Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

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

Everybody saw this coming.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

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

“But what about the lurkers?”

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

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

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

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

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

This really is a full service blog.

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

We are aware of all internet traditions.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

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

In my day, never was longer.

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

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

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155Comments

  3. 3.

    Felinious Wench

    Since this is an open thread, I’m going to propose we start having threads specifically for trolls, so those of us who like to play with them can go insult them in a defined space. So if they shit all over a thread, we’ll just ignore them until it’s a troll thread.

    I think we should call them TBogg threads, and the first should be about how no Republican can beat Obama in the general election. I am sure Veritas will end up with spittle on his chin from the froth of glee he’ll spout.

    Well, maybe not his chin.

  5. 5.

    khead

    So, Bella – who is 4 months old max – was fixed yesterday.

    The vet confirmed she was in heat. We already knew because she was dragging herself across 6 ft of carpet in our living room and then trying to pee on the love seat.

  9. 9.

    Mnemosyne

    @khead:

    Werebear had some stuff on her blog saying that, when cats are stressed at a young age, sometimes they’ll mature early (it’s evolution trying to give them a chance to reproduce ASAP).

    When poor Charlotte came back from her spaying, they had put one of those e-collars on her to prevent her from trying to mess with the stitches. (They don’t usually do that with cats but Charlotte is a born troublemaker.) At one point, she was laying on her back with all four paws braced against the collar trying to push it off.

  11. 11.

    dmsilev

    Latest statement from the Romneytronic 3000, via TPM:

    “I am not a Wall Street guy, classically defined, but I am not going to quibble over definitions.”

    Why do I have a feeling that Obama’s ad campaigns are just going to consist of one MittMoment(tm) after another, repeated in an endless loop.

  12. 12.

    Mnemosyne

    I got virtually nothing done at work this week, and I blame all of you jackholes. Happy New Year! :-)

  13. 13.

    Spaghetti Lee

    @dmsilev:

    “Classically Defined?” Did Plato and Aristotle have something to say about Wall Street that I missed? But I’m going to guess he means that he’s not a Wall Street guy because he wasn’t born and raised in Manhattan. The Romneytronic does sometimes have trouble processing nuance and symbolism.

  14. 14.

    dmsilev

    @Spaghetti Lee: I think he meant quantum mechanical as opposed to classical. Certainly, the probabilistic nature of quantum is very useful for understanding where Mitt stands.

  15. 15.

    kdaug

    @dmsilev:

    Why do I have a feeling that Obama’s ad campaigns are just going to consist of one MittMoment™ after another, repeated in an endless loop.

    They keep setting ’em up, you get to keep knocking ’em down.

  16. 16.

    Hill Dweller

    @dmsilev:
    Romney’s refusal to release his tax returns is also picking up more coverage. Couple that with Romney taking hard drives on his way out of the Governor’s office, and there is an effective, easy to understand narrative there for the taking.

  17. 17.

    RossinDetroit

    @dmsilev:

    the probabilistic nature of quantum is very useful for understanding where Mitt stands.

    In that he has no position until observed, then his velocity can’t be known?

  19. 19.

    Phylllis

    Local news is doing a story about fireworks and New Year’s. The reporter used ‘common sense’ and ‘fireworks’ in the same sentence. Lololol. Oh and he just said be careful using them with alcohol. Okeydoke. Thanks for that helpful tidbit.

  21. 21.

    RossinDetroit

    @Phylllis:

    Big deal on the radio around here reminding people that it’s a bad idea to fire guns in the air, and not to do it on New Year’s Eve. Because we have to be told this, we are Fail as a species.

  24. 24.

    dance around in your bones

    @khead:

    We had a kitty we rescued in Baja who went into heat at 5-6 months (we weren’t sure of her age). After keeping her inside for several nights she pushed out a window screen and in literally 5 MINUTES got herself poked and pregnant.

    This pattern repeated itself 3 TIMES until we finally got her fixed. The vet said she was ‘full of milk’ and I said I do not care at this point-I now have 6 kittehs (gave the other 3 away) and I can’t TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!!

    So, long story short-yes, they can go into heat early, and good on ya for getting her fixed QUICK because otherwise you can end up with a bazillion kittehs.

    (I SO want to say ‘not that there’s anything WRONG with that’ in the Seinfeldian sense….but…..)

