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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread: “The Princeling of Faux Balance”

Open Thread: “The Princeling of Faux Balance”

by Anne Laurie|  November 5, 20119:26 pm| 151 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Assholes, DC Press Corpse, Our Failed Media Experiment

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Speaking of people who need to be savaged by angry lapdogs, or at least brutally mocked, every time they emerge from their chateau in the Media Versailles to lecture us peons about the evils of “polarization”… Charlie Pierce has a pretty good assault on Media Village Idiot Tom Brokaw, but I think I like Doghouse Riley’s even better:

Brokaw was the Princeling of Faux Balance. He’s the guy NBC went to when it wanted to convert from news organization to infotainment, when it wanted to syphon off some of ABC’s successful right-wing mojo in the era of Librul Media backlash. He was the spokesmodel for tearing down the grand old structures of television news, replacing them with Megamalls, and then filling the B. Dalton window inside with his lavishly illustrated paean to those great old buildings.
__
This is when the working class got stiffed (I mean, when the current round began); don’t tell us you didn’t notice, Tom. Don’t tell us that Ronald Reagan’s affability had you hypnotized. The loss of Courtesy now is deeply troubling to you, but the loss of All Reason in the 80s bothered you not one whit, or not enough to actually report on the actual effects of the Great Reagan Looting Party until after they had occurred, and the statute of limitations run out.
__
You were on the anchor desk, Tom–meaning that 1/3 of most Americans got their news from you–throughout the Reagan Swindle, through the transparently phony PR campaign which turned him into an American Folk Hero Action Figure, against the Details Formerly Known As Facts, and blamed all the bad stuff on Jimmy Carter. That’s where you sat when his reelection campaign appropriated Bruce Springsteen. And Reagan’s veniality there is not the issue; it’s that Springsteen’s clear message of an America of closing factories and broken promises and co-opted freedoms was increasing difficult to find during your tenure, faux-balanced and whited-out from a classic American narrative as old as Old Hickory and as relevant as the Civil Rights movement, becoming something that resembled a rude, persistent coughing from the back of the lecture hall where Heinz Kissinger and Jerry Falwell were discussing the Founders. The 1988 Presidential election was about Willie Horton. The ’92 and ’96 elections were about Bill Clinton’s dick, as was everything else in those days, for that matter. The 2000 election was about Al Gore inventing the internet. You stood by. Forgive me, but I don’t think the fact that sane people want nothing to do with Louie Gohmert quite measures up.

So… what’s chafing everybody’s shorts tonight?

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Reader Interactions

151Comments

  1. 1.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    November 5, 2011 at 9:27 pm

    Savage laptops?

  2. 2.

    Baud

    November 5, 2011 at 9:31 pm

    Brokaw may be angling to be the next Broder. Pays well, and you get to go to all the swankiest DC cocktail parties.

  3. 3.

    xian

    November 5, 2011 at 9:34 pm

    never forget!

  4. 4.

    S. cerevisiae

    November 5, 2011 at 9:37 pm

    Let’s go Bulldogs! (UMD hockey) I am listening to the radio feed while watching the Gopher-Sue game on TV.

  5. 5.

    srv

    November 5, 2011 at 9:47 pm

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred): I saw angry laptops, but for once, we agree.

    Tom Brokaw is still alive? Why?

  6. 6.

    Baud

    November 5, 2011 at 9:51 pm

    So apparently there is a Gingrich-Cain debate tonight that everyone is correctly ignoring…

  7. 7.

    gene108

    November 5, 2011 at 9:53 pm

    I think it’s about time Liberals wised up. The mainstream media are not reporters. They are stenographers.

    In the 1980’s, the right-wing figured this out. They started with think-tanks in the 1970’s and then moved to newspapers in the 1980’s.

    They had the ability to start driving a narrative, whether it’s liberal media bias or Anita Hill’s a “little bit nutty, a little bit slutty”.

    By the time the 1990’s rolled around, they were pumping the MSM with what they wanted to report and those fools treated the American Spectator, Washington Times, etc. as real news organizations and picked up the bile they were spitting up.

    Liberals need to create their own media presence. There won’t be any angel investing billionaires, who look at loss making newspapers as a tax right-off.

    But by now, I think we should realize that relying on the MSM to report the news and not just take dictation from whoever is talking in the room must be accepted as fact.

    Also, too President’s don’t do their own PR. Why Republican President’s have been successful in pushing a message is because they have a media apparatus around them to help out pushing a point of view and define a narrative.

  8. 8.

    Baud

    November 5, 2011 at 9:59 pm

    @gene108:

    Also, too President’s don’t do their own PR. Why Republican President’s have been successful in pushing a message is because they have a media apparatus around them to help out pushing a point of view and define a narrative.

    I agree completely with this.

  9. 9.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 5, 2011 at 10:00 pm

    @Baud: Why was I not informed?! I could have been intentionally not watching it.

  10. 10.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 5, 2011 at 10:02 pm

    @efgoldman: Have you considered getting new, less chafing shorts or going commando?

