(Tom Toles via GoComics.com)
The Washington Post has a blog on Occupy the Highway:
Last Wednesday, 21 protesters left Zuccotti Park, the center of the New York protests for Occupy Wall Street, and set off down the highway — on foot. The protest pilgrimage hopes to arrive in Washington on Nov. 23, the day Congress will vote on extending Bush-era tax cuts. Elizabeth Flock joined the group in Elizabeth, N.J. She’s been with them as they battled fatigue and injuries, rumbled with Princeton students, enjoyed the largess of supporters along the route and attempted to articulate why they walk in protest…
Historians now tell us there was no such thing as a Children’s Crusade — just a bunch of dispossessed serfs wandering the highways demanding some kind of ill-defined redress, for which they were dismissed by their social betters as “pueri” (boys), irresponsible wastrels. The Supercommittee and its supporters are using a very old template.
Poopyman
The name Occupy the Highway conjures up images of roadkill, sorry to say. Dunno if there’s a better one – not off the top of my head, but there it is.
Also: Stay classy, you Princetonians! For they certainly are the One percenters, and that will be reckoned against them.
Brian S
I’m planning on occupying the last of the Slow Elk Oatmeal Stout I have in my refrigerator when I get home.
BGinCHI
When the Tom is right, he’s right.
BGinCHI
@Brian S: You’ll probably have more luck with that than I did with Occupy Monica Bellucci.
Zifnab
See, I think of it as something of a good sign that people have been peacefully marching for so long. Hasn’t always been the Dark Ages. People marched, institutes were reformed, and things got better.
The Super Committee is flailing, because they know their between a very conservative rock and an increasingly liberal hard place. The last three elections have been major wave elections. People have been getting increasingly politicized. Every smart politician should be fearing for his or her political career right now.
Whatever happens, these protesters are blazing a trail. They won’t march in vain.
kgc16
This being an open thread and all, can anyone tell me why the two lovers are always in separate bathtubs at the end of those commercials? What am I missing? Apologies in advance if it’s something totally obvious!
ETA: Oh wait, is it supposed to be after the fact? Still seems less than romantic.
catclub
@kgc16: me too. The cartoon is even more subtle to me ( I don’t get it. I don’t even know what the point is or who the villain might be.)
after a second look, my guess is that the democrats would love to make beautiful music cutting medicare and doing the catfood commission’s work, but there is no partner in crime.
Brian S
@kgc16: You’re not alone. I mean, I like the occasional soak in a tub, but it seems to me that water would get cold pretty quick, and the tub would get uncomfortable soon after.
Violet
I’m off to occupy the gym.
Martin
@Zifnab:
That’s fine. I’ll take the defense cuts and cuts to Medicare providers. The burden is entirely on the GOP to not fuck this chicken. The Dems can say ‘no’ all they want. Yeah, they don’t want the trigger to fire either, but they won’t get punished by it. The GOP will.
BGinCHI
I always hoped those ads were made by older women as a strategy to keep horny old dudes and their 3-hour boners contained.
handsmile
@BGinCHI: (#4)
Ah, to be part of that 1%! Breathes there a man more to be envied than Vincent Cassel?
kgc16
@catclub: The Democrats want to get all cozy with the Repugs, but the Rs are missing in action (again), so it’s another cold shower for the Ds?
BGinCHI
@handsmile: In short: no.
He’s one of my favorite actors, too. I hope the Bond movies bring him back.
Citizen_X
@kgc16: Hell, I’ve always thought that two-bathtubs-outside made for the least conducive environment to spontaneous sex:
“Hey, come on over.”
“Heh heh, sure thing…[thunk] Ow! My knee!…[slip] Ouch! My shin!”
“Ow, watch it, that’s my leg!”
“Sorry!”
“Um, looks like the moment’s gone…”
“Well, what the fuck do you expect? It’s freezing cold out here!”
“Fine! Forget it, then!”
“Hey, I’m sorry I yelled! Really, come back!…Please?”