  26. 26.

    dmsilev

    @RossinDetroit: That’s part of it. More generally, measuring Mitt’s position on any given issue renders his position on all others in superpositions of ‘support’ and ‘oppose’. Thus, repeated measurements on a sequence of issues will yield a random set of results.

    (for the specialists, this indicates that the operators corresponding to the various issues have non-zero commutators)

  27. 27.

    Elizabelle

    So glad for an open thread.

    All the coverage of those sad, sad candidates in the Iowa primary. That I care not a whit about.

    It’s like being trapped at a NASCAR event that never ends.

  28. 28.

    The Dangerman

    @Hill Dweller:

    Romney’s refusal to release his tax returns is also picking up more coverage.

    Since he’s been running for President for, well, forever, one would think he’d make sure there wasn’t anything scandalous in his returns. He’s going to HAVE to release them eventually.

  29. 29.

    Benjamin Franklin

    I think he is more Locke, than Hume…….

    http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/12/public-money-for-public-purpose-toward-the-end-of-plutocracy-and-the-triumph-of-democracy-part-vi.html

    “

    Extreme laissez faire capitalism of the kind extolled off and on over the past two centuries, and increasingly preached by economists, financiers and conservative thinkers over the past four decades, is a perverse distortion of human nature, foisted upon us by cold and demented thinkers captivated by inhuman notions of efficiency and domination. In the end, it is a system that reduces each human being to an object whose value is nothing beyond what it is worth in the market. We need to restore a social balance, in which private property, entrepreneurialism and commercial activity do not dominate our lives and set all the rules for our existence, but function within a democratic social order framed by a politically coherent and effective commitment to the public good. In a democratic social order there exists an activist public sector controlling a substantial store of social goods, and channeling democratic energies and intelligence into the ambitious perfection of such goods

    .

  30. 30.

    Mark S.

    @Hill Dweller:

    He’s a moron, cause when he finally does it, it will get a lot more attention than if he did it earlier. Everyone thinks he’s hiding something.

  33. 33.

    Gex

    @Mark S.: Tried all week to go see the Muppets, but they have one single showing that I will presume is filled with children. I’m not going to risk it.

  34. 34.

    gbear

    @Hill Dweller: Yes, Romney’s tax return is going to = Obama’s birth certificate if he keeps refusing to release it. And it will be as bad for him if he releases it as if he’d kept it secret. Has any other recent candidate ever refused? Did McCain release his?

  35. 35.

    Spaghetti Lee

    @Mark S.:

    I may have seen ‘Hugo’ this year and that’s it. You can only see so many action movies/reboots before it all starts blending together.

  36. 36.

    BO_Bill

    The unrisky part: Clear Channel Communications (think Rush Limbaugh’s $400 million contract) has been taken private by Bain Capital (think Mitt Romney). Please consider that Rush Limbaugh has noted that Ron Paul is the only unfit Republican candidate. Rush is peripherally critical of Mitt, perhaps to avoid the appearance of an open conflict of interest.

    Understand that Bain Capital represents some very wealthy and powerful moneyed interests. These interests are largely agrarian-European in their evolutionary origin, or Gentile. If you are a Harvard graduate, these means they are kind of like the bad-guy ‘WASPS’ from the sociology text books (even Mormons are counted among them).

    OK, so far, so good.

  37. 37.

    BO_Bill

    The unrisky part: Clear Channel Communications (think Rush Limbaugh’s $400 million contract) has been taken private by Bain Capital (think Mitt Romney). Please consider that Rush Limbaugh has noted that Ron Paul is the only unfit Republican candidate. Rush is peripherally critical of Mitt, perhaps to avoid the appearance of an open conflict of interest.

    Understand that Bain Capital represents some very wealthy and powerful moneyed interests. These interests are largely agrarian-European in their evolutionary origin, or Gentile. If you are a Harvard graduate, these means they are kind of like the bad-guy ‘WASPS’ from the sociology text books (even Mormons are counted among them).

    OK, so far, so good.

  38. 38.

    The Dangerman

    @dmsilev:

    The scandalous bit is going to be all the income he has is taxed at 15 percent.

    Probably, but if you are running for President and are already worth a big, BIG pile of money, isn’t it worth your while to pay “more” than you are legally entitled in order to prevent this unforced error?

  39. 39.

