Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Not all heroes wear capes.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Let there be snark.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

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

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

People are weird.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Republicans do not trust women.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

People are complicated. Love is not.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2012 / Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Some Pig

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Some Pig

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(Pat Oliphant via GoComics.com)
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The Guardian‘s invaluable Richard Adams will be live-blogging the Iowa caucuses. Kick-off at 8pm EST, “a winner possibly being named around 10pm or 11pm” — from the undisclosed off-site location, presumably.
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Apart from ongoing demonstrations that 140-character deliminations are inadequate for responsible social interaction, what else is on the agenda?

Reader Interactions

135Comments

  2. 2.

    TooManyJens

    Apart from ongoing demonstrations that 140-character deliminations are inadequate for responsible social interaction

    Again I would point out that a lot of people manage it just fine. “Twitter made me do it” is a stupid argument.

  3. 3.

    Spectre

    ABL accuses Balloon-Juice of being a racist blog:

    AngryBlackLady Imani ABL
    The Balloon Juicers are celebrating the departure of “the self-hating negress.” Why the fuck did I stay there so long? Hahahahaha. Jesus.

  4. 4.

    BD of MN

    heading to a local bar to play some trivia with the wife. Perhaps after I come back I’ll delve into the 1500 comments today about said twitter-ocalypse, but I doubt it…

  11. 11.

    different-church-lady

    Apart from ongoing demonstrations that 140-character deliminations are inadequate for responsible social interaction, what else is on the agenda?

    I adore you with all my heart. To what address do we ship your prize internets?

  12. 12.

    Loneoak

    I’ll be watching Brady Hoke trounce the Hokies on the ole’ gridiron.

    Not really paying attention to Iowa at all, because I’m certain that some racist, homophobic, corporatist fuckwad who isn’t qualified to be class president at Liberty U will win.

  13. 13.

    Napoleon

    Hey front pagers, is there a way you can all set up some kind of betting pool if Mittens is the Rep nominee where we all can bet what date Newt calling Willard a liar shows up in a campaign add for the general election. I bet Obama’s people came when they saw they now had footage of Newt calling him a liar.

  14. 14.

    Linda Featheringill

    The daughter unit has traveled to greater Philadelphia to meet some guy she met on the net. Who knows what will happen?

    They are both middle aged -ish and so I suppose that they can take care of themselves.

    I and the animals stayed in Ohio, trying to keep warm.

  15. 15.

    PeakVT

    The Balloon Juicers are celebrating the departure of “the self-hating negress.”

    Well, I wasn’t celebrating it before, but if she insists…

  19. 19.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    I like Twitter, but then I don’t use it for interaction much, I use it mainly as a quick news feed. I follow the GuardianUK and BBC cause I like getting instant news updates from the UK, and I can therefore click on the news stories I enjoy. Their reporters are so much more intelligent and pithy than the crew we have over here. I also follow Mother Nature Net for green living tips and cute animal stories and of course I follow the political blogs/sites (including this one) cause I am a sucker for politics. I am not sure I understand the having conversations with one another on there. I tend just to read and re-tweet something if I really think people should know about it.

  24. 24.

    taylormattd

    It doesn’t really have anything to do with a 140 character limit.

    For example, you once wrote a lengthy front page post baselessly ripping the shit out of another front pager for no reason. It wasn’t exactly a model of “responsible social interaction” even though it exceeded 140 characters.

  25. 25.

    Tonal Crow

    @PeakVT:

    The Balloon Juicers are celebrating the departure of “the self-hating negress.”

    Well, I wasn’t celebrating it before, but if she insists…

    Actually, I’m celebrating the departure of one of my nominees for the esteemed status of “Most Likely to Claim Victimization While Lobbing Bombs”. Other leading nominees are John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Mittens, and (of course) Sarah Palin.

  27. 27.

