Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Come on, man.

T R E 4 5 O N

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

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

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

This blog will pay for itself.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

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

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

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

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2012 / Sunday Evening Open Thread

Reader Interactions

138Comments

  1. 1.

    suzanne

    Fuck. As I was saying on one of the threads last night, I am DREADING the year-long public discussion that we’re about to get dragged into about whether Mormonism is a cult, or if Mormons are Christians, or but-they’re-weird-but-REALLY-NICE!, or what have you. It’s going to fucking suck here, because I already find their woe-is-us, we’re-being-discriminated-against act really tiresome, and I have a shitload of Mormon friends, and I already have so much that I can’t talk about.

    At the risk of making FourLoko appear, I really want Wikileaks to publish a whole bunch of stuff about the Mormons proving that the leadership know that it’s all bullshit, and save us all the trouble.

  2. 2.

    artem1s

    speaking of Tuesday, general election day, I got an automated call a little while ago from Pat Boone telling me how much I was being deceived by all those commies who support overturning SB5.

    Sure turned me right around!/snark

  3. 3.

    Suffern ACE

    OK. I guess this will have to serve as the football open thread. Been saving up football posts since about noon.

    Go Bills!

  5. 5.

    Steeplejack

    I’m trying to summon the energy to put on outside clothes and go get groceries to make something good for dinner. I really want to do that, but I have a severe case of “gloomy late Sunday afternoon it got dark too early I’ll just lie around and do nothing” syndrome.

    And the Giants-Patriots game is actually pretty good, not that I have been watching it much. But it’s on in the background.

  6. 6.

    soonergrunt

    @suzanne: Well, just the potential of the thread being about Mormons makes the m_c probability approach 1 as it is, but now you’ve invoked her special {Julian-sexytime!} mode, so she’ll be here 5…4…3…2…1…
    That’s assuming that she went to temple without argument (I’m pretty sure she’s actually a 15-year-old Mormon girl herself) and she cleaned her room, then her parents let her use the computer.

    Me–having all sorts of fun troubleshooting this home NAS box I have, and spent this morning talking to insurance about a cracked window after last night’s little shake.

    And with respect to ‘deluded, cultish shenanigans’ I re-refer you back to m_c.

  8. 8.

    slag

    Finally! Question I’ve been saving up for an Open Thread:

    Does anyone know when/if the original Star Wars IV and V will come out in blu ray? And yes, I mean the original originals…wherein Han shot first.

    Also, why does George Lucas hate America?

  9. 9.

    RSA

    Gotta lotta yard work done, so it’s time to relax. My wife brought in some gourds from the garden, some of which were slightly pod-shaped, so I told her not to go to sleep.

    Maybe something on Netflix…

  10. 10.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    @soonergrunt: I enjoyed your post last night. When we toured the 3rd Id museum we got the same presentation you would have since the curator has been there 30+ years. He was a bit over the top but it was interesting. Sadamm’s gold plated heat made it worth seeing!

  11. 11.

    JPL

    Tebow threw for a touchdown pass but I don’t know how. I put the game on for a few minutes and he’s erratic although he is under pressure. Maybe if he had three minutes to throw he’s be better. Back to the Giants/Patriot game.

  13. 13.

    suzanne

    @soonergrunt:

    I’m pretty sure she’s actually a 15-year-old Mormon girl herself

    Nah. I have a feeling that she’s actually considerably older than most of us think. And certainly not Mormon; they teach girls to be retiring and polite, and suffice it to say that those are two adjectives that never come to mind when musing upon FourLoko.

  15. 15.

    Nutella

    @suzanne:

    She’s a big proponent of fox-hunting so I’d say m_c’s someone who recently, or perhaps not so recently, aged out of the ‘spoiled little rich girl’ group.

  16. 16.

    suzanne

    I should be studying for my Structural Systems ARE, as I believe the children are our future or something, and we certainly don’t want the buildings falling down. But this Glorious Weekend of Slack is not yet over, and I’m still enjoying the crap out of it.

  17. 17.

    Yutsano

    @suzanne:

    I am DREADING the year-long public discussion that we’re about to get dragged into about whether Mormonism is a cult

    I suppose you could mention the LDS church has one of the largest investment portfolios in North America and owns minority shares in both Coke and Pepsi (which Mormons cannot drink) but that of course would be uncivil.