    Roger Moore

    @dmsilev:

    for the speciаlists, this indicates that the operators corresponding to the various issues have non-zero commutators

    I would think the speciаlists would be able to figure that out from your description; it’s us poor guys who are struggling to remember more complicated quantum stuff who need the reminder.

    (NB: “speciаlists” carefully substituted with a non-latin character with an identical glyph to avoid ridiculous anti-spam technology.)

  40. 40.

    Mark S.

    We recently adopted a stray who was hanging out at our complex. The vet said he’s probably about 5 months old. He loves my girlfriend but is still pretty skittish around me. The two other cats have been pretty copacetic about the whole thing.

  42. 42.

    dance around in your bones

    @BO_Bill:

    Uh, whut? Why are you still here? Does it give you great joy to pizzle yer werds on us dimmards?

    Hahahaha. Keep on pizzlin’!

  43. 43.

    Benjamin Franklin

    like the bad-guy ‘WASPS’

    They’re not so bad. They love animals; just hate people.

  44. 44.

    Anoniminous

    @Mark S.:

    From the link:

    Just what has put the movie business in the dumps is anyone’s guess — though safe bets include the tight economy, rising ticket prices, backlash against parades of sequels or remakes, and an almost-limitless inventory of portable and at-home gadgetry to occupy people’s time.

    Somehow “Hollywood made and released a dog doo-doo pile of lousy films in 2011” as a “guess” didn’t make the cut.

  45. 45.

    RossinDetroit

    The only scandals in Romney’s tax returns:

    He does no work and rakes in a bundle
    He pays a lower percentage in (total) tax than anyone above the poverty line.

    But that’s plenty. I don’t think he’ll release them. It would be a gold mine for the Obama team.

  47. 47.

    Phylllis

    @RossinDetroit: Part of the issue here are the GA & SC border communities. In GA, you can only use fireworks that don’t leave the ground; in SC, there are almost no restrictions*.

    *Shocked we are, I know.

  48. 48.

    Amir Khalid

    @Anoniminous:
    People’s fee-fees might get hurt. Then they’ll give you all kinds of grief about access to their studio executives and talent and Hollywood junkets and stuff, maybe even leave you off the list. And then where are you going to find your next story?

  50. 50.

    Roger Moore

    @RossinDetroit:
    I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some other unpleasantness in there. Some possible examples:

    1) He’s been sheltering money in an off-shore tax haven like the Cayman Islands.

    2) He has been donating money to charities he doesn’t want people to know about, either because they’re too liberal for the primaries or too conservative for the general election.

    3) He hasn’t been giving a full tithe to the CoJCoLDS.

    One thing you can be sure of, though, is that if/when he finally does release the returns, they’re going to be subjected to greater than normal scrutiny to try to figure out what scandal he was hiding.

  51. 51.

    BO_Bill

    Knowing that this blog really will not pay for itself through pet-calendars, here comes the vaporization-level risky pizzlin (this is the worst part, I promise): The ‘Main Stream Media’, as it has been labeled, is controlled primarily by one ethnic group. Find your own links for my protection, as guilt by association is one of their favorite techniques. And the punishment can be death.

    These are the people whose defense mechanism is to pretend that Ron Paul does not exist. Let us keep it that this group has a certain level of influence at Goldman Sachs, which, golly gee, had its lobbyist installed as Tim Geithner’s Chief of Staff. Before Tim was Barry’s Treasury Secretary he was, cough, in charge of the, cough, New York Federal Reserve.

    Understand that this ethnicity groups itself as tightly in business as it does in housing. And, as a group, it comprises a very wealthy and powerful moneyed interest. These interests are largely eastern Mediterranean in their evolutionary origin, or Judeo-Semitic. If you are a Harvard graduate, these means they are kind of like that absolutely harmless guy from the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High, who is a victim, that ends up with the girlfriend at the end.

    There, that wasn’t so bad. There is one last critical group in America that is determinant to her political future.

  52. 52.

    Josie

    @Josie: OK, that link is not working and I have no idea why. If you want to see it, go to you tube and search for “What is Mitt Romney hiding?”

  55. 55.

    Cat Lady

    @Benjamin Franklin:

    Hey, it’s almost 2012! It’s apocalypse now! There are so many ways it could all go down domestically, foreign and intergalactically, it’s like a cosmic game of end of the world Clue.

  62. 62.