    Zifnab

    I don’t get it. When ABL started here she was all CAPSLOCK FTW and annoying hyperbole and long winded rants that made my teeth hurt. She’s here for months and she’s finally mellowed out and gotten into her grove, and I’m genuinely enjoying some of her work…

    And then you assholes scare her off. God damnit, people. You did the same shit to EDK and whatisface the gay Canadian Republican guy. Maybe they didn’t always say shit we all agreed with, but I’d think a few of the BJ veterans would be used to that shit given John Cole himself used to put out vicious Kerry-slander just to piss off the liberals back in ’04. He came around. We came around. Everyone kumbayahed. And we got a bunch of adorable Tunch pictures for our trouble.

    Now someone can’t rub two syllables together about Greenwald without inciting a fucking riot. This is why we can’t have nice things people.

  30. 30.

    Cassidy

    Anyone know anything about Missoula, Montana? I applied with the VA and have been passed on to the certifying official. I think that means I’m in the group of possible hires.

  31. 31.

    Amir Khalid

    @Spectre:
    Harsh words, but (from my neither-white-nor-black foreigner’s point of view) not altogether unjustified. There were, and are, commenters here who have made a point of directing more venom toward ABL than any other front-pager has faced in the time I’ve been lurking/commenting here. Attacking her personally. Showing up in comment threads under her posts solely to demand that she quit posting here.

    Not that I’m saying she’s perfect; but I liked her posts more often than not, and she certainly didn’t deserve most of that venom. In fact I’m a little surprised she stuck it out as long as she did. She would have been well justified to leave much earlier. I’m a little disappointed in the Juicers who showed her so much unprovoked hostility.

  32. 32.

    Arm The Homeless

    Thanks for the new trolls, John.

    I have had a chance to pie over 10 new sock-puppets and twat-waffles.

    Spectre has so far flown under my radar, but thanks for piping up shitstain. Now tell me about your fascination with pie.

  33. 33.

    Catsy

    Apart from ongoing demonstrations that 140-character deliminations are inadequate for responsible social interaction, what else is on the agenda?

    This is silly and arbitrary. You can’t deliver a history lesson or an explanation of quantum physics in 140 characters, and I wouldn’t use it for hashing out issues with the spouse, but you can convey a surprising amount of information in 140 characters if you’re willing to rewrite and condense as needed, get rid of filler words, and use shorter synonyms, contractions and abbreviations to buy space.

    Or, in under 140 characters: “140 chars isn’t enough to teach physics, but if you condense, use shorter words and get rid of filler, you can say more than you think.”

  34. 34.

    Cris (without an H)

    Yesterday we made Scotch Eggs (which we always do around New Years, since the oil we used to fry the jelly donuts is still there), and we filmed a little how-to video, so I’m having fun learning iMovie and editing the footage together.

  36. 36.

    Shinobi

    @Zifnab: I agree. This is for the most part a great commenting community. What is with the crap directed at ABL? (EDKain was one thing, some of the stuff he posted dumb, I usually agree with ABL, and yet, she gets piles of crap piled on her.)

    It is one thing to have substantive disagreements, but it seems like most of that is not what is happening. I wish there were a way to combat it besides feeding the trolls all day in the comments.

  41. 41.

    cmorenc

    @Fed Up In Brooklyn:

    Ugh, when does ABL climb down off the cross? Enough already.

    How does someone climb down from a cross they’ve nailed themselves to? They might need a little help, if they’re willing to accept it.

  43. 43.

    ruemara

    @Spectre: Obviously, she’s completely wrong about BJers hating the negress. I mean, you’re not posting these twitters, she is. Because it’s all about her.

  44. 44.

    MikeJ

    @Amir Khalid: I always thought the only thing worse than an ABL post were the idiot trolls that would inevitably show up. Nobody deserved the abuse she got.

  45. 45.

    Roger Moore

    @Cassidy:

    Anyone know anything about Missoula, Montana?

    It’s a University town, so it’s probably about as liberal as you’re going to find in the state. And it’s certainly in a beautiful area, so it’ll be great if you like hiking, skiing, or any other mountain-type activity.