Martin
@BGinCHI: That was always my thinking too. “Yo, I want 2 layers of cast iron between me and that thing!”
cat48
The Bush Taxcuts don’t expire until 12/2012. It only seems like 2 yrs since they were extended. The Payroll tax cut & unemployment benefits both expire in December….Maybe they can work on the extension when they get to DC.
Montysano
Anyone who still doesn’t “get” OWS is being willfully ignorant. The OWS message could be boiled down to something as simple as By The People, For The People. Who could be against that? Apparently a sizable portion of the populace, eh? Apparently those who are hooked on the cheap buzz of cynicism. No wonder Lee Atwater had a deathbed repentance for what he helped set loose.
The Dangerman
@kgc16:
Wait; they are lovers in those commercials? Slightly more serious, these pills are marketed to people like Rush Limbaugh … and one would need a wee bit bigger tub.
I may win the Prude Award in this thread, but I’m so tired of V1agra, C1alis, etc., commercials when I’m watching a ballgame; this would be doubly so if I had children (which probably most accurately explains the 2 tubs).
RossinDetroit
I don’t get the cartoon. Is it a TV thing? I’m not a TV watcher.
I assumed it was a Norquist reference and the elephant declined to be drowned.
FlipYrWhig
@kgc16:
IIRC they used to have the whole concept reversed, so that the sitting in bathtubs was what you’d do because you _couldn’t_ get busy. Wasn’t there even a line like, “When you’re ready to get out of those tubs…”?
But somehow, like the Life cereal “Mikey” commercials going from “He won’t eat anything” to “He’ll eat anything,” the whole thing got switched around.
boss bitch
There’s a vote to extend the Bush tax cuts? I thought they just expired at the end of next year?
cat48
@Montysano:
I’m with OWS in spirit as long as they are nonviolent and are not LaRouchies who demand Obama’s impeachment or Anarchists who want to overturn the government & enjoy provoking police. Also, not with the Squatters/Anarchists who tried to take over private property, a vacant Car Dealership in NC.
Redshift
@kgc16: I dunno, it never made any sense to me either. I’m always amused, though, by the fact that C!-lis ads always feature men and women, but V!-gra ads are just (rugged) men. Makes me wonder what their target market really is.
AB
More Cain comedy at TPM. Someone had the nerve to ask him his thoughts on things that have happened. Librul media strikes again. Best passage:
I’m sure we’ll be seeing the rest on the Daily Show soon.
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/11/cain-chokes-on-libya-question-got-all-this-stuff-twirling-around-in-my-head.php?ref=fpblg
Martin
@The Dangerman: Actually, it’s pretty funny when you have kids. Not many things make a kid blush (girl) and crack up (boy) like erection jokes. When one comes on TV we often yell across the house to our middle school age son something like “You know 4 hour erections are bad, right!”. Do stuff like that with the girl too.
The only way for them to be able to talk/feel normal about this stuff is to be normal about it.
cat48
@boss bitch:
They do expire in 2012.
FlipYrWhig
@RossinDetroit: It took me a long time to get it too. There’s a b0ner-pill commercial whose visual signature is the partners each sitting in a bathtub out in the wild somewhere (why? who knows). So here the Donkey is distraught because he can’t find his partner… i.e., there should be an Elephant in the other tub, but there isn’t.
First I thought it was about how the Republicans can’t find a candidate, but now I guess it’s actually about how the Democrats are rarin’ to go but the Republicans aren’t being receptive. Bipartisanship as pharmaceutical-aided sex? I guess that’s a step up from Norquistian date-rαpe.
Martin
@Redshift:
I think you figured out what their target market is. You’re just too polite to say it.
smintheus
Herman Cain, cringe comedian extraordinaire:
As is traditional with Cain, things then go even further downhill from there.
kgc16
@Citizen_X: Ha! Very nice.
burnspbesq
Somewhat surprisingly, the “We Are the 99%” lawn sign that we put up on Saturday is still standing.
handsmile
Like RossinDetroit (#20), Toles’ cartoon brought to my mind that poete maudit of today’s Republican party, Grover Norquist.