    BO_Bill

    The first group thus described has been represented by the second group thus described as “The 1%”. The second group thus described can be represented by mathematical formula as the (6,000,000 / 300,000,000) equals, in my estimation “The 2%”.

    Now, understand that “The 1%” and “The 2%” have long had a historical animus. “The 1%” were like the knights, and “The 2%” always holed up with the King (“The 0.00001%) who was also watching out for “The 1%”. So history shows it has always gone, and usually “The 1%” eventually kicks out “The 2%” or worse for financial impropriety. This does not always work out well for the King.

    So, anyway, everybody consists of 100% and everybody minus “The 1%” minus “The 2%” yields “The 97%”. This consists of America’s workers, drug addicts, politicians, and convicts, among others. Plato teaches us that the people who work with their hands are the most powerful political force in any society. This quantity is tougher to estimate but in America it is probably like:

    “The 97%” minus half, or “The 47.5%”;

    which actually seems to be just about right. This is portion of America which “The 1%” and “The 2%” are worried about. One of the most amazing things I have observed is that “The 2%” are demonizing “The 1%” (via #OWS) when, in fact, “The 47.5%” really doesn’t differentiate between the two groups. Now I will shut up as it is coming time for work.

  64. 64.

    dance around in your bones

    @BO_Bill:

    Now I will shut up as it is coming time for work.

    What, at The Warehouse? Have fun packin’ them sex toys! And getting the squickies!

  65. 65.

    Sly

    @Mark S.:
    Sullivan continues to demonstrate, on an almost hourly basis, his obtuseness about the systemic levels of psychosis that permeate the conservative movement.

    From Michelle Goldberg’s Kingdom Coming:

    At Reclaiming America for Christ, [Pamela] Stenzel told her audience about a conversation she’d had with a skeptical businessman on an airplane. The man had asked about abstinence education’s success rate, a question she regarded as risible.
    __
    “What he’s asking,” she said, “is ‘does it work?’ You know what? Doesn’t matter. ‘Cause guess what? My job is not to keep teenagers from having sex. The public school’s job should not be to keep teens from having sex.”
    __
    Then her voice rose and turned angry as she shouted, “Our job should be to tell kids the truth!” And I should say that up ’til then, I agreed with her. But here’s what she means by the truth:
    __
    “People of God,” she cried, “can I beg you to commit yourself to truth? Not what works, to truth! I don’t care if it works, because at the end of the day, I’m not answering to you. I’m answering to God.
    __
    “Let me tell you something, People of God, that is radical, and I can only say it here,” she said. “AIDS is not the enemy. HPV and a hysterectomy at twenty is not the enemy. An unplanned pregnancy is not the enemy. My child believing that they can shake their fist in the face of a holy God and sin without consequence, and my child spending eternity separated from God, is the enemy! I will not teach my child that they can sin safely!”

    Pamela Stenzel was appointed by the Bush Administration to head up an abstinence education task force for the Department of Health and Human Services.

  67. 67.

    dead existentialist

    BoB should change his name to Hal and drone on until he mumbles about Mary having a little lamb . . . .

  69. 69.

    srv

    Run to they nearest store and be as un-Godly as you want to be – steal what you want, as long as it’s less than a fifty:

    Dallas police “will stop responding to retailers’ complaints about shoplifters unless the stolen merchandise is valued over $50 or the suspected crook already has an arrest warrant,” according to the new policy.

  71. 71.

    Triassic Sands

    @The Dangerman:

    Romney is trying to pretend he’s one of the 99%. When (if) he releases his financial information, that pretense will have to end.

    I heard one reporter for NPR speculate about whether voters would think his wealth is OK because he he’s very frugal. Another cheap rich man. Wow, what a novelty! Most of the cheapest people I’ve ever met have been wealthy.

  73. 73.

    Hill Dweller

    Another potential problem for Romney is the supposed blind trust he set up to avoid any conflicts of interest. It turns out the trustee is Romney’s personal attorney.

    Moreover, here are his statements about blind trusts when running against Kennedy: ‘The blind trust is an age-old ruse. You give a blind trust rules. You can say to a blind trust, don’t invest in properties which would be in conflict of interest or where the seller might think they’re going to get an advantage from me.’ ” [Boston Globe, 10/19/1994]

    “‘It’s a conflict of interest pure and simple – and it’s wrong for a U.S. senator,’ said Romney. ‘The fact that it’s a blind trust does not hide it.’ [Boston Herald. 10/19/1994]

    “‘A United States senator has an obligation to tell its blind trust what it cannot and can invest in,’ Romney said.” [The Associated Press, October 18, 1994].