  46. 46.

    Chuck Butcher

    I have to admit that I have a bit of a problem with the shock of the lady interviewer that Newt called Mitt a liar. Shock.

    The really good part is that Newt and Mittens and … figure money is speech and “corporate” money is even better and more speechy.

    It is also important to remember that speech does cost money in campaigns, and it has since… well forever as far as I can tell. Franklin owned a printing press, friends with money printed Paine… I don’t know that there is a way to get money out of the process or even remotely to disqualify voluntary associations from spending it. It might be possible to force full disclosure of organization and donors and even force the top 100 or so to be disclosed in the ads themselves.

    It is a bit tougher to make the “lack of anonymity chills speech” argument in the coordinated big money realm than it is to make the argument that prohibition violates the 1st.

  47. 47.

    PeakVT

    @TooManyJens: What’s awesome is when a professional outrage blogger in desperate need of clicks smears a whole site with multiple front pagers based on a few comments by people who are probably not even regulars.

    Nobody made her leave, nobody made her write a GBCW post, and nobody made her read the comments on a post that was very obviously going to draw out the most trollish readers.

  50. 50.

    tomvox1

    To return to another BJ bete noir, can someone please tell me whether they think Sully is handing out a Malkin or an Yglasias for this backasswards dumbfuckery that he cites as his Quote For the Day?

    Operation Iraqi Freedom failed for the same reason that a-thousand-and-one liberal schemes fail; they’re right in theory, but suffer too many unintended consequences in practice. So while liberal welfare schemes can end up creating more poverty, and liberal sex education results in more impregnated teenagers, liberal imperialism suffers from the same law – except that in war unintended consequences are magnified ten-fold (liberal warfare is also difficult because war can only be won by sacrificing liberal principles – it’s very hard to wage without the use of torture, terror and internment.) – Ed West, Daily Telegraph.

    Or maybe he is just sticking his finger in the wind and will weigh in on WTF he has in mind here after taking the pulse of his ever-dwindling readership…

  51. 51.

    Linda Featheringill

    @Cassidy:

    Not to worry.

    We [daughter and I] decided that the worst scenario would be that he turns out to be vampire. So now I just think of him as a vampire.

    Poor guy. He’s probably a decent human for all that.

  52. 52.

    JPL

    So if someone were to put up a sports open thread or a tunch open thread, would the discussion lead to the other 5000 posts about the incident?
    Enquiring minds want to know…………….

    BTW did anyone get their calendar yet?

  53. 53.

    cckids

    @trollhattan:

    Because We Need Some Fracking Snow

    No shit. When we here at the Las Vegas Ski & Snowboard place have the best snowpack in the West. . . . something is very, very wrong.

  54. 54.

    Cris (without an H)

    @Cassidy: I live about 120 miles north of Missoula. It’s a great town; I consider it the cultural center of Western Montana, for whatever that’s worth. They have a fantastic public radio station, a university with a big-fish-in-a-small-pond FCS football team that the town loves, a lively little downtown, and a populace with a strong sense of community.

    On the flip side, there are a lot of people on government assistance who are out on the streets, and the local paper mill which used to pollute the valley while providing jobs is no longer providing very many jobs.

    If you move there, we can get together and argue about appropriate police procedures in person.

  56. 56.

    Chuck Butcher

    @Cassidy:

    Missoula, Montana

    As a Harley tourist I enjoyed the hell out of the area. Pretty good pavement, most drivers seem to have a clue about ‘scooters’ and a lot of places to go day-tripping or more. It is, in itself, pretty much just a city though it isn’t a big city.

  57. 57.

    gwangung

    @Shinobi:

    I agree. This is for the most part a great commenting community. What is with the crap directed at ABL? (EDKain was one thing, some of the stuff he posted dumb,

    What I thought was most effective was not the vitriol or raw contempt, but the point by point demolition of his positions.