    I need to go to the grocery store. But it’s butt-ass cold outside. When it gets this cold I demand white stuff.

  19. 19.

    lamh34

    Watching last week’s Once Upon A Time where the Evil Queen fights Malificent from Sleeping Beauty. Man even if they cancel this show, I gotta say it’s worth it just so I can remember my fav classic Disney fairy tale characters. If I had to chose, my fav classic Disney princess was Sleeping Beauty…man I love that movie.

  20. 20.

    soonergrunt

    @suzanne: I don’t know. Teenage rebellion is teenage rebellion. I lost my virginity (or should I say threw my virginity away) with a pretty aggressive Mormon girl with I was 16. I’m pretty certain, as I was then, that for her it was mainly about telling her parents she screwed a “Gentile.”
    But you could be right about her aging out. Just because she’s legally of age has nothing to do with her maturity level.

  21. 21.

    General Stuck

    Fixed my netflix instant problem. Now the goddamn pilot light won’t stay on for the heater to work. So I am holed up again with a small electric heater in the bedroom, at least till tomorrow. The foot warmer still works though.

    Republicans are going to have an all out civil war, not only about Romney and his mormonism, but even more so over the insane taboo for raising taxes, that Reagan did like 11 times, I think. The wingers are starting to sign letters renouncing the renouncer, Grover the Grape. Cause they know that dems and Obama have them trapped in a tiny corner, they themselves painted themselves into, with all the debt hysteria, exposing these assholes for the liars and hypocrites they are. Which is, about everything they do, can be traced back to destroying entitlements like SS and Medicare, and protecting the big money bosses that keep them animated. That is the entirety of their purpose for existing, and to wrangle whatever loose cash for themselves.

    It is all kinds of awesome that any kind of supercommittee deal will have to be passed primarily by dems and the 40 repubs who deoathed themselves in their letter. And that won’t happen if there are any benefit cuts in medicare, past a token gesture.

    And Poor Mitch, Obama has him talking to himself, and mind fucked to where his decisions are based solely on what he thinks Obama is thinking, and him doing the opposite.

    “At the beginning of this week, Senate GOP and Democratic sources said McConnell appeared to favor a $1.2 trillion package out of the deficit-reduction supercommittee… A $4 trillion deal has gained more popularity in the Senate GOP conference this week as lawmakers have become convinced that Obama wants the deficit-reduction supercommittee to fail.”

  23. 23.

    suzanne

    @Nutella: If her parents are wealthy enough for her to have been into fox-hunting growing up (she’s also mentioned 15 or so years of ballet training), I bet they still support her. And I can’t tell you the number of my peers who are still supported in whole or in part by their parents, and I’m 31. I can count the number of my friends who are entirely self-supporting on one hand, and let me assure you, none of us are or grew up wealthy.

    Hell, I have one co-worker whose parents paid for him to go to Cornell, and now let him live at home, and give him the spare Mercedes convertible to drive. And yes, he’s complained that it’s old enough that he has to manually put the top up when it rains.

  24. 24.

    Steeplejack

    @Yutsano:

    I need to go to the grocery store.

    I’ll go if you will.

    In fact, just reading your post has inspired me to shuffle upstairs and take a shower. Back in a few.

  25. 25.

    slag

    @S. cerevisiae: I don’t know. I can’t imagine they wouldn’t. How do you destroy something like that? It’s like putting a ‘stache on the original Mona Lisa. Sure, some people may like her better that way, but it’s just not done.

  26. 26.

    RossInDetroit

    Had a nice yard cleanup session with Mrs. inD and Doglius. Now they’re out walking and I’m eBaying.

    Been trying to correct several vexing problems with a toilet for a few weeks. Usually this is easy but this toilet will not cooperate. I just figured out why. Stamped inside the tank is “Apr 1 1957”. It’s an April Fool’s toilet and it exists to mess with me.

  27. 27.

    Murakami

    Mormons can drink coke and pepsi and mtn dew. My Mormon friends absolutely adored their caffeine, which is not the thing prohibited. Tea and Coffee are prohibited but only as hot drinks. I once sparked an hour long theological debate at my Utah workplace when I asked a couple of friends if they would eat coffee ice cream, which is neither hot nor a drink. There was not a unified view on this issue but the debate was kinda amusing.