Among his charming bon mots apposite to the image would be “Bipartisanship is another name for date rape,” as well as his desire to shrink government “to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”
I did like it that the National Erection was featured in the cartoon.
BGinCHI
@Martin: FTW, parent-wise.
Instead of warning you to call your doctor about an erection lasting more than 3 hours it should probably tell those old dudes to call their friends to brag.
“Hey Bob, you aren’t gonna believe this…..take your oxygen mask off, I can’t understand you.”
evinfuilt
@cat48:
I’m sorry, but with the comment above yours about calling the doctor if it lasts more than 4 hours.
“Yes doctor, my Bush Tax Cuts just won’t stop, it’s embarrassing for me to be seen in public sporting this.”
Joel
The Princeton guy in this linked story is a dead ringer for an 80’s movie villain.
kgc16
@FlipYrWhig: Well, that’s interesting. I must have missed the first version. It’s apparent that the tubs mean different things to different people, so would that be a feature or a bug? It’s good because, even if your audience is confused, at least they’re paying attention?
scav
Beeb is reporting that Joe Paterno’s name is being removed from the Big-10 trophy. Provided as an antidote or cat-toy for those not wishing to embarrass their children with erection jokes or election rants.
BGinCHI
@Joel: A young Christopher Walken.
His name is Whitney, though, so he’s probably an experienced bar fighter.
The Dangerman
@Martin:
I suppose I’d be cool with it with older kids; by that time, the, um, genie is, um, out of the bottle.
I was picturing having a younger child and having to explain some things I wasn’t ready to explain to them.
Martin
@BGinCHI: The whole sex/parenting thing hit when my son was about 9 or so, and we were watching Dirty Jobs and Mike Rowe looks down and says “Hey, that looks like a reservoir tip” which triggered the obvious “Daddy, what’s a reservoir tip?” So, there was a conversation.
A season or so later Mike Rowe had his arm up to his elbow artificially inseminating a horse and jacking off a bull or a pig or some damn thing. It just got more humorous as we went along. I think with the horse I looked over to him (with an incredibly puzzled expression on his face) and said, “Just so you know, on your wedding night, don’t expect to get in there up to your elbow”. My wife laughed so hard she nearly peed. My daughter ran out of the room and wouldn’t look at me for about a day. My son turned the most amazing shade of red and hid under a blanket for half an hour.
I’m definitely the dad you don’t want showing up with your friends around.
Joel
@BGinCHI: I was going to go with Billy Zabka.
Martin
@The Dangerman: Just so you know, you’re always explaining things you’re not ready to explain to them. I think it took about 3 hours after we got my son home after he was born that I realized the only thing that would ever run on my schedule ever again was my own death.
BGinCHI
@Martin: This is gonna come in handy when ours gets older. I can see this getting you out of a lot of babysitting/group outings duties.
I owe you one.
BGinCHI
@Joel: Holy blast from the past.
Gin & Tonic
@handsmile: I just wanted to toss out an appreciation, as I can’t think of another blog’s comment section where I’d find someone using the word “apposite.”
Not Sure
Feel free to steal this idea. Here’s how you Occupy the Interstate Highway System. The minimum speed limit (yes, there is one) is usually 35 MPH. You all get in your cars and set your cruise control to about 38 or so (for leeway) in the RIGHT LANE ONLY. It is actually illegal to drive slow in the left lane, and you’ll give the state troopers an excuse to rain on your parade. The outsides of your cars, minivans, pickup trucks, etc., are festooned with the usual Occupy signs.
Again, and I can’t stress this enough, be sure to obey all traffic laws – to the letter. For example, no one is to be riding in the back of a pickup truck waving a sign. That is both illegal and dangerous. Likewise, signage should not block any of the windows. It is also illegal for pedestrians, bicyclists, operators of farm machinery, etc., to use the Interstate Highway.
The idea is that people will want very much to go around you, with varying degrees of success depending on the time of day (I suggest making a daily inter-city trip during morning or evening rush hour). You will get noticed.
jl
Not to worry, Newt, the GOP new chosen one, and the next president of these great United States, will have new ideas, and he will find some innovative solution for the misguided OWS children wandering through traffic.