    You think people would learn…

  58. 58.

    gwangung

    @JPL:

    So if someone were to put up a sports open thread or a tunch open thread, would the discussion lead to the other 5000 posts about the incident?

    Hell, yes.

  59. 59.

    trollhattan

    @tomvox1:

    What, is Sully turning himself into Instaputz? Did he give that gibberish a “Heh, indoozle”? I’m not leaving the boat to look.

    “Liberal imperialism”? What’s that, invading Dean & Deluca?

  60. 60.

    Zifnab

    @Chuck Butcher: Well, its not really money so much as access. Politicians need access to voter eyeballs and eardrums. Money is one way to get that access, but if you are friendly with the local media or you have a large network (like a church or rotary club or an internet group) to tap, that works, too.

    Romney’s millions are going to flood the airwaves with ads. Paul has his army of door-to-door libertarian storm troopers. Santorum and Bachmann have the Evangelicals. And Gingrich accesses his extensive network of ex-wives.

    I don’t think there is anything that will ever adequately offer equal access to poorer or less-networked candidates. I do think the voters themselves need more opportunities to access candidates. That’s why I generally support public funding of campaigns and public debates and the like. Increasing the public’s access to candidates gives them the opportunity to learn about said candidates and make more informed decisions. Once a certain threshold of information has been reached, additional money-purchased access doesn’t really matter. Just ask California Governor Jerry Brown, who got outspent around $3-to-$1 by his Republican rival and still won by around 10 points. Or Romney, stubbornly stuck at 25% support.

    Really, it’s all about letting candidates and voters meet easily and often. That dilutes a lot of the influence money buys.

  61. 61.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @cckids:

    It is cold here tonight, going to get down into the mid teens overnight. So of course, my RWNJ local radio host is saying “so is it cold enough for all you global warming people?” What a fucking idiot that man is.

  62. 62.

    Calouste

    @Chuck Butcher:

    I don’t know that there is a way to get money out of the process or even remotely to disqualify voluntary associations from spending it.

    Quite a few other countries seem to manage. Of course, most countries aren’t stuck with a basic law written for an agricultural society with fairly minimal technology.

  63. 63.

    Cassidy

    @Litlebritdifrnt: If you ever see him in person, kick him in the junk and blame global warming. One more kick for good measure as he’s curled up tightly, protecting the dangly bits, and you can say El Nino.

    Dangly bits….I love Christopher Moore.

  64. 64.

    trollhattan

    @Cassidy:

    First and foremost, cautious congrats and fingers crossed for you. Secondest, Montana, a large and lovely place (the western bit) is for the hearty. I had a job opportunity in Bozeman and when feeling out the family on the possibility, showed my bride the average annual temperature delta–a gaudy three-digit number. She said, “Nyet.”

    But damn, it’s beautiful.

  67. 67.

    Calouste

    @tomvox1:

    Is the Torygraph trying to break into the US market just like the Guardian, or should they just not repost US right-wing screeds like that without copy editing? Because the way “liberal” is use in that quote is not how it is used at all in the UK.

  69. 69.

    Jay in Oregon

    @trollhattan:

    “Liberal imperialism”? What’s that, invading Dean & Deluca?

    Liberal imperialism is what you get when you take the real world and arbitrarily assign all of the blame for bad shit that happens it in to liberals and liberal policies.

    I believe Jonah Goldberg wrote the definitive work on the phenomenon…

  71. 71.

    Calouste

    Perry: “This is a 50 state campaign.”

    That’s why he’s heading to South Carolina tomorrow and skipping New Hampshire.

  72. 72.

    Villago Delenda Est

    That’s an utterly idiotic quote for the day.

    The sort of thing I’d expect that a pathetic twit like Sullivan would find to be “quote for the day” worthy. Might as well be a Sarah Palin quote, it’s so gloriously word salad with bassackwards dressing.

  73. 73.