    Romney’s ‘blind’ trust dumped a bunch of Chinese stocks earlier this month…

  74. 74.

    gogol's wife

    @Triassic Sands:

    The NYTimes (which has been putting a positive Romney article on the front page about every other day) pushed this angle the other day. He’s so frugal! We’re supposed to admire him for that.

  76. 76.

    MikeJ

    @JPL: My guess is that he pays all of the tax he is legally obligated to. Which is precisely the problem, for him as a PR issue, for America as a democracy.

  77. 77.

    Anoniminous

    @Sly:

    I suggest the phrase “Holy Shit” has some applicability.

    Along several different semantic and cognitive axes.

  78. 78.

    JPL

    The repubs keep harping about the good old days but those days are when dems when in control so I’m not sure what the message means.

  81. 81.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Don’t forget to buy your Balloon Juice Pet Calendar for 2012!

    I did not forget. Ordered two yesterday.

  82. 82.

    Hill Dweller

    @gogol’s wife:

    The NYTimes (which has been putting a positive Romney article on the front page about every other day) pushed this angle the other day. He’s so frugal! We’re supposed to admire him for that.

    When ‘liberal’ outlets start selling the same ridiculous narrative about a Republican, it’s a safe bet some very powerful people are pushing it behind the scenes.

    I think the big money in this country are scared of both the general population and, to a lesser extent, Obama. They fear Obama, should he win a second term, will start telling some truths that shouldn’t be told, from their perspective.

    So they double down on Romney, who will do and say anything he thinks will help him, including selling his soul to his benefactors.

  83. 83.

    suzanne

    Well, this is breaking my heart. I’ve gotten three animals there, and I’ve loved donating to them, but I might have to try a different animal rescue group next time.

  84. 84.

    The Republic of Stupidity

    @JPL:

    The repubs keep harping about the good old days…

    Perhaps they’re referring to the fifties…

    When the top income tax rates were 91% (take THAT, billionaires!)…

    When unions were at their strongest… 35% of the working force were unionized…

    When the middle class was really happening…

    Oh wait a minute… mebbe they’re pining for the eighteen fifties…

    Slavery still legal…

    Women couldn’t vote…

    Lots ‘n lots of natural resources left to pillage… once you got those stinkin’ Indians off the land…

    Basically a white, male, property owners’ paradise…

    Heh… prolly it, after all…

  86. 86.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Hill Dweller: I’m inclined to think that stories about taping shoe laces together and only ordering pizza when they have a coupon (or whatever it is) won’t seem so cute next to pictures of multimillion dollar, water-front estates, though they did recently sell the ski lodge in Deer Valley (For Those Who Find Aspen A Bit Vulgar, Old Top) for six million. I tend to think the pro-Romeny vote has peaked. It’s the anti-Obama vote he’ll need.

  87. 87.

    Baud

    @Triassic Sands:

    Romney is trying to pretend he’s one of the 99%.

    I hate to be negative on New Years Eve Eve, but speaking of the 99%, where the hell is OWS on this? They were silent on the American Jobs Act as well as on the recent payroll tax fight. Now we have the GOP front runner hiding his wealth in order to pretend he is not one of 1%, and OWS is again no where to be found.

  88. 88.

    JPL

    @The Republic of Stupidity: Listen to Romney’s message and that’s what he’s saying. Let America be America again. Most folks think about the Cleavers, although that was a phony show.
    (Hugh was not the best of role models but that’s another story.) Anyway maybe the message about going backward rather than forward will damage them but will MSM let that happen?

  89. 89.

    The Republic of Stupidity

    Oh, btw…

    If no one’s already pointed this out…

    From Chas Pierce over at Esquire…

    In an invaluable post the other night at Balloon Juice, Dennis G traced Santorum’s long history with Jack Abramoff, especially Santorum’s involvement with providing legislative cover for the truly rancid sweatshops that sprang up on what became known as the Commonwealth Of The Northern Marianas Islands, an almost fathomless moral quagmire that shamefully continues to this day.