The fact that Newt is not popular with the readers of this blog shows how their minds are ossified in old liberal habits of thought. Newt will see the intersecting and interlocking relationships reaching down through multiple levels. His sweeping vision will see synergies and elegant simplifying solutions to all problems. Let one hundred Newthoughts bloom!
(Edit: sorry, I slipped up, Newt and ‘elegant’ cannot be related in any way. Excuse me, I am still practicing for a job with the Newtmentum team, I hear they are hiring.)
And, he was the Fanny/Freddie official historian.
My Newtmentum theme song. (They will love it and hire me right away, huh?)
Mr. NewTon Risin’, Mr. NewTon Risin’
Mr. NewTon Risin’, Mr. NewTon Risin’
Got to keep on risin’
Mr. NewTon Risin’, Mr. NewTon Risin’
NewTon Risin’, gotta NewTon Risin’
Mr. NewTon Risin’, gotta keep on risin’
Risin’, risin’
Gone risin’, risin’
Not Sure
Oh, and if you are using a toll road, such as the New York State Thruway, you are to pay your tolls in cash only, preferably with $100 bills. No EZ-Pass allowed.
schrodinger's cat
@jl: One more line for your poem, He is Newt who weighs a ton.
Redshift
@Martin:
Well, thinking about it, it’s pretty clever. They can use the same ad to appeal to gay men and straight men who are thinking about themselves more than their potential partner (which probably covers a lot of the straight market other than people with a real medical need.)
FlipYrWhig
@kgc16: I just went looking for answers — apparently the premise is supposed to be that taking a bath is relaxing, and this is a drug you can take without feeling like you have to rush to Make The Beast With Two Backs. So you soak in the tub for a while, and then when you’re ready, you get out and boink, all romantic-like.
Martin
@BGinCHI: Oh, totally. My daughter has sworn she never wants to have her friends over for a sleepover, EVER! I’m clearly the person of last resort to take her and her friends anywhere. She’d rather walk, if it’s walkable.
Thankfully, my wife is pretty much on the same page as me with this stuff. Drives the kids crazy. Somewhere along the way we figured that if we waited until we were ready to talk about stuff, we’d probably be too late, so we agreed that whenever it came up, we’d cover it.
We had a similar pact about Santa/Tooth Fairy/etc. that we would never discuss them, encourage/discourage that belief, etc. If they got it from TV, so be it, but we never once mentioned Santa to them. In around 3rd grade or so my son finally expressed some concern about it, around the same time he was struggling with whether he believed in God or not. So I took him aside and made a deal with him: He’d need to tell me honestly what he believed, and I’d confirm/reject it truthfully. No matter what he said or what I said, his Christmas would come out the same – if there was a Santa and he lost his privileges with the fat guy, I’d get him the gifts. So there was no risk to him. He finally declared that he didn’t believe in Santa, and I confirmed there wasn’t one, and then he was really pissed at me and accused me of being part of a grand, global conspiracy of adults to lie to kids. I thought about that a minute and said “Yeah, I guess you’re right – but we never talked about Santa, so we didn’t perpetuate it. We merely failed to stop it.’ I thought it was a good defense and then he said something about Nuremberg or Darfur or some grand moral failure by some public at large that he’d already learned about, and then I was stuck. I muttered something in my defense that I was pretty sure not many people died from believing in Santa, but that moment did make it quite a bit easier to be forthcoming on all of the awkward conversations later.
Edit: I should mention that part of the pact with my son was that he couldn’t let on with his sister, or else I’d make sure he lost his privileges. We then recruited him into the whole gift hiding thing for his sister, which he really liked doing.
Calouste
@smintheus:
At least we’ll know that if Cain ever gets asked which newspapers he reads, he will honestly answer “None of them!”.
Martin
@Redshift: Yeah, basically Via is marketed to men, Cia to women. There’s a good sociological study in there somewhere.
Gin & Tonic
@Martin: I’m impressed that your 3rd-grade son knew about Nuremberg.