  11. 11.

    piratedan

    November 5, 2011 at 10:04 pm

    loved hearing about Newt’s campaign pledge should he win the Nom… “I’ll follow the President all around this nation, in a series of debates matching Douglas and Lincoln, and after four hours after every speech by the President, I’ll be there to speak to the people…. ” So I would expect a lot of 10pm speeches from Obama just to hold Newt to his word….

  12. 12.

    Calouste

    November 5, 2011 at 10:09 pm

    @efgoldman:

    The NFL marketing a great sport into some kind of military/patriotic special chafes my shorts.

    That they don’t show more than ten seconds of the marching bands at halftime chafes my shorts.

    You do know where marching bands originated from, do you?

  13. 13.

    soonergrunt

    November 5, 2011 at 10:12 pm

    @efgoldman: Perhaps biker shorts would work for you? For the chafing, not for putting in the mouth, but ymmv.

  14. 14.

    Hill Dweller

    November 5, 2011 at 10:13 pm

    Polonius of the Corn Palace > Princeling of Faux Balance

  15. 15.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 5, 2011 at 10:13 pm

    @soonergrunt: Who are we to judge?

  16. 16.

    soonergrunt

    November 5, 2011 at 10:20 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: true, true. Whatever floats one’s boat, as it were.

  17. 17.

    Linda Featheringill

    November 5, 2011 at 10:20 pm

    @efgoldman:

    That in a market like Boston, with four major music schools and multiple world-class performers, classical music on the radio has been reduced to one station, who’s signal can be barely be heard south of the city, chafes my shorts.

    Have you looked into Pandora? You can pick music by type and modify the selection by using the like/dislike option, and generate your own “radio” station.

    I don’t think they have complete operas but they do have a lot of classical selections.

  18. 18.

    Suffern ACE

    November 5, 2011 at 10:23 pm

    @piratedan: I would also expect a lot of speeches by the Pres on the importance of marital fidelity.

  19. 19.

    piratedan

    November 5, 2011 at 10:25 pm

    @Suffern ACE: and of loyalty and commitment and eschewing luxury ;-)

  20. 20.

    eemom

    November 5, 2011 at 10:30 pm

    the laptops are not laughing.

  21. 21.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 5, 2011 at 10:31 pm

    @eemom: Have we seen their credenzas?

  22. 22.

    S. cerevisiae

    November 5, 2011 at 10:35 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Are they moss covered and three-handled?

  23. 23.

    Yutsano

    November 5, 2011 at 10:36 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Not…enough…ellipses….

  24. 24.

    Suffern ACE

    November 5, 2011 at 10:38 pm

    @piratedan: “You will never see me sticking a fork in my eye and giving a speech while drunk.”

  25. 25.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 5, 2011 at 10:43 pm

    @S. cerevisiae: I haven’t seen them.

  26. 26.

    bjacques

    November 5, 2011 at 10:44 pm

    @eemom:

    Mine laughs at me all the time.

    I like Doghouse Riley, but, damn, “whorehouse with 500 piano players” is hard to beat.

  27. 27.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 5, 2011 at 10:45 pm

    @Yutsano: There never are … … …

  28. 28.

    fleeting expletive

    November 5, 2011 at 10:47 pm

    So I’ve been trying to think of movies that end in wedding scenes–The Graduate, of course, first in that category perhaps. Then there are a lot of semi-crappy movies, like My Best Friend’s Wedding, Bubble Boy, Clueless, I now Pronounce you Chuck and Larry, ummm….there must be a hundred others.

  29. 29.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 5, 2011 at 10:47 pm

    @fleeting expletive: The Graduate ends on a bus.

  30. 30.

    Crusty Dem

    November 5, 2011 at 10:48 pm

    It’s an error to talk about Brokaw like he was ever a reporter, he is and always has been a subsidiary of GE. He’s also an idiot, failing out of the University of Iowa isn’t too difficult, but doing it in one semester is nearly impossible. The man was nothing more than an empty hole corporations used to read words to the masses, to expect him to rebel against his creators, who have compensated him so well for his obedience, is insane.

  31. 31.

    boss bitch

    November 5, 2011 at 10:49 pm

    “People that want to be lazy and not help themselves, well, that’s their little boogie-woogie.” — Herman Cain, 11/5/11

  32. 32.

    cleek

    November 5, 2011 at 10:50 pm

    @fleeting expletive:
    Napoleon Dynamite

    and every rom-com ever made

  33. 33.

    SW

    November 5, 2011 at 10:51 pm

    Back when NBC had a nightly newscast. I think Brokaw and Pauly were on Today weren’t they? I remember thinking that the blonde had gravitas. Relatively speaking.

  34. 34.

    Baud

    November 5, 2011 at 10:52 pm

    So I’ve been trying to think of movies that end in wedding scenes

    That’s so random…

    Although speaking of movies, it’s 2011, cell phones are everywhere, and yet Hollywood still thinks it makes sense to have plot lines where people race to the airport to tell someone who is about to get on a plane how much they love them. Shorts chafed.