    Some Mormons due abstain from caffeine but it’s not required.

    Anyways, the interesting thing about living with Mormons is that, as individuals and in groups, there’s no more trustworthy and friendly religious group out there. Compared to the fundie Southern Baptists I grew up with, the Mormons were far more rational and sane. The South Park LDS / Joseph Smith episode was true: Mormons believe in the craziest shit and yet they’re often the most well-adjusted people in the room. I never quite understood that dichotomy.

  28. 28.

    slag

    @Yutsano:

    I need to go to the grocery store. But it’s butt-ass cold outside. When it gets this cold I demand white stuff.

    Same here. It’s a cold, cruel world out there and my fireplace is nice and warm. Besides, I’m sure I have a month-old block of cheese in the fridge and some stale crackers somewhere. That should get me through the next few days or so.

  31. 31.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    @Yutsano: And Mormons are in the casino business, I bet if they can get into cocaine or marijuana without getting caught, they would do it big time.

  32. 32.

    Linda Featheringill

    @artem1s: #2

    I got an automated call a little while ago from Pat Boone

    Ahh, so you have now been enlightened! :-)

    You know, I liked Pat Boone about a half century ago and am disappointed with all of this nonsense he has gotten into lately.

  36. 36.

    Omnes Omnibus

    There being no football open thread, let me just use this space to state that Aaron Rodgers is simply the best QB currently playing in the NFL.

  39. 39.

    Chuck Butcher

    I love the “no religious test” bullshit these people put up, as though an agnostic, atheist, or Mooselim wouldn’t excite that very thing. As an institution I don’t like Mormonism any more than I like Catholicism, but that has not spit to do with practitioners.

  43. 43.

    SIA

    @tkogrumpy: I loved how Walker and the audience had no choice but to sit there and take it. Strength in numbers.

    Seventy Stand Up! Chicago protestors disrupted a 11/3 Scott Walker breakfast presentation on “Taxpayers, State Budget Reforms and the New Realities” at the Union League Club of Chicago in order to speak out against the Governor’s union-busting and job-killing policies.

    Stand Up! Chicago

  44. 44.

    suzanne

    @Chuck Butcher:

    I love the “no religious test” bullshit these people put up

    That’s what I’m saying. The victim complex these people have is fucking mind-blowing.

    I just got myself embroiled in a debate with some LDS idiots who said that it’s okay for the Church to get involved with anti-gay-marriage legislation because it’s a moral issue, but climate change and civil rights have nothing to do with morality.

    Seriously.

  45. 45.

    Anne Laurie

    @Nutella:

    I’d say m_c’s someone who recently, or perhaps not so recently, aged out of the ‘spoiled little rich girl’ group.

    There’s no such thing as ‘aging out’ for the true SLRG — e.g., the new Jackie Kennedy “oral history”, where she preserves for the ages her contempt for that dirt farmer Camelot-murderer LBJ and the sex-crazed MLK while insisting that her own husband was madly in love with her and never so much as had an impure thought after his marriage. (Yes, the woman bore great tragedy with public grace, but she was very much a product of her culture, and despite all opportunities & her mooted intelligence she never outgrew wanting a Rich Daddy to provide for her.) One can never assume absolute truth about anyone on the intertrons, but She Whose Nyms Change But Not Her Schtick has claimed to be a graduate instructor and once, IIRC, said she was ten years younger than Cole, which would put her in her early thirties. That’s the hardest age for Spoiled Little Rich Girls — too old to pass for ‘toothsome jailbait’, too young to play Cougar. It’s when (ex)starlets & other divas tend to become publicly obsessed with yogis, self-styled kaballah experts, scientology, and other “exotic” belief systems… not that there’s anything wrong with that…

  47. 47.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @slag:

    Never.

    Lucas edits his own work and if you don’t like it, tough. Han DID shoot first, but in the Orwellian world of George Lucas, at best, they shot at each other at the same time, and Greedo missed.

  49. 49.

    Steeplejack

    @Yutsano:

    I’m off to the store just now. Winter white and minty fresh from the shower. Think I’m going with chili tonight. Any recommended secret ingredient?