    From further down in the article…

    This always has been the soft spot in Santorum’s frothy religiosity.

    This line has nothing to do w/ Dennis… I just like it… pretty much to the same degree I despise Santorum…

  90. 90.

    BGinCHI

    I know I should just stop thinking about it, but every time I read about Kelly “my music is fucking terrible and I’m an idiot” Clarkson endorsing Ron Paul, it just pisses me off.

    I suppose I should react to it the way I learned to react to right wing bumper stickers: at least you know who the assholes are.

  91. 91.

    Mnemosyne

    @suzanne:

    I saw that story yesterday. :-( To me, the worst part was that they lied to the guy to get him to surrender the cat and then put it to sleep when he was gone. At least be honest about what you’re going to do if you’re going to force him to make that choice.

  92. 92.

    kdaug

    @Linda Featheringill:

    You might as well be walking on the sun.

    Reminds me: Recommend “Sunshine”.

    Suffers/benefits from an unsuspecting title – think “Alien” x “2010”. Hardcore sci-fi.

  93. 93.

    Baud

    @BGinCHI: I’m ok with Kelly Clarkson’s music, but her endorsement of Ron Paul really causes me to question her intellectual prowess.

  94. 94.

    The Republic of Stupidity

    @JPL:

    Mitt’s just trying to reach the cheap seats… the Republicans made their deal w/ the Devil decades ago, and now he’s come to collect…

    Hedley Lamarr, from the eternal Blazing Saddles…

    I want rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers and Methodists.

    Who knew M Brooks was making the penultimate political satire of the 20th century back then?

  96. 96.

    Mnemosyne

    It’s been kind of a crappy week, but at least TCM is showing me a Buster Keaton short right now.

    Also, too, they seem to be doing a block of movies from black filmmakers tonight, including Charles Burnett’s first feature film, Killer of Sheep.

  98. 98.

    Hill Dweller

    @Elizabelle: Yes, they should, especially an educated population. Sadly, I’m not sure I’d label the public educated. They’re certainly angry, but it is all too often directed at the wrong people.

  99. 99.

    MikeJ

    @Mnemosyne:

    It’s been kind of a crappy week, but at least TCM is showing me a Buster Keaton short right now.

    Which I would be happily watching if replacing a HD box with comcast and then actually making it display anything other “one moment please this channel should be available shortly” wasn’t a huge pain in the ass.

    Killer of Sheep is awesome. Saw it last year when TCM first showed it.

  100. 100.

    Satanicpanic

    My vote for loopiest commenters on the internet- Alternet. It’s battle of the firebaggers and the paulbots with a healthy dose of misinformation and paranoia on both sides.

  101. 101.

    Mnemosyne

    @MikeJ:

    Our oldest cat is named Keaton, so you can guess that I’m a fan. I haven’t seen Killer of Sheep since film school, so maybe I’ll Tivo it.

  103. 103.

    Mike in NC

    @Baud:

    I hate to be negative on New Years Eve Eve, but speaking of the 99%, where the hell is OWS on this?

    Yeah, it would be cool to see an “Occupy Mitt Romney’s Mansion’s Driveway” action, complete with video of his hired goons pepper spraying college students and homeless veterans. The NYT would ignore it, rest assured.

  105. 105.

    bemused

    @khead:

    Just yesterday I made appointments to have our two litter mate 6 month old, also black, kitties spayed. One started showing signs of being in heat one day and the other kitty the following day. It’s going to be hard to wait a little over a week. I hate to see them being victims of their hormones.

  107. 107.

    BGinCHI

    @BO_Bill:

    If you are a Harvard graduate, these means they are kind of like that absolutely harmless guy from the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High, who is a victim, that ends up with the girlfriend at the end.

    This is the most stunningly brilliant reading of the oeuvre of Cameron Crowe I’ve ever read.

    Seriously, you should be writing for Cineaste instead of slumming at this blog full of lesser men/women/pets.

  108. 108.

    South of I-10

    Here are some not so good iPhone pics of our new pup, Ringo. When Mr. South gets some good pics, I will post them. The shelter thinks he is a Brittany/Aussie mix.

  110. 110.

    Martin

    You know what would solve all of our electoral problems? Elections that require you to win rather than not lose.