  35. 35.

    Baud

    November 5, 2011 at 10:53 pm

    @boss bitch: Neither Lincoln nor Douglas could have said it better.

  36. 36.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    November 5, 2011 at 10:54 pm

    @boss bitch: I run into so few people that are truly lazy – other than that one uncle that every family has – that I would love to know where this real America is that contains so many of them. Obviously they only exist in Real America ™, because I don’t see them in the fake America where I live.

  37. 37.

    Suffern ACE

    November 5, 2011 at 10:58 pm

    @fleeting expletive: Shrek, Wedding Crashers, Wedding Singer. The Sound of Music (o.k. the wedding is about 2/3 through, but it’s such a nice dress…)

  38. 38.

    Southern Beale

    November 5, 2011 at 10:58 pm

    Our fire department closed off a main thoroughfare through midtown for an entire hour today because they found a box with the word “bomb” written on it.

    Turns out it was a prop left over from a security drill 2 weeks ago. DUH.

    Lamest bomb scare EVER.

  39. 39.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 5, 2011 at 11:00 pm

    @Baud: One of the people might have AT&T as their carrier.

  40. 40.

    soonergrunt

    November 5, 2011 at 11:00 pm

    @fleeting expletive: 27 Dresses, and I think Four Weddings and A Funeral

  41. 41.

    Suffern ACE

    November 5, 2011 at 11:00 pm

    @Baud: Usually they disable the cell phones. http://youtu.be/XIZVcRccCx0

  42. 42.

    S. cerevisiae

    November 5, 2011 at 11:02 pm

    Nobody caught my Dr. Seuss reference. I haz a sad.

  43. 43.

    Poopyman

    November 5, 2011 at 11:04 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: @Yutsano:
    If you guys use up all the ellipses, what’s Uncle Clarence going to do?

    Oh! …
    … … … …

    @fleeting expletive: African Queen?

  44. 44.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 5, 2011 at 11:05 pm

    @S. cerevisiae: I am so sorry. Cat in the Hat. I thought quiet appreciation was warranted. My bad.

  45. 45.

    joel hanes

    November 5, 2011 at 11:06 pm

    > failing out of the University of Iowa isn’t too difficult,
    > but doing it in one semester is nearly impossible

    Wow, man.

    It took me two semesters to flunk out of U of I, and I was effectively majoring in Drugs and Revolution, with a minor in underground comix (I was waiting for the draft letter that my draft lottery number had made inevitable)

  46. 46.

    Suffern ACE

    November 5, 2011 at 11:07 pm

    @Southern Beale: Damn. I hope no one was hurt. But why didn’t they find the box two weeks ago during the drill? Has it been sitting outside the whole time with no one noticing until today?

  47. 47.

    fleeting expletive

    November 5, 2011 at 11:07 pm

    Yes to all of those. And efgoldman’s shorts-chafing list suits me as well. I am shorts-chafed as well at my health insurance going up this month, and at the price of cigarettes, and that Boondocks is only on cartoon network at 10pm on Saturday nights, and that I have dirty dishes in the sink. Let me think about this a while and I’ll consult my shorts some more.

  48. 48.

    S. cerevisiae

    November 5, 2011 at 11:08 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: I was just thinking I was the only old bastard awake tonight.

  49. 49.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 5, 2011 at 11:10 pm

    @S. cerevisiae: My parents were married and define old.

  50. 50.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    November 5, 2011 at 11:11 pm

    @joel hanes: Wow, me too. I had 10 days between Vietnam and Illinois, bought 100 hits of mescaline in San Fran when I mustered out and flunked out the 1st semester. 9 years later I graduated.

  51. 51.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    November 5, 2011 at 11:11 pm

    @S. cerevisiae: sheeeeet

  52. 52.

    Poopyman

    November 5, 2011 at 11:11 pm

    And for the last time (maybe) for 2011:

    Remember, remember, the 5th of November…

    Or …

    The fifth of November, since I can remember,
    Was Guy Faux, Poke him in the eye,
    Shove him up the chimney-pot, and there let him die.
    A stick and a stake, for King George’s sake,
    If you don’t give me one, I’ll take two,
    The better for me, and the worse for you,
    Ricket-a-racket your hedges shall go. (1903)

  53. 53.

    fleeting expletive

    November 5, 2011 at 11:12 pm

    Oh hell yes, African Queen. Four Weddings used to be one of my favorite guilty pleasures, as was Hugh Grant movies in general. Don’t quite know why he fell out of my list, since he has been a fine advocate in the Murdoch phone-hacking scandal. He’s got a new baby and I’m happy for him. Sissy Spacek chafes my shorts for some reason. There are others as well.

  54. 54.

    4jkb4ia

    November 5, 2011 at 11:12 pm

    My husband has found “Moonstruck” on the local public TV station, and I’m not sure I’ve seen that movie in 20 years. I am excited. This station is doing well with romantic movies. They supplied “Annie Get Your Gun” 3 weeks ago?