  54. 54.

    suzanne

    @Murakami:

    The South Park LDS / Joseph Smith episode was true: Mormons believe in the craziest shit and yet they’re often the most well-adjusted people in the room. I never quite understood that dichotomy.

    Well, Utah leads the country in anti-depressant use. Not per capita, either. So I think that well-adjusted-ness you’re seeing is largely a put-on.

    Besides, I have lots of friends who are ex-Mo’s, too, and they have said that every family they knew had some serious skeletons that everyone just knows not to mention. Once they leave, Mormons will often confess to years of pain.

    Those are the ones who survive. I have a couple of friends that didn’t.

  57. 57.

    lol

    @slag:

    There are fan edits on-line that take the remastered editions and re-engineer them back to a version edited like the originals but with the updated effects.

  58. 58.

    Amir Khalid

    @lamh34:
    I read La Belle Au Bois Dormant in the original French. I was amazed at what the Disney version of Sleeping Beauty, which stops about halfway through, leaves out. Namely, the Prince’s evil stepmother who plots to kill and eat Sleeping Beauty’s kids.

    But then these are the same people who pasted a happy ending, wedding and all, on Andersen’s The Little Mermaid. So I couldn’t say I was surprised.

  59. 59.

    Linda Featheringill

    @Suffern ACE:

    So Norquist funds PACs? Well, that makes sense.

    You know, the republic is in trouble. The problem is with election of representatives.

    It could be that the only way out of that trouble is to do away with representational government and go for something approaching democracy. We have the technology for that.

  64. 64.

    PurpleGirl

    I hope to finish a scarf which I’m making to donate to Occupy Wallstreet. It’s a lambs wool and acrylic blend. I blanket I made of the same yarn is very warm. I’ve put together a bunch of other yarn to use on other scarfs

  68. 68.

    RossInDetroit

    @suzanne:

    Well, Utah leads the country in anti-depressant use. Not per capita, either. So I think that well-adjusted-ness you’re seeing is largely a put-on.

    Lotta suicide. My BIL, 5 months ago, checked out and left my sister a widow basically stranded in SLC.
    Some people can cope, but many who were brought up in the Church can’t reconcile it with the way the rest of the world works.

  69. 69.

    Steeplejack

    @SIA, @Yutsano:

    Your ideas intrigue me, and I would like to subscribe to your respective newsletters. But chili is off the table (so to speak).

    I just got a call from my brother saying that he is getting in later than I expected and will already have eaten dinner. Plus his partner is coming in even later than that because (I think) their volleyball team progressed further than expected in this weekend’s tournament.

    So, instead of cooking for a small crowd, it would just be my already fed brother and me. Screw that. There is a really good Thai place near here that I don’t get to often enough, so it looks like basil with beef takeout for Steep. Me likey!

    Plus I can channel my post-shower energy surge into taking the goddamn greyhound for a walk. She was a mucker at the track–I’m not sure she ever made it to the big show–but now in retirement she acts like a prima donna athlete. And the cold weather has her energized and bouncing off the walls.

    The good thing about greyhounds is that if you let them run for five minutes they’re exhausted and need to sleep for 20-30 hours.

    Might even take Dick Cheney the Italian greyhound for a separate walk afterwards. He has a more leisurely pace and is primarily interested in checking the neighborhood pee-mail. [Sniff, sniff] “Oh, yeah?! Reply all!” [Squirt]

  72. 72.

    suzanne

    @RossInDetroit: I’m sorry about your sister and brother-in-law. That must be very hard for you all.

    I lost a good friend from my childhood while I was in college. He couldn’t handle the strict expectations, either, and his family pretty much shunned him. They found his body in a bathroom in New York after he’d pretty much cut his ties with all of us. Heroin. Often doesn’t end well.

  78. 78.

    RossInDetroit

    @suzanne:

    Thank you. After the tragedy in SLC the recovery is actually working out not too badly. Sister moved back to MI in Oct and shares a house with middle sister now. Her company transferred her job so no interruption of employment.

    My sister, admittedly one rather traumatized individual, feels that a lot of Mormons in SLC are living under heavy stress despite normal appearances. Pressure to conform & all that. I cannot confirm this but she would know.

  79. 79.

    Catsy

    @suzanne:

    Besides, I have lots of friends who are ex-Mo’s, too, and they have said that every family they knew had some serious skeletons that everyone just knows not to mention. Once they leave, Mormons will often confess to years of pain.