    The current system just says that the plurality of votes from people that bother to show up determine the winner. Instead, there should be a minimum required % of eligible voters in order to actually win. The best path to victory now is suppression of one type or another – basically, nullify everyone else’s vote rather than try and build yours up. It’s the electoral equivalent of ‘lay off all the workers rather than try and find new customers’.

    All of that needs to be flipped. The president needs to get a minimum of ⅓ of all eligible voters, which effectively requires a minimum turnout of ⅔ of eligible voters. Now you’ve created an entirely different dynamic – one where the only way for election season to end is for people to actively vote, unlike now where the quickest way to get it to end is to turn off the TV, and go outside and ignore it.

  116. 116.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Amir Khalid: I was listening to MSNBC in the car, and someone was talking about Chris Christie’s “blunt honesty”, and that “straight talk” that people respect and appreciate. Christie, you see, humanizes Mitt Romney, loosens him up and gives him a lot of appeal. I stayed with it to see if he was a Romney flack or at least a partisan commenter. As near as I could tell, it was an objective reporter for the LiberalMSNBC

  118. 118.

    South of I-10

    @BGinCHI: He is a very sweet boy, but is currently lacking in manners. We are working on it. My vet says he is about a year old, and I don’t think anyone has ever tried to teach him any basic commands. House training is going very well.

  123. 123.

    BGinCHI

    @South of I-10: That’s a good start. Took Mrs. BG a year to break me from wanting to pee off the deck in the summer after I’d had a few drinks.

    You can take the boy out of the country…..

  124. 124.

    Cap'n Magic

    I’m kicking this idea around of drafting a rather pointed question to Comcast: It appears by their support of SOPA/PROTECT-IP they now have to decide who their masters are at the end of the day: the media oligarchs (of which they’re a biggie) versus the people who actually pay: their customers. If in the event that it does pass, I’ll be more than happy to give my money to someone else.

    Now imagine an en-masse defection from Comcasst over the passage of SOPA/PROTECT-IP.

    Comcast CEO Brain Roberts: the ball is in your court.

  125. 125.

    PeakVT

    @Martin: There’s no one thing that will fix our electoral problems, or pretty much any big problem.

    That said, I think that single-member districts (or at least important ones) should be won by 50%+1, not pluralities. That would rid us of charges that a win was “illegitimate” because the victor didn’t get 50% (eg, Clinton in 1992). That could be done with a IRV/STV system, or a live runoff. In the US, the latter method is probably the one that would be chosen.

  126. 126.

    Calouste

    @Cap’n Magic:

    An en-masse defection from Comcast would be a nice idea if there actually competition in the cable/internet sphere in the US. In a lot of markets there is only one provider.

  132. 132.

    Svensker

    @Mnemosyne:

    Since artichokes are the most delicious thing in the world, that would get my vote. On the other hand, tortilla anything is outstanding, so that’s a strong contender, too. Hmmmm. Both?

  133. 133.

    Mike in NC

    @Martin:

    The current system just says that the plurality of votes from people that bother to show up determine the winner. Instead, there should be a minimum required % of eligible voters in order to actually win.

    Help me out here, since this is a vague memory, but aren’t there some countries like Australia that require eligible citizens to show up at the ballot box or else face a modest fine? I’m sure I’ve read that someplace. GOP nightmare.

  134. 134.

    South of I-10

    @Dee Loralei: She loves him. She was so sad when our elder Border Collie passed. We are considering changing his name to Velcro, as he has to be attached to one of us at all times.

  135. 135.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    @RossinDetroit: Schroedinger’s candidate?

    His position is both for and against, and cannot be known until he opens his mouth.

    Not a perfect analogy, I understand, since his position changes regardless of how many times it’s been observed.

  137. 137.

    Steeplejack

    @Mnemosyne:

    This morning, in the middle of nothing even remotely similar, they showed The Great Train Robbery (1903). Snagged that on the DVR.

  138. 138.

    Mike in NC

    @Mark S.:

    Shorter Charles Krauthammer: I belong to a party of idiots!

    Chuck’s a slimeball but he knew that all bets were off in 2008 once McCain picked Caribou Barbie as running mate. He was reduced to begging people over and over to still go ahead and vote for them in order to guarantee his precious war with Iran.

    Can history repeat itself?

  140. 140.

    South of I-10

    @Linda Featheringill: It wasn’t me, but that sounds interesting! My town is surrounded by sugar cane fields, so that would be an interesting alternative.