Martin
@Gin & Tonic: Might have been 4th grade. They read a number of Holocaust-related books in 4th grade. I make the kids watch the news with me with some regularity, and he lost interest in cartoons somewhere around 2nd grade in favor of documentaries and shows like Mythbusters. He knows a lot of weird shit for a kid, and doesn’t know a lot of stuff you’d expect a kid to know. The girl is a bit more typical.
Gin & Tonic
@Martin: 3rd, 4th, whatever. There are lots of adults who have no idea what it means.
Gex
Can I just say that I am sick and tired of the tendency to associate pedophilia with homosexuality. Apparently NPR had a guy on to discuss gay adoptions and just couldn’t help himself but bring up Sandusky. Sure, he was saying gays can be better adoptive parents than Sandusky, but is that our measuring stick? And it still leaves the fact that a lot of anti-gay people deliberately link the two, we don’t need allies helping them. Surely there are non-pedophile examples of bad straight adoptive parents.
If everytime someone thought of you, they also thought of Rush Limbaugh, you’d be worried about how they really feel about you, wouldn’t you?
scav
@Gin & Tonic: The smallest ones especially seem to come pre-equipped with a legal bulldog approach to negotiation and argumentation. Erupts practically before they manage multiple syllables.
Steeplejack
DVR Alert
TCM is showing The Blue Angel (1930) at 8:00 p.m. EST tonight. Marlene Dietrich in an iconic role, directed by Josef von Sternberg. And followed at 10:00 p.m. by another of their collaborations, Shanghai Express (1932).
harlana
@kgc16:
don’t overthink it, it’s just fucking stupid is all. all those ads are stupid as hell. if you don’t have insurance, by the way, you can get free See-aliss, i won’t put the link up for moderation purposes
Martin
@Gin & Tonic: Its one of the things I like about his school district. This year (8th grade) they read pretty much nothing but books from the banned book list. I thought that was especially cool.
John Weiss
@The Dangerman: I don’t think that “medicinals” of any sort should be on the tee-vee. Unless, of course they show liquor commercials as well.
And cigarette commercials.
RossinDetroit
@Steeplejack:
Man, that was hard to watch. Great film making but sooooo depressing and grim in the last reel.
John Weiss
@Gex: Yes, you can say that. I’m sick of the association (imagined) between teh gays and pedophilia. Two entirely different behaviors. The former being entirely normal, the latter an (as of yet incurable) psychosis.
harlana
i’m sorry i made a ref to the drug that cannot be mentioned lest you be stuck in moderation hell, i just wanted to say it is of interest that if you don’t have insurance, you can actually get the stuff for free – i hate those stupid ads
Gin & Tonic
@scav: Well, sure – been there, done that, have the scars. Just that bringing up Nuremberg when you’re 10 sounds, I don’t know, atypical.
harlana
@jl: a curse be upon you for conjuring up an image of a Newt-Jim Morrison hybrid (vs. the Cain-Gingrich hybrid favored by Perry)
Gin & Tonic
@Gex: Unfortunately, though, and I’d be happy to be proven wrong, I think that non-familial pedophilia tends to be more man-on-boy than man-on-girl, simply because, as a practical matter, it’s easier for a man predisposed to pedophilia to be around boys than around girls. It arouses less suspicion, it can be sports-related, it can be “just horsing around.” Whereas if he were hanging around ballet class, people would look askance much sooner.
Lest I be misunderstood, I understand that pedophilia has nothing to do with adult sexual development.
gbear
I’m off to have a girly-man pizza at the Davainni’s on Grand Avenue. It’s only going to have three ingredients, two of which are vegetables.
More power to everything ‘Occupation’. It’s going to be hard to keep things going over the winter, but once March arrives, there’ll be no stopping it.
lacp
@harlana: Yeah, I’m sick of them too. If you really need a drug with potentially very serious side effects to put some giddyup in your pony, maybe you ought to consider hanging up your spurs.
Steeplejack
@RossinDetroit:
Yes, it’s not the feel-good movie of the year. But it is a classic! I haven’t seen it in years, so it’s going on the DVR. TCM showed Shanghai Express just a month or two ago, so I’ll give that a miss.