    This. One of my earliest girlfriends was the oldest daughter in a Mormon family, and she shared a fair amount about the fucked-up, broken family she came from. Near as I can recall, at some point in the past the father had sexually abused her younger sister and was spending some time not living with them–I suspect at the behest of church elders. For various reasons I strongly suspect he abused her too, but she never mentioned it. I’d put good odds on none of that ever having been reported to the police, either–why wasn’t the father in jail?

    I love her to this day, but she had a lot of understandable mental trauma and baggage from her family, who Did Not Approve of her dating this strange gothy boy she met online and really flipped their lids when they found out we were sleeping together.

    She survived. Eventually did all right. But while I haven’t talked to her in a few years, last I heard she was still struggling with her faith and relationship with the church.

  81. 81.

    Linnaeus

    Should be writing my dissertation, but cracked open a beer instead. Well, I suppose I could write and drink at the same time. Who knows, my work may actually improve if I do.

  84. 84.

    suzanne

    @RossInDetroit: Well, I’m glad to hear that things are on the upswing. That culture doesn’t really tolerate that sort of public admission of suffering, especially in one’s marriage or with one’s kids. The fact that the community is as insular as it is and that it is so difficult to leave (or join) is one of the big reasons it’s regarded as sort of “cultish”.
    @Catsy: Wow, I’m sorry for her, that’s awful. I’ve known quite a few LDS families in which the patriarch is abusive, or an alcoholic, etc. Everyone just sort of closes ranks around them–ruling their families as they see fit, I guess.

  87. 87.

    Jebediah

    @Nutella:

    She’s a big proponent of fox-hunting

    For real? So where the fuck does a proponent of such a pointlessly savage and cruel activity get off moralizing at anybody else, with or without a hundred made-up acronyms and neologisms?

    I’m not opposed to hunting for food, but I never got the impression that fox-hunters were struggling to provide a little protein for their hungry families.
    -Jebediah, JAFO (Just Another Fox hunt Opponent)

  93. 93.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Amir Khalid:

    Disney also left out the bit in Snow White where the Wicked Queen Stepmother has to dance for all eternity in a pair of red-hot iron shoes.

  96. 96.

    Paddy

    @Murakami: In the post Hurricane Andrew mess that my folks dealt with for months afterwords, they would not shut up about the Mormon missionaries that were everywhere in the debris, helping without being asked and even refusing to accept water or (as my dad offered) cash for their time and substantial help. My ex Catholic, damn near to agnostic folks were flutterly for years about them.

  97. 97.

    Amir Khalid

    @Jebediah:
    As I recall, m_c’s justifications were that fox-hunting is a good form of pest control; that the pack of dogs (who do the actual hunting) get to kill and eat the fox if they catch it; that it’s good exercise for the humans who follow the dogs around on horseback; that it’s good exercise for the horses too; and, last but not least, “I like it so fuck you” or something to that effect.

  99. 99.

    artem1s

    @Linda Featheringill:

    You know, I liked Pat Boone about a half century ago and am disappointed with all of this nonsense he has gotten into lately.

    gotta say I never cared for his music but even so the call was pretty skeevy. either the guy is totally disillusioned that he thinks voters care what he thinks about how many cops we have in Ohio or the guy is so hard up for cash that he will endorse anything.

    so sad.

  101. 101.

    lamh34

    @Amir Khalid: oh yeah, I’ve read a lot of the original fairy tale stories. I was a weird kid. I’m the same as an adult when I see a story that is based on another, I tend to want to find out from the source it’s why I love “the google” so much. So as a young girl, I was enchanted by Disney’s fairy tales which lead me to read the originals, but even after reading them, nothing can take the place of a young girls enchantment about a “prince charming” who awakens you from slumber…lol.

    So I still love Disney fairy tales, even with the more sugary endings.

  102. 102.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @SIA:

    Hey, SIA. Trying to figure how I’m going to get everything done in the next six days that I should have done over the last six weeks in preparation for several weeks in Canada. Driving to Ottawa for a Canadian Studies conference, then a bit of vacation (use it or lose it) with my cousins who live on the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron. So slightly panicky, but in the end everything that needs doing will get done.

    Or not.

