lot better than the converse.

  52. 52.

    Mnemosyne

    @gogol’s wife:

    I think there are thermal, non-electric pet beds you can find that will reflect the cats’ body heat back to them without needing electricity or batteries. One or two of those might come in handy and make them slightly happier until their humans can come home.

  54. 54.

    gogol's wife

    @catclub:

    My husband just reported that he went home to feed the cats and the power is on. Glory Hallelujah! And your snark is completely appropriate. They’ve cut the workforce to the bone and rely on bringing in crews from out of state, but that doesn’t work too well in the regionwide disasters that seem to happen every couple of months now.

  55. 55.

    gogol's wife

    @Mnemosyne:

    I had no idea there was such a thing. I will immediately obtain three of them for the next time. Thank you so much. Our power is back on now and husband reports cats coming out from under blankets and meowing at him. All is well.

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