Omnes Omnibus
@BGinCHI: I’ve seen commercials for his tv show.
scav
@Gin & Tonic: Could very be. I rather thought it came pre-installed as part of the initial boot-dataset. Might just be the ones I was out-maneuvered by — although now that I think of it, the information available in their house hasn’t been toddler-proofed/dumbed down either. All sorts of tactical advantages readily available for hoovering up.
Suffern ACE
@gbear: Yum. Used to live one block from there on Grand and Fairview, back when I was a student at one of those small but lively liberal arts colleges that they have around there.
baldheadeddork
Apologies in advance if this is crossing into granite countertop territory, but I was piqued by the Princeton gentleman who berated the marchers for not having any marketable skills, like himself.
He is Whitney Blodgett, who appears to be the son of Mark W. Blodgett. Blodgett pere made his bones in M&A during the 80’s. He started on the M&A desk at Citigroup in the late 70’s, then moved to Drexel in 1980, when Michael Milken was turning it into the top merger shop in the world.
In eight years at Drexel he rose to Corporate VP, and during this period Drexel undertook several massive insider trading scandals that resulted in criminal convictions against Milken, Ivan Boskey, Dennis Levine and others. Rudy Giulianni was working on a RICO indictment against Drexel in 1989 when the firm agreed to plea no contest to six felonies and pay a then-record $650 million fine to avoid prosecution.
Blodgett bailed out of Drexel sometime in 1988 and bought a majority stake in Stocker & Yale, a manufacturer of laser products. He avoided charges from his time at Drexel (as far as I could find) but in 2005 he and the company were charged by the SEC with issuing misleading press releases that Blodgett traded on for his own personal gain.
Welcome to your 1%.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drexel_Burnham_Lambert#Downfall
http://www.prophotonix.com/investors/Corporate-Governance/Board-of-directors.aspx
http://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/comp19236.pdf
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/stocker-yale-inc-to-pay-sec-fine-over-press-releases
Martin
@scav: No, I think it’s in the lizard brain. I remember my daughter, who couldn’t have been more than 2, throwing a tantrum, tears, the works, threw herself face down, pounding little fists and feet into the wood floor, then easing back on the tears, looking up at me out of the corner of her eye to see if it was working, and then deciding I needed more, went back to the tears and tantruming.
I think I said aloud: “Oh, so we’re going to have one of those relationships then.”
But yeah, they come pre-wired. And yeah, we give them ammunition. We know it. My kids know that I try and deceive them and I expect them to learn the deceptions as they get older. I’ve told them from as early as they’d understand that the world is going to try and take advantage of them. We started by testing them with TV commercials. “What are they really trying to sell you? What are they really saying?” I’ll make deals with them that are strongly to my benefit, and then point out what they gave up, and what they should have done differently.
I don’t know if the media/marketing/politics they get is really that much worse than when we were young, but they certainly get a higher volume of it. I don’t want them rushing out into the world as young adults and getting their ass handed to them. They’re going to make decisions on their terms, not anyone elses. At least that’s the hope.
Brian R.
Did a Princeton freshman named Whitney Blodgett the Third actually lecture the protesters on how you’ve got to make it in this world on your own talent?
What a fucking asshole. With such a punchable face.
4tehlulz
This is the best movie trailer in human history.
Uncle Clarence Thomas
.
.
Fortunately, Greece and Italy decided to follow President Obama’s wise example, and have placed their governments in the hands of Goldman Sachs.
.
.
Anon
@Poopyman: F**k off. One person doesn’t speak for 5000 students. The guy is from the local prep school (Lawrenceville for those who know the area) and near as I could tell is a freshman. Not the smartest of combinations, as evidenced by his listing the Groppenator as his personal hero.
Litlebritdifrnt2
@Gin & Tonic: we are representing a guy who is accused of raping his 13 year old daughter right now. Not his adopted daughter or anything but his biological daughter. I have no words.
Lojasmo
OT: vi-gra is covered by insurance for ED but not for pulmonary hypertension.