    @BGinCHI: Well his love of fire translated into BBQ for me, so I overlook other transgressions.

    @Svensker: Thanks, he is a good boy.

  141. 141.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    @Sly:

    “I will not teach my child that they can sin safely!”

    Perhaps this person should relearn singulars and plurals as they relate to pronouns. This usage grates on me. It’s easy enough to say “I will not teach children that they … ”

    /Old School/

  142. 142.

    Martin

    @Mike in NC: Yes, Australia has that. Heh, the democrats should propose a 1% income tax hike, but if you voted in the previous election you get a 1% tax credit as a result. That’d be fucking awesome to watch the GOP spin in circles over that.

  145. 145.

    Mnemosyne

    @Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason:

    Meh. I can be a pretty big grammar nazi myself, but whether we like it or not, “they” is becoming a gender-neutral singular pronoun. Since we don’t have one in English and we’ve become in need of one, it was pretty much bound to happen.

  148. 148.

    WereBear (itouch)

    @Mnemosyne: “They” is my pronoun of choice; the language cried out for a gender-neutral!

    I always get my girl kitties spayed before their first heat. Why make us all suffer?

    Re: Romney. If there is a lousy time for a soulless billionaire to run, it’s NOW.

  149. 149.

    Amir Khalid

    @Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason:
    Well, standard English lacks a personal pronoun in the singular that doesn’t specify the person’s gender. So you have “he” and “she” but you have to say “he or she” if you don’t want to specify gender, which feels fussy and a bit too involved for casual use. Some people plug this gap by using “they” as that pronoun, which is what I think Stenzel’s doing. Still feels a bit odd, though, because “they” is of course a plural pronoun so you have to use the plural of present-tense verbs. And of course, this usage has not been accepted by the usual authorities in formal contexts.

    As for Stenzel’s position re teenage pregnancy, it’s astounding. This woman doesn’t care one whit if sex education is effective in preventing bad outcomes for adolescents experimenting with sex. Just tell kids that all non-marital sex is a sin, she says. If kids have sex anyway and the girl gets pregnant, then it serves them right. Dear God, that’s heartless.

  150. 150.

    Mnemosyne

    @Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason:

    Well, the other option is to use “zie” and “hir,” but I don’t think many people use them outside of the internet, and they’re hard to distinguish in spoken speech. So I think “they” is going to end up the winner in the gender-neutral sweepstakes.

  151. 151.

    Cacti

    BO Bill sounds like it needs its meds tightened up.

    I’m still waiting for an answer from Royalty Check/Veritass as to how Mitt Romney wins the election with 23 percent of the Hispanic vote, which is where he’s currently polling.

    McCain got 31 percent of it and got creamed, Bush needed 40 percent of it in 2004. Less than 35-40 percent Hispanic support for the GOP = Obama blowout. No amount of trolling can bluster the math away.

  152. 152.

    Keith

    One commenter raised the issue of mandatory voting a ways back in this thread. Such is the case in Brazil. My BF is Brazilian and is required to vote as a constitutional obligation of citizenship. One more reason why I feel like the hope for something like democracy lies with Brazil.

  153. 153.

    Comrade Mary

    @Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: The singular “they” is not quite as newfangled and illogical as you think.

    a) Modern English already uses the single word “you” for both one person and multiple people, unlike the common differentiation made in languages like French, which uses “tu” and “vous” (which gets a little complicated because “vous” can also be used in a formal situation to a single person, and figuring out when one should and should not “tutoyer” another person can be a challenge.)

    Anyway, English used to use “thee/thou” and “you”, but those merged ages ago.

    b) The singular they/them/their is centuries older than you might think. Think Chaucer, Lewis Carroll, Walt Whitman, George Eliot, Shakespeare, William Thackeray, Jane Austen, and Oscar Wilde. Oh, and the King James Bible.

    This guy gets a little grumpy about the topic, but please don’t take it personally.

  154. 154.

    JGabriel

    @Hill Dweller:

    Romney’s ‘blind’ trust dumped a bunch of Chinese stocks earlier this month…

    “I’m running for President, for Pete’s sake! I can’t have Chinese stocks!”

    .

  155. 155.

    Dog is My Co-Pilot

    I bought a BJ calendar, for the second year in a row!! Woohoo! Okay.. I need to get a life.

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