    I was able to see LSU-Alabama earlier and I decided my attitude was “Can they both lose?”

  55. 55.

    S. cerevisiae

    November 5, 2011 at 11:12 pm

    Heh – Gophers beat the Sue and my Bulldogs are beating Denver on the road. Please get overconfident, Gophers.

  56. 56.

    General Stuck

    November 5, 2011 at 11:13 pm

    Dedicated to the brave souls at OWS worldwide

    Hippies may smell a little, but the real ones put their bodies, albeit naked, on the line.

    We got to get ourselves back to the garden

    A fucking men.

  57. 57.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 5, 2011 at 11:13 pm

    @4jkb4ia: Are you in Wisconsin? WPT has had the same set of movies.

  58. 58.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    November 5, 2011 at 11:13 pm

    @fleeting expletive: Ever see her in “Katherine” based on Weatherwoman Diana?

  59. 59.

    Poopyman

    November 5, 2011 at 11:13 pm

    @joel hanes: It was graduate school, and I didn’t flunk out, but I didn’t go back after 2 semesters, either.

    I learned how to drive a Cambus, though.

  60. 60.

    Michael

    November 5, 2011 at 11:14 pm

    @fleeting expletive: Coming to America!

  61. 61.

    Gex

    November 5, 2011 at 11:15 pm

    Shorter Tom Brokaw: My generation and my parent’s generation were awesome. You kids fucking suck.

  62. 62.

    Hawes

    November 5, 2011 at 11:15 pm

    I’ll tell you what’s chapping MY ass: CL&P.

    Stands for Cold, Lightless & Powerless.

  63. 63.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 5, 2011 at 11:16 pm

    @Poopyman: What is a Cambus?

  64. 64.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    November 5, 2011 at 11:17 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Come on dawg.

  65. 65.

    soonergrunt

    November 5, 2011 at 11:18 pm

    @Suffern ACE: The Sound of Music–great movie, right up until one actually goes and visits Saltzburg, Austria and takes the tour.
    You learn many things–
    The front of the Von Trapp house in the movie was a different house than the back of the house, and different from the interior–they used three different houses. Capt. Von Trapp married Maria in 1927, nine years before they left Austria. Also, he and Maria had two of the three children they had together in Austria before leaving.
    Capt. Von Trapp was NOT a wealthy man–not as wealthy as depicted in the movie, anyway. He lost his fortune in a bank collapse in 1934. The family lived in a modest house across the market square from the main train station, and when they left Austria, all they did was walk across the street in the middle of the day, catch a train to Italy (it being 1936 and the Anschutz didn’t happen until 1938), and from there a steam ship to the US.
    If you walk over the mountain shown in the movie from Saltzburg, you will cross into Germany, not Switzerland.
    The grave yard of the church where the family hides in the movie is about 1/5th the size shown in the movie is across town from the abbey which is shown to contain it in the movie.

  66. 66.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 5, 2011 at 11:19 pm

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred): I went to small schools. We had no buses. Sorry.

  67. 67.

    fleeting expletive

    November 5, 2011 at 11:22 pm

    Oh yeah, Coming to America rocks for that wedding! And no, I didn’t know about Katherine (Sissy Spacek), it looks like an excellent movie. I’ll try to find it. Thank you.

    Will y’all gimme that it sux that Boondocks is only on tv late on Saturday night?

  68. 68.

    pete

    November 5, 2011 at 11:22 pm

    @soonergrunt: Next you’ll be telling me Mary Poppins couldn’t fly.

  69. 69.

    soonergrunt

    November 5, 2011 at 11:22 pm

    @Hawes: So you’re either posting by smart phone or carrier pigeon?

  70. 70.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    November 5, 2011 at 11:23 pm

    @soonergrunt: When I visited Stewart a couple of weeks back we went to the 3d ID museum and the curator explained that the 3rd took the Berchtesgaden, not the 101st like they show in Band of Brothers.

  71. 71.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    November 5, 2011 at 11:24 pm

    The greatest game in the history of the universe goes to OT at 6-6!

  72. 72.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    November 5, 2011 at 11:29 pm

    Oh doctor!

  73. 73.

    soonergrunt

    November 5, 2011 at 11:29 pm

    @pete: You’d better sit down for this…

  74. 74.

    Suffern ACE

    November 5, 2011 at 11:30 pm

    @pete: Or worse…that they got married to the standard Catholic liturgy, without a choir of Nuns singing “How do you solve a problem”

  75. 75.

    S. cerevisiae

    November 5, 2011 at 11:30 pm

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred): I’m glad I am watching (and listening to) hockey.

    GO BULLDOGS!

  76. 76.

    Poopyman

    November 5, 2011 at 11:30 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Come on, Ommie! Google is your friend:

    Cambus is a public transport bus system, primarily serving the University of Iowa campus in Iowa City, IA. The service is intended to provide transportation for students, faculty, and staff around the main campus, Oakdale campus, residence halls, and commuter parking lots. However, Cambus is a free service to the general public. Cambus provides nearly 4,000,000 rides per year.