    Did you know that JPL and I got together a few weeks ago? When I get back, let’s find a time to meet. (We were thinking of all getting together and going to Athens to meet Raven [formerly stuckinred].)

    And how are you?

  105. 105.

    Jebediah

    @Amir Khalid:
    @Omnes Omnibus:
    I’m guessing the “I like it so fuck you ” part is the only one that really matters, since all the other objectives can easily be achieved without the cruelty.

    @suzanne:
    No, must have been before my arrival here.

  107. 107.

    NobodySpecial

    Gaming convention went away a couple of hours ago, the high of playing still mixed with the sadness it’s not for another year. Got to playtest a couple of new things, will get credited for it, however, so the warm glow will last a while yet.

  109. 109.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again):

    Why the need for a conference?

    How often do I get a chance to hear hundreds of Ph.D.s give learned papers and panels and keynote talks on aspects of Canada being cold, the Queen of England being the head of state, the people being of mostly Celtic or Gallic descent, and the national fondness for hockey?

  111. 111.

    Amir Khalid

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    Of course m_c posted it here. Even if this blog of hers were any more real than Brigadoon, which I rather doubt, do you think any of us would want to go there?

  112. 112.

    Jebediah

    @Amir Khalid:

    Even if this blog of hers were any more real than Brigadoon, which I rather doubt, do you think any of us would want to go there?

    Brigadoon! Holy shit, I think that was the worst movie of a musical I have ever seen. Almost as annoying as Kirk Douglas’ turn as a stripey-shirt wearing sailor in 2000 Leagues under the Sea…

  115. 115.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jebediah:

    I agree. And it’s too bad, because the actual show is a lot of fun, with some terrific musical numbers. But it was cheesily filmed and none of the principals — even my dear Gene Kelly — was well served by the production.

  117. 117.

    SIA

    @SiubhanDuinne: Hey! Where did you and JPL meet? She’s on your end of town, right? Would like get together, my work schedule’s still really demanding but maybe on a weekend? is MomAnon still around?

    Wow, 6 weeks away sounds wonderful. Though it seems like they should do that in the middle of a horrible Atlanta summer so you could escape the heat! Just looked at some photos of Georgian Bay (would that be King George III?) and it looks gorgeous. You’ll get everything done the night before you leave! Have a wonderful trip!

  118. 118.

    Steeplejack

    @Amir Khalid:

    The worst part for me was when she, the clear-eyed, ruthless visionary of truth, told us that it wasn’t cruel because the fox is always killed instantly as the hounds sort of roll over it. Yeah, right.

  119. 119.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @SIA:

    Oh, I wasn’t clear. I’ll be gone only three weeks, but I should have been preparing over the past six weeks :-)

    JPL and I got together one morning while my car was being serviced. She lives really close to the dealership and invited me for coffee and munchies while oil was being changed and tires being rotated.

    We talked about finding you and A Mom Anon and the four of us descending on Raven in Athens some non-football weekend.

  121. 121.

    andy

    @SIA: I love that human megaphone thing. I don’t watch teevee news so it was interesting seeing it deployed. First the tools were applauding Walker’s depredations (as sort of a fuck you)- then you could see they started to get frightened as they were finally confronted with somebody(s) they couldn’t shut up.

    On the home front I made a tasty, if naive, hamburger.

  123. 123.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @SIA:

    Just looked at some photos of Georgian Bay (would that be King George III?) and it looks gorgeous.

    His son, George IV. Yes, it is beautiful, and I try to get up once a year or so. A lot of the area is seasonal “cottage country,” although my cousins live there year-round, and it is stunning in deep winter, especially when the town of Owen Sound has its annual Festival of Lights. Just magic. I might catch the first day or so of that this year before I head back; need to check dates.

  125. 125.

    suzanne

    @SiubhanDuinne: No, actually, she posted it to her FourLoko blog.

    She actually tried to capitalize and punctuate appropriately, and failed miserably. It reads very much like a 14-year-old’s personal narrative for English class.

  126. 126.

    SIA

    @andy: The beauty of having seventy people there was that no one could be easily muscled out the way they do when it’s just a few. It was truly a thing of beauty.

    @SiubhanDuinne: It sounds wonderful! Take some pictures! And even 3 weeks away sounds like heaven ;).

  129. 129.