    JGabriel

    Anne Laurie @ Top:

    Apart from ongoing demonstrations that 140-character deliminations are inadequate for responsible social interaction, what else is on the agenda?

    What do you mean “140-character deliminations are inadequate for responsible social interaction” you libtard moonbat O-bot gay commie nun-ra …

    [You have reached 140 characters. Please make your message shorter.]

    Shit.

    .

  77. 77.

    AA+ Bonds

    Unmissable Pilkington article on libertarians, liberals and Ron Paul:

    Of Idiocy and Anomie

    This is the main reason why the libertarians insist on a gold standard and the destruction of the Federal Reserve system. By doing this the politicians would lash financial constraints upon the US government from which it would have very little wriggle room. It would also, of course, plunge the US economy into a depression from which it would take decades to fully recover. And as the US economy plunged into the abyss it would probably take the rest of the world with it.
    __
    Nor is it likely that Big Government would go away. Under such circumstances of heavy 20-30% unemployment rates the crime rate – which is already remarkably high in the US – would go through the roof. The criminal and legal apparatus would be forced to expand, thus contracting other government sectors even more rapidly and further reinforcing the unemployment rate. If things got really bad one could imagine the military being given powers that would make libertarians squirm in their seats.
    __
    The libertarians answer to this? As is so often the case with the libertarians it is a Leap of Faith. They believe that if government gets off peoples’ backs the economy will self-generate. Do they have any evidence of this? Certainly not. All evidence points firmly in the opposite direction (think: Yeltsin’s Russia and the rise of gangster capitalism). But this is not an evidence-based belief. It is an impervious and inflexible religious-like belief. When challenged with empirical evidence excuses are devised and scapegoats are found.
    __
    In this the libertarians are dangerous – I would almost say: very dangerous. And yet they appeal to people at a very deep level.

  78. 78.

    Zifnab

    @Calouste: Am I the only one that thinks its ironic that the two nations most likely to secede are in the top three to decide the Presidential primary?

    Either way, Perry was never going to get any love in New Hampshire. Texas libertarians hate his guts. He’ll do better in South Carolina, where he can carve Niggerhead into whatever he wants without complaint.

  80. 80.

    Benjamin Franklin

    Iraq, Assghanistan, Uz Beki-Beki-Stan…….Iran.

    Meh.

    http://www.opednews.com/articles/Iran-and-Historical-Forget-by-John-Grant-120102-254.html

    We don’t learn from the past; instead, we choose to officially forget embarrassing history so we can move on from our debacles without losing an ounce of glory. We all know how it goes: Sure, mistakes were made, but we need to keep our eye on the ball and move forward. The costs are paid in slow motion and out of sight.

    Our leaders are either complicit in the gig or they feel compelled to pander to this weakness for forgetting history as they pump up the boilerplate myth and symbols. We’re now, of course, officially entering the silly season in America, so maybe we should not be surprised that the idea of going to war is in the air.

  81. 81.

    Hill Dweller

    If this has been covered, apologies, but the Obama admin has said they have the legal authority to recess appoint Richard Cordray(probably tomorrow when the President is in Ohio), regardless of the Republicans attempts to block it.

  82. 82.

    Calouste

    @trollhattan:

    It worked very well for Rudy. Well, if you assume that Rudy’s goal was to slush $50 million in donations from the rubes to his consultant buddies rather than actually win.

  83. 83.

    Mayur

    If Sullivan is at all supportive of that piece of lying text I really can’t see any daylight between him and someone like, say, Cheney.

    Sex Ed hasn’t helped deal with teen pregnancy and STD issues? Welfare hasn’t eased the pain of poverty?

    On what planet is that idiot writer?

  84. 84.

    khead

    AngryBlackLady Imani ABL
    The Balloon Juicers are celebrating the departure of “the self-hating negress.” Why the fuck did I stay there so long? Hahahahaha. Jesus.

    That is pretty fucking sorry.

  86. 86.