    Although honestly, there is no vehicle called a Cambus. They (unbelievably) let students drive brand new Flxible metro buses – after getting a CDL first, of course. Those big wide midwestern streets didn’t hurt, either.

    ETA – That “let” in “let students drive” is past tense – way past tense. Like 30-plus years ago. Dunno how it’s done today.

  77. 77.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    November 5, 2011 at 11:31 pm

    LS WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

  78. 78.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 5, 2011 at 11:31 pm

    @soonergrunt: Don’t do it. Let him come to it on his own. Otherwise he will always resent you. Remember the children are the ones who will choose your nursing home.

  79. 79.

    fleeting expletive

    November 5, 2011 at 11:33 pm

    Ghost Gadaffi! on SNL!

    CONDI, CONDI CONDI, come over to my Condo, Condo Condo!

  80. 80.

    Hill Dweller

    November 5, 2011 at 11:34 pm

    Alabama has completely choked this game away.

    It will be hilarious if Alabama doesn’t win another national title during Saban’s tenure after prematurely erecting that statue for him.

  81. 81.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    November 5, 2011 at 11:35 pm

    Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
    The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
    And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
    But there is no joy in Mudville – mighty Casey has struck out.

  82. 82.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 5, 2011 at 11:36 pm

    @Poopyman: Dude, as I said to Raven (…), I went to small schools. My undergrad has grown since I was there, but it still is around 1500 students. No buses. No off campus housing. We were our own little world.

  83. 83.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    November 5, 2011 at 11:38 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: I may dump that stuckinred soon

  84. 84.

    Suffern ACE

    November 5, 2011 at 11:38 pm

    @fleeting expletive: While technically the ceremony is over at the start of the film, the entire movie “High Noon” is about wrapping up lose ends so that the groom can go on his honeymoon.

    ETA: Palm Beach Story ends in a wedding of two characters we hadn’t seen since the opening sequence.

  85. 85.

    soonergrunt

    November 5, 2011 at 11:41 pm

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred): I’ve seen pictures of 101st troops that were captioned “Berchtesgaden” and I’m aware of several different units claiming it. I wouldn’t know for certain, but when I was stationed there at Stewart, new troops had to go through the museum, and it was also a promotion board question.
    Band of Brothers got a lot of stuff right, but some things pretty glaringly wrong.
    Albert Blithe, for example, did NOT die in 1948 in a VA hospital from his neck wound. He did not return to active duty during the war, but he did eventually re-enlist in 1949 and later (finally) 1954, serving on active duty until his death in 1967 in Wiesbaden, Germany.
    He received the Silver Star, the Bronze Star with two Oak Leaf Clusters, Master Parachutist badge, and was Paratrooper of the Year, 82nd ABN DIV, 1958.

  86. 86.

    fleeting expletive

    November 5, 2011 at 11:43 pm

    I abjectly confess I’ve never seen “High Noon”. Mea culpa. That you tell me this about the plot, though, makes me kind of want to watch it. I’m a big fan of “Have Gun, Will Travel”. That’s my Western. That and Blazing Saddles (I know, I know).

  87. 87.

    soonergrunt

    November 5, 2011 at 11:44 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: I will be fucking shocked if I live long enough to need a nursing home, but I get your point.
    To this day I remember the sense of betrayal over Santa Claus from when I was eight.

  88. 88.

    soonergrunt

    November 5, 2011 at 11:45 pm

    @soonergrunt: Oh, shit. I mean, ummmm, ahhh…

  89. 89.

    Poopyman

    November 5, 2011 at 11:46 pm

    @fleeting expletive: High Noon is in a class by itself. You certainly should see it.

  90. 90.

    Suffern ACE

    November 5, 2011 at 11:48 pm

    @soonergrunt: Would you think of the children for once. Won’t someone think of the children who read this blog!

  91. 91.

    Poopyman

    November 5, 2011 at 11:48 pm

    @fleeting expletive: … Although you’ll find yourself singing “Do not forsake me O my darlin'” at odd moments.

  92. 92.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 5, 2011 at 11:50 pm

    @soonergrunt: I was one of the last to believe in SC; luckily I have a younger brother so it was extended. An interesting thing is going with my bro’s kids with that. The elder by 17 months who is a boy is the kind who wants to hold onto things like that. His younger sister is ready to accept other explanations. Dilemmas exist for adults.

  93. 93.

    Villago Delenda Est

    November 5, 2011 at 11:50 pm

    @S. cerevisiae:

    The failure of the BJ crowd to catch the Dr. Seuss reference chafes my shorts.

  94. 94.

    Villago Delenda Est

    November 5, 2011 at 11:54 pm

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred):

    Ahem.

    Whatever outfit Reagan was in, that’s the one that took Berchtesgaden.

    So I could go skiing there about 37 years later, I might add.

  95. 95.