    Xenos

    @Jebediah: Foxes are evil. They will go into a chicken coop and kill a couple hundred chickens in the course of collecting a meal – real ultraviolence. They need to be kept in control, even if it involves a spectacle of the unspeakable in pursuit of the inedible.

  130. 130.

    Jebediah

    @Xenos:
    Leaving aside whether or not an animal can even be “evil” – destructive, sure, a pest, sure, but “evil?” – I didn’t know that modern fox-hunting was really just farm labor. That big giant production though, with all those horses and dogs to get just one fox, seems less efficient than things like fencing or guard dogs (or arming the chickens – remember, if everyone has guns, magically no violence!)
    Back in New England, when the deer population gets so high that many might starve, hunters go out and shoot them with guns. Done right, it’s not nearly as savage as a fox hunt.

    I’m not buying that the primary purpose of fox hunting is just chicken protection.

  131. 131.

    Caz

    Someone please explain to me what makes someone insane who supports limited govt, lower taxes, a fair tax structure, spending cuts across the board, restrained foreigns aide spending, fewer regulations on private industry, and adherence to the Constitution makes a candidate insane.

    Of course, it’s not likely an establishment GOP’er will stick to these tenets, but you’re calling them wingnuts, extreme, and insane before we even know who will be the candidate and what policies they will propose.

    What is insane is this continued spending like money is going out of style and forcing our country into bankruptcy in order to continue to grow the percentage of the population that are Pauls in the quest to rob Peter to pay Paul.

    What do you think happens when the Pauls outnumber the Peters? Well, the gravy train stops rolling because there aren’t enough Peter’s to pull it, and we all suffer.

    What is wrong with fiscal restraint, individual liberty, accountability, and responsibility? The progressives simply want to spend us into oblivion and don’t care that the country will collapse into chaos. At least some of the GOP’ers have some ideas what will at least slow this trend down, and in some cases reverse this damaging trend.

    So which is more insane??

  132. 132.

    slightly-peeved

    The other part of gamename von scifinovel’s pro-fox hunting argument was that Americans shouldn’t presume to tell the British what they should or should not do. An argument that anyone with a shred of decency would abandon when British (and Australians-of-british-heritage such as myself) people pointed out they were opposed to it. It’s of a piece with her telling a Muslim who lives in an Islamic country how Muslims should live. She’s a great example of how, while there are no authorities on online fora, sometimes the best response to an argument is still ‘so why, exactly, should I give a single fuck about what you think?’

  133. 133.

    Yutsano

    @Jebediah:

    Back in New England, when the deer population gets so high that many might starve, hunters go out and shoot them with guns. Done right, it’s not nearly as savage as a fox hunt.

    Also too: venison is quite edible (and delicious!) so comparing it to fox hunting doesn’t even apply here. There are several good reasons to kill deer beyond population control, especially places where they now have few to no natural predators. Foxes are intimidated by dogs. A good farm dog will keep off any fox.

  134. 134.

    Jebediah

    @Yutsano:

    Foxes are intimidated by dogs. A good farm dog will keep off any fox.

    Plus it keeps the dog unemployment rate down (someone upthread had pointed out that one of gamename von scifinovel’s (love that!) arguments was that fox-hunting provides jobs.)
    I agree that there is no good comparison between deer hunting and fox hunting – I think I was trying to say that there are more humane ways to do “pest control,” but I didn’t manage to be very clear.

    ETA: Yes, venison is quite yummy!

  135. 135.

    Xenos

    @Jebediah: Fox hunting is also a good way to train the young countryside gentlemen in the skills needed to prepare them for vocations as cavalry officers. Maybe not the most up-to-date skill set.

    My concerns about fox hunting relate to misuse of the horses, not the foxes.

  136. 136.

    Jebediah

    @Xenos:
    Yeah, I am pretty sure horse-mounted cavalry won’t be winning too many campaigns these days…
    What’s the deal with the horses? I wasn’t aware there was badness for them too.

  137. 137.

    slightly-peeved

    In Australia, foxes are an introduced pest. They were brought over to kill rabbits -great problem solving, British colonists! They kill native animals, often endangered ones. Farmers just shoot them. A whole team of rich oiks with dogs strike me as an inefficient way of keeping fox numbers down, where such is required.

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