Boner for more than 4 hours, and they stick a big-ass needle in your penis. True story
scav
@Martin: My big clue that they were having us on was the barely able to talk one’s interaction with his father. “Who am I?” “Mah Mah” “HehHeh, Who am I Mikey?” “Maah Maaah” and on and on and just at the finely gauged paternal lift-off moment: “DaahDaaaaah”. (It also amused me no end that Dad continued to fall for it and really get wound up.)
All for not giving kids safety scissors and expecting a fair fight.
The Dangerman
@Martin:
Good, he’s learning at a young age that blowing shit up can be cool (matchheads in a barrel is one of my favorites).
BGinCHI
@Martin: Wow. You’re my hero.
You need to write a fatherhood book.
Love the Santa Claus Pact.
Lojasmo
Comment #84 in moderation. FYWP
harlana
Fuck Newtmentum. You’re telling me I’m going to have to listen to this bag of flab and wind and all the media fluffing for the next few weeks or however long it lasts? I thought we were done with Newt a long time ago, he’d been a footnote, and now this? I had to suffer through this fucking asshole in the 90’s.
Just fucking shoot me.
Well at least I’ll enjoy witnessing the implosion which should be a sight to behold.
lamh35
Ughh, just ughh! I get that it’s a news story, but let’s jut be a “defense attorney” for a mintue, why would giving an interview be a good idea???
Jerry Sandusky to Bob Costas in exclusive ‘Rock Center’ interview: “I shouldn’t have showered with those kids.”
Southern Beale
I don’t get the cartoon. What does the bathtub mean?
In other news, I have a kitten update!
trollhattan
Can I get an “amen” from the usual BJ noo-cue-lar fanboi drop-ins?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15691571
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20111115_03.html
Have to say, our own NRC was a lot more correct on the Fukushima situation than the Japanese regulators. Best not to even mention TEPCO.
EIGRP
@Martin: 4 hours is abnormal when you’re 15?
Eric
Suffern ACE
@lamh35: Pretending for a moment that the coach was clueless that naked soap wrestling fights with the kids in the shower would be considered problematic, hugging them in the shower while naked would be considered inappropriate, playing “let me massage you” in his basement would be considered threatening if parents were aware of it, giving children clothing and asking “change in front of me”…o.k. no one is that clueless.
SiubhanDuinne
@RossinDetroit:
Thanks, RossinDetroit. I was just about to post that (catching up with numerous threads after a day on the road; writing this from a restaurant in Roanoke, VA if anyone is interested). I immediately took it as a refernewnce to Grover Norquist’s infamous line.
P.S. What commercial?
Samara Morgan
nice JAFI reference, AL.
the childrens crusade– did you mean this?
a kind of early Bush Doctrine using impoverished children?
Chuck Butcher
@Southern Beale: I don’t get the cartoon. What does the bathtub mean?
Southern Beale
@Chuck Butcher:
Oh wow. I can’t believe I don’t watch enough TV to get it.
Mnemosyne
@Steeplejack:
One of the reasons I love living in the future is that I have Shanghai Express on my iPod Touch right now (I tried to watch it on a plane trip but the noise of the plane overpowered the dialogue).
I really do want to work on my Pre-Code blog, but other projects keep getting in the way. I do have most of a post worked up about the Carole Lombard/Clark Gable No Man of Her Own, and I think I could segue from there to A Free Soul. I just have to sit down and, like, write it.
lamh35
ok, so NBC has Sandusky, ABC has Gabby Giffords and Fox News has Gloria Cain. I refuse to watch Sandusky or Cain, so I guess it’ll be Gabby story tonight.
I hope other people also ignores NBC’s interview too, even if it is to watch Gloria Cain.
Origuy
A better analogy would be to the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381.
SiubhanDuinne
@Lojasmo:
Funny how they never mention that in the side effects disclaimers.
SiubhanDuinne
@Southern Beale:
“My kitteh has a first name,
It’s O-S-C-A-R. . . . “
Loneoak
I CAN HAZ MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL THREAD?
Go Pack Go!
jeffreyw
Our puppeh is learning! Huzzah!