    Uncle Clarence Thomas

    November 5, 2011 at 11:54 pm

    .
    .
    @Poopyman:

    If you guys use up all the ellipses, what’s Uncle Clarence going to do?

    I will of course continue to do, and advocate for, what is right and just, refrain from murdering women and children, and do all that without mocking people for their disabilities.  
     
    You could really do everyone a solid by getting President Obama to do the same.
    .
    .

  96. 96.

    fleeting expletive

    November 5, 2011 at 11:56 pm

    soonergrunt, my brother in south OKC, I will be shocked if I don’t live long enough to go through the entire hospital/Medicare/nursing home crap. I’d feel fine to be tboned on a corner or something. There would be a fine tort case about it and w Z

    whoa, a big earthquake just ran through Oklahoma. it lasted a long time, starting at 10:54, no shit, my little house rocked and roolled but the cieling didn’t crumble and electricity maintains.

  97. 97.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 5, 2011 at 11:57 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: I never skied Bercht; I did do Garmisch. Kitzbuehel, Austria was my spot.

  98. 98.

    Villago Delenda Est

    November 5, 2011 at 11:59 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Did Garmisch, too.

    Also the FABULOUS Taunus Mountains, just to the NE of Wiesbaden. The slope was, alas, pretty bunny in nature. No double diamond moguls there…

    Also spent a week at COMSEC school in Bad Tolz, old SS barracks.

  99. 99.

    soonergrunt

    November 5, 2011 at 11:59 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: You should go with bike shorts for that.

    ETA–holy shit, we just had a huge (for Oklahoma) earthquake–one of our windows broke. We had one last night at about 2:15 AM, about 4.7, and I slept through it. This one was a good shake.

  100. 100.

    Cassidy

    November 5, 2011 at 11:59 pm

    I took money from poor people, who are unemployed, today for OT. That chaps my ass.

  101. 101.

    Suffern ACE

    November 6, 2011 at 12:00 am

    @fleeting expletive: Did you feel the one this morning as well?

    ETA: Never mind. You said you did.

  102. 102.

    4jkb4ia

    November 6, 2011 at 12:02 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    No, I’m in St. Louis, but that’s interesting. I guess this must be a package deal then.

  103. 103.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 6, 2011 at 12:05 am

    @Villago Delenda Est: I hit Davos/Klosters one epic weekend. Davos is a pretty shit town for an apres. Wonderful long cruising runs though. In 1990, we went into a club and looked at the drinks and found that the cheapest thing was a $8 Bud. We had one and left. As we wandered the back streets, we heard Golden Earring’s Radar Love coming out of a tiny and dingy bar, so we went in. It was the place where the real ski bums and Aussie lift workers hung out. Ended up being an awesome evening.

  104. 104.

    C Nelson Reilly

    November 6, 2011 at 12:05 am

    @soonergrunt: Big shake here in Tulsa too – I think it’s the football power shifting from OU to OSU

  105. 105.

    soonergrunt

    November 6, 2011 at 12:07 am

    5.2 Magnitude quake, according to USGS.

  106. 106.

    fleeting expletive

    November 6, 2011 at 12:10 am

    And you know what, Soonergrunt? not one of the three local news stations has it at 11:05. that’s how bad tv as a medium has failed us, us people. It’s like that movie UVF, I think? Weird Al.

    No one’s there, man. Msnbc prison p0rn all weekend. And Pearl Harbor happened on Sunday morning.

  107. 107.

    burnspbesq

    November 6, 2011 at 12:10 am

    @efgoldman:

    Move to Los Angeles. KUSC is the best classical station left, and it puts out a monster signal.

  108. 108.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 6, 2011 at 12:13 am

    @burnspbesq: Does it have an online incarnation?

  109. 109.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    November 6, 2011 at 12:13 am

    @fleeting expletive: Since you guys mentioned it, I have been trying to see if it will show up on google news. So far, nothing.

  110. 110.

    soonergrunt

    November 6, 2011 at 12:14 am

    @fleeting expletive: Channel 5 OKC had it with a live report from the downtown area. My wife, who grew up in San Diego, just switched it there for a couple of minutes, and then put netflix back on for her Mad Men obsession.

    I got the 5.2 reading from the MSNBC website which had it in a BREAKING bar at the top of the page.

  111. 111.

    fleeting expletive

    November 6, 2011 at 12:15 am

    5.2???? Jeeeeeeeeeeebs, someone is sending us a fking message. Does anyone know whether the fracking is happening in OK? I know Arkansas has perhaps recognized its issues with fracking, What has oklahoma done?

  112. 112.

    Swapping

    November 6, 2011 at 12:16 am

    Willing to see the brilliance of this :)

  113. 113.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    November 6, 2011 at 12:17 am

    @Belafon (formerly anonevent):
    MSNBC is now reporting a 5.2 earthquake.

    Another article showing up says that this one was felt in Milwaukee.