    The Other Chuck

    AngryBlackLady Imani ABL
    The Balloon Juicers are celebrating the departure of “the self-hating negress.” Why the fuck did I stay there so long? Hahahahaha. Jesus.

    “Bridgez. I burnz dem.”

    Notably she’s not on the “Contact” masthead anymore.

  90. 90.

    Corner Stone

    @Hill Dweller:

    but the Obama admin has said they have the legal authority to recess appoint Richard Cordray(probably tomorrow when the President is in Ohio), regardless of the Republicans attempts to block it.

    Good luck. Let’s see it.

  94. 94.

    JGabriel

    @PeakVT:

    Here’s an idea worth discussing: the first primary state should be the state with the highest participation in the previous general election.

    By percentage or sheer numbers?

    .

  96. 96.

    trollhattan

    @JGabriel:

    It had best be by percentage, because I do not want to continue living in California during an Iowa/New Hampshire-style campaign. (Shudder)

  97. 97.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @pete:

    She also updated her “Bridge Too Far” post of much much earlier today and said she took herself off the BJ contact list.

  98. 98.

    Roger Moore

    @AA+ Bonds:

    In this the libertarians are dangerous – I would almost say: very dangerous. And yet they appeal to people at a very deep level.

    Fortunately, they only appeal to a small subset of people. They have an absolutely dismal record of winning elections or getting those supposedly deeply appealing policy ideas implemented in practice. That’s probably because once they get away from those one or two appealing ideas, which they generally have to do in a real campaign, they reveal themselves for the crazies they are.

  99. 99.

    Calouste

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    As I said on today’s earlier threat about Ron Paul, Paul’s disqualification for the office of dog catcher President doesn’t start and stop with him being opposed to several civil rights acts, it starts and stops with Paul self-identifying as libertarian. The label says there’s shit in the can, no need to get out an opener to confirm.

  100. 100.

    BBA

    @PeakVT: Why not have all states’ primaries on the same day, like the general elections? An insane, radical idea, I know.

  101. 101.

    A Humble Lurker

    @PeakVT:

    Yeah, she should have known someone was going to be a racist prick and call her a name. I mean, she’s black! She’s been black her whole life! She should expect that and be used to it by now.

  102. 102.

    Calouste

    @trollhattan:

    I do not want to continue living in California during an Iowa/New Hampshire-style campaign.

    Didn’t you enjoy Meg Whitman’s campaign for governor? ;)

  104. 104.

    Cassidy

    @BBA: Small, meaningless states with niche crazy crowds would stay small, meaningless states with niche crazy crowds.

  105. 105.

    AA+ Bonds

    @Roger Moore:

    I think Pilkington has a very good point which is that libertarians do indeed have an emotional draw for many in the Anglo-American sphere: they draw upon a false dichotomy between intrusive Big Government and barbaric social Darwinism.

    And in part, liberals are responsible for this, by failing to find new ways to improve crucial institutions: “defend or abandon” is not how any sort of Left politics survives, and it opens up the option of “abandon”, i.e., palingenetic pursuit of the libertarian fantasy state.

    Pilkington points out that MMT, among other innovations on the left, offers a way for the left to build strong, new institutions that slice right through the paper-thin pretense of libertarianism.

    The Left is in competition with Ron Paul (and ultimately any Republican who is capable of bullshit) among the fickle weirdos who want to buck the system. These people are, sad to say, an important voting bloc in our fucked up system.

    But they can get behind innovation that nevertheless protects civilization. And let’s face it, the embittered weirdos of America have always been what made it move, for good or for ill. Let’s try good and not ill.

  110. 110.

    Mattminus

    @Spectre:

    I am shocked that ABL would accuse anyone that didn’t agree with her of racism. That never happened here before!

  111. 111.

    wobblybits

    @Cassidy: I partly grew up there (5 years) and I still go back to see the family. But I will admit as a teenager, the place sucked. As an adult, it is beautiful but folks still get up and go to the bed with the sun.

  113. 113.