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Loneoak:
They’re going, so far.
Gin & Tonic
@lamh35: The ick factor is very strong, but props to Costas for getting the interview.
Mnemosyne
@lamh35:
You should probably keep the kleenex handy. Just the excerpts from the book in People magazine (1) were making me tear up.
(1) Not my fault, my co-worker buys all of the glossy gossip magazines and leaves them in the lunchroom.
BGinCHI
@jeffreyw: Come on, Jeffrey. We can see who is and is not learning in those pictures.
magurakurin
@lamh35: Jesus, what’s next? Is Sandusky going to start a fund to hire private investigators to find the “real child-raper?” I get the folks who defended the innocent until proven guilty basis of the US legal code. And they are not wrong to do so. The indictment is just that and indictment not a verdict. Sandusky has the right to the presumption of innocence in the justice system. No question about it. But in this little side-chamber that is the BJ comment section, for fuck’s sake, the guy is guilty a sin, right?
MikeJ
@Mnemosyne: When you show up late for a thread and skip around to skim you get Martin at 41:
and Mnemosyne at 107:
And really wonder if you want to read the inbetweens.
Raven
@SiubhanDuinne: Try the Hotel Roanoke dining room if you can.
http://hotelroanoke.com/
hildebrand
@BGinCHI: Gah! You mean that Ms. Bellucci is not waiting patiently for me? My hopes of a fair and just world have been completely shot. Hmph.
Suffern ACE
Well, at least the Vikings aren’t going to blow a big lead this week.
Raven
@magurakurin: And because a thousand drunk morons “rioted” all Penn State students are pedophiles too.
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
One of my favorite sayings: “I love writing; it’s the paperwork I can’t stand.”
Good luck with the blog piece. It sounds interesting.
El Cid
@Suffern ACE:
Who should they blow instead?
SiubhanDuinne
@Mods: just saying, my #102 has been in suspended animation for close to an hour. Just because I block quoted a banned word.
ETA: Never mind, and thank you. That was fast.
SiubhanDuinne
@Raven:
Thanks, Raven. Maybe on the return trip, if my travels bring me back this way.
magurakurin
@Raven: So, you think there is a chance that Sandusky is innocent? I don’t. Now, I do admit that there is a chance that the DA doesn’t have enough to convict him and that a jury might see reasonable doubt. OJ was acquitted. And in this case McQueary’s testimony may be isolated by the defense and they may be able to paint him as a liar for some reason. Or perhaps just create enough doubt about his memory of what he actually saw. That’s why Sandusky is admitting to having showered with the boys. But some old men rape little boys in the ass. That is a sad, sad reality of life on Planet Earth. And Sandusky is clearly (to me) in their number. If for some reason you can look at this situation and see the chance that no little boys were ever raped, well, I envy your optimism and faith in your fellow man.
SiubhanDuinne
@jeffreyw:
I’m intrigued by all the glowing lights in the background of the photos. Are those all critter eyes, like a scary scene in “Bambi” or “Snow White,” or are they a line of car headlights approaching your home like the final scene from “Field of Dreams”? Or a crocodile of mendicants with lanterns, like the Ave Maria scene in “Fantasia”?
jeffreyw
@SiubhanDuinne: Nothing near as grand as any of those – they are solar powered marking lights, meant to light a walk coming own from the patio. As the days shorten and the nights grow longer their magic fades before the dawn breaks.
schrodinger's cat
@jeffreyw: Is your kittehs learning? How are Bitsy and Homer?
jeffreyw
@schrodinger’s cat: Those two are having a good time together now, sparring and chasing up and down the hallway. Bitsy goes in for her “procedure” tomorrow. She will be sore for a few days.
khead
I wish I wrote articles for The Atlantic so I could excuse this heaping pile of dung from Megan and then sleep peacefully at night.
Julia Grey
So now I’ve heard the “explanation” for the pair of bathtubs in the Cheeallis commercials, that they are supposed to evoke relaxing and taking one’s time and all that.
But I ask you, who the hell could relax in a bathtub OUTDOORS?