  114. 114.

    fleeting expletive

    November 6, 2011 at 12:17 am

    at 11:15 still no local news. which will be the first of the big guns, CNN MSNBC FOX find out that there was an earthquake in OKC?

  115. 115.

    burnspbesq

    November 6, 2011 at 12:17 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    http://www.kusc.org/listenonline/index.aspx

  116. 116.

    fleeting expletive

    November 6, 2011 at 12:18 am

    Thank you, bela

  117. 117.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 6, 2011 at 12:19 am

    @burnspbesq: Ta muchly.

  118. 118.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    November 6, 2011 at 12:22 am

    Here’s the actual USGS information.

    ETA: What I find interesting is that while they felt it in Milwaukee, I haven’t felt anything here in Dallas.

  119. 119.

    amk

    November 6, 2011 at 12:23 am

    billy fucking kristol boy throws in the towel on 2012.

  120. 120.

    soonergrunt

    November 6, 2011 at 12:29 am

    @amk: Well, since that motherfucker is wrong about almost everything, I think we might be screwed.

  121. 121.

    Julie

    November 6, 2011 at 12:29 am

    I slept right through the earthquake last night in Sapulpa. My little brother said he was brushing his teeth and the mirror was shaking a little. He thought the one just now was a lot stronger. It felt like a freight train was passing by and even when we went out in the yard, we could still feel the earth shivering. Crazy, that’s my first earthquake.

  122. 122.

    Yutsano

    November 6, 2011 at 12:31 am

    @amk: Dammit Kristol! Shut up! You’re never right about anything!!

    @soonergrunt: GMTA. And stuff. Slow typing. Also.

  123. 123.

    C Nelson Reilly

    November 6, 2011 at 12:32 am

    @fleeting expletive: The epicenter is probably 15 miles away from the gas wells that I get royalty payments from every month – they were fracked a couple of years ago but there is still a lot of drilling activity going on in that area

  124. 124.

    soonergrunt

    November 6, 2011 at 12:32 am

    Upgraded to 5.6
    http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Quakes/usb0006klz.php

  125. 125.

    sylvainsylvain

    November 6, 2011 at 12:38 am

    Yeah, first one I’ve ever felt, here in Tulsa.

    And not to worry, I’m sure OSU will find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory before it’s said and done. I’m just sad my Jayhawks couldn’t manage to hold on and beat Iowa State…

    Now they’re saying it was a 5.6 mag. Can’t wait to hear the end-timers start blaming teh gays…

  126. 126.

    fleeting expletive

    November 6, 2011 at 12:40 am

    OK, Muskogee Phoenix has it, and the Norman Transcript. Don’t care about the gaylord paper nor even tulsa world. I’m mostly just on line.

  127. 127.

    Suffern ACE

    November 6, 2011 at 12:40 am

    @soonergrunt: Yeah. The point of trying to get the message out that he was wrong on everything was so that he would eventually be ashamed and stop making predictions. Now that he’s realized that he’s a negative power, tomorrow he’ll go on the TV and predict that he won’t get laid by a playboy bunny and we’ll have to deal with the visuals of that prediction every time he’s on the TV.

  128. 128.

    Hill Dweller

    November 6, 2011 at 12:40 am

    So Halprin predicts an Obama loss and Kristol predicts the opposite. Considering their horrendous track records, does this lead to some sort of rip in the space-time continuum?

  129. 129.

    gocart mozart

    November 6, 2011 at 12:41 am

    You end up like a dog that’s been beat too much
    Till you spend half your life just covering up

  130. 130.

    Suffern ACE

    November 6, 2011 at 12:42 am

    @Hill Dweller: You got a better explanation for 5.6m earthquakes in Oklahoma?

  131. 131.

    gocart mozart

    November 6, 2011 at 12:43 am

    @Hill Dweller:
    Kristol is wrong 100% of the time, Halperin is only wrong about 70% of the time. This is clearly good news for Obama.

  132. 132.

    General Stuck

    November 6, 2011 at 12:44 am

    @amk:

    The column itself is a semi-rhapsodic invocation of what is apparently to Kristol a sacred date, “November 4, 1980, the instant when we knew Ronald Reagan, the man who gave the speech in the lost cause of 1964,

    This Reagan wingnut worship shit is getting all out of control. It always has been a bit creepy, but lately it is reaching messianic levels of nostalgia turning into something like a Jonestown cult, stuck in time. Except the cult idol is dead as Julius Caesar.

    I tend to agree on Bloody Bill’s throwing in the towel with the GOP field as it is. It is still early on, but they have already met and exceeded the clown bar by plenty.

    We are about to witness the vortex of all vortexes of crazy shit from the republican party. The glare of a POTUS campaign will reveal the shattered shards that has been propped up by the MSM. But they won’t be able to cover up a full blown POTUS election that will shine light on the disparate pieces of the conservative movement spinning around Planet Wingnut. It is too soon after Bush, for them to tamp down their divisions to form a winning coalition, especially without a choice other than between chameleons and mad wabbits.

  133. 133.

    fleeting expletive

    November 6, 2011 at 12:45 am

    C Nelson, you seem to know the field, I would very much like for you to tell me about fracking, in general to be sure, but how bad is Oklahoma fracked?

  134. 134.

    gocart mozart

    November 6, 2011 at 12:52 am

    @Suffern ACE:
    That indeed would present a cosmic conundrum. Since there is zero chance that Kristol will be laid by a playboy bunny and zero chance that his prediction will come true, I would seriously worry about the stability of the universe if he would make that prediction. I don’t think us humans should even joke about this hypothetical scenario.

  135. 135.

    Julie

    November 6, 2011 at 12:55 am

    There’s a lot of gas exploration in OK and it’s mostly fracking. I think the technique was first developed here.

  136. 136.

    Julie

    November 6, 2011 at 1:00 am

    Just found this on teh google:
    The Oklahoma Corporation Commission has oversight of all drilling in the state, including fracking. Commissioner Bob Anthony believes the EPA study [on possible groundwater contamination] is a political scare tactic.

    “The facts are,” Anthony said in a written statement, “that hydraulic fracturing has been used in Oklahoma about 100,000 times in the last 60 years…”

  137. 137.

    Thor Heyerdahl

    November 6, 2011 at 1:04 am

    @fleeting expletive: Notting Hill

  138. 138.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 6, 2011 at 1:11 am

    @Thor Heyerdahl: Weird thing is that I am watching a YouTube vid of the English Beat song Doors of your Heart with a ton of footage from a Notting Hill Carnival or two. That neighborhood has changed.

  139. 139.

    fleeting expletive

    November 6, 2011 at 1:14 am

    O goddam–the largest quake in OK history. We are fucked, yet again. I mean, besides just being Oklahoma. I think we have been uninformed about the extent of the frackng.

    There are three or four months of really fine weather. I grew up here\ because my dad got fired by his uncle, I surmise. Anyway, not, all in all, a bad place to grow up in the 50’s, 60’s.

    Julie. Dammit!

  140. 140.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    November 6, 2011 at 1:22 am

    @amk: Interesting, thanks for the link. That Raw Story article is pretty much bullshit though, Kristol’s piece doesn’t actually say that he thinks that the Republicans are going to lose, but only that whoever might win isn’t going to be a magic conservative messiah like Reagan was but just some lesser Republican mortal.

    Still a rare instance of a Reagan-worshipper almost sounding sentient, if not self-aware, as close to saying “my god… the complete fantasy world I live in is just fantasy!” as they ever get.

  141. 141.

    David Koch

    November 6, 2011 at 1:39 am

    Oklahoma earthquake is Obama’s Katrina and Tea Pot Dome!

  142. 142.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 6, 2011 at 1:41 am

    @David Koch: Katrina’s band was the Waves.

  143. 143.

    C Nelson Reilly

    November 6, 2011 at 2:01 am

    @fleeting expletive: Oklahoma is definitely fracked up

  144. 144.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    November 6, 2011 at 2:16 am

    Does Pierce know that Anne Laurie is quoting huge chunks of his posts for most of her “content” here?

  145. 145.

    Ms.B

    November 6, 2011 at 3:35 am

    @The prophet Nostradumbass:

    Three paragraphs = A-okay for an article (a great one!) of that size, fair-use wise.

  146. 146.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    November 6, 2011 at 3:41 am

    @Ms.B: I think you missed the point. She has been outsourcing most of her posts to Pierce for weeks.

  147. 147.

    Anne Laurie

    November 6, 2011 at 3:56 am

    @The prophet Nostradumbass: Speaking of “missing the point“, the material quoted in this post is not by Charles P. Pierce.

    (And now that I’ve converted so many Balloon Juice habituants, including its curmudgeonly founder, I’m trying to curb my missionary impulse to share all Pierce’s best bits. I just worry that you guys might miss something, not to mention that given the amount of Brooks/Doubthat/McArdle sewage quoted for hammering purposes, it seems like we’re all entitled to some positive exposure as well.)

  148. 148.

    Ms.B

    November 6, 2011 at 4:13 am

    @Anne Laurie:

    Oh, god. I read both Pierce’s and Doghouse Riley’s and then defended you erroneously, but, also, too, it was in the spirit of loving Pierce, whom I spent much too much time not reading until recently, and he is so very on the point.

    We can all agree, I hope, that Brokaw is a Princeling.

  149. 149.

    Origuy

    November 6, 2011 at 4:57 am

    USGS is saying that the hypocenter depth of the OK quake is 3.1 miles down. Would fracking go that deep?

    Movie ending in a wedding: Much Ado About Nothing. Also, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but I’ve never seen any of the film adaptations.

  150. 150.

    SW

    November 6, 2011 at 9:02 am

    All I know is that I am absolutely certain that the OK earthquake had nothing to do with fracking.

  151. 151.

    Julie

    November 6, 2011 at 12:58 pm

    Yeah, I don’t think it was fracking, either, even though we do a lot of it. I’m more worried about the pollution.

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