    Steeplejack

    @MikeJ:

    Okay, I caught that.

    However, I don’t recall ever seeing a single previous comment from “Biff Mitchell.”

    . . . Uh, on second thought, I’m sitting this one out.

  114. 114.

    Schlemizel

    @MikeJ:
    There were two very good reasons not to read an ABL post
    her post and the horrid comments.

    Yes, she often was over the top with the rhetoric, faux outrage and name calling. I am reminded of the old MASH dialog “Frank, you invite this abuse it would be impolite not to accept it.” Except that some really ugly commentors showed up saying some really unforgivable things.

    Hopefully they both will go away now. Now you made me break my promise not to mention either party involved it that pointless pissing contest.

  116. 116.

    PeakVT

    @A Humble Lurker: And what I expect is that somebody not smear an entire site just because of a few bigoted comments – by unknown, unregistered people who many not even be bigoted but just love pushing people’s buttons – in a thread that was obviously going to attract them.

    It’s not like she hasn’t generated threads full of stupid comments before, you know. I purposely stopped reading her posts for that reason months ago.

  117. 117.

    Roger Moore

    @PeakVT:
    Looks like the Republicans are unlikely to be very happy with the “highest turnout goes first” approach, since the lowest turnout states seem to trend Republican. I guess that’s what you get when your party’s approach to winning is to suppress turnout. The only way the Republicans can look decent is to go by their “Voting Age Population” version, which penalizes states that have large ineligible (largely immigrant) populations.

  118. 118.

    Mjaum

    The problem is not so much what you can put into 140 characters as what your recipient can get out of same.

  119. 119.

    realbtl

    @Cassidy:

    Late to the thread but on the outside chance you’re still here…

    Missoula is quite a nice town and not just “for Montana.” Weather is relatively mild, not like eastern MT and the country around it is beautiful. There is a bit of an in-town traffic problem but it is easy to escape unlike say cities in CA. I’m about 100 miles North and get down there about once every 2 months. Good luck on the job prospect.

  120. 120.

    TooManyJens

    @Steeplejack: If the person had never commented here before, wouldn’t their post go into moderation? And in that case, wouldn’t somebody have had to let it out of moderation? I find that possibility worse, frankly.

  121. 121.

    Emma

    Khalid and others: I also notice that every thread ultimately turns into a bunch of men metaphorically striking ABL over and over again. It seems they’re enjoying their power.

    (edited)

  122. 122.

    wrb

    @Emma:

    The only thing I can figure is that this place is full of double-agents secretly working to support ABL.

    They can’t really be such asses.

  123. 123.

    Ella in New Mexio

    Apart from ongoing demonstrations that 140-character deliminations are inadequate for responsible social interaction, what else is on the agenda?

    Well I just cleaned up the puke off my coffee table after listening to Michelle Bachmann spout out a whole lotta “Jesus Will be Lord Over the US If You Elect Me!!!!!!!! ” desperation.

    Judas H. Priest–now it’s Santorum claiming Obama wants everyone to pump out babies out of wedlock. These idiots pretty much run on an imaginary agenda in which Barack Obama is responsible for pretty much EVERYTHING BAD in the world. He did it, all of it, in just three short years!!!!

    All these last minute speeches are gonna allow me to lose that 10lbs I gained over the Holidays in less than 24 hours.

  124. 124.

    Roger Moore

    @PeakVT:

    And what I expect is that somebody not smear an entire site just because of a few bigoted comments – by unknown, unregistered people who many not even be bigoted but just love pushing people’s buttons – in a thread that was obviously going to attract them.

    If it had been just “a few bigoted comments”, maybe you’d have a point. But as you admit, most of her posts got taken over by a bunch of trolls who loved to insult and belittle her rather than seriously take on her arguments. That she chose an especially hateful response as her example shouldn’t undermine the basic point that there was a band of trolls who never let real discussions build around her posts, and that the high barrier for bans around here- something that I generally support- let them get away with it. If you want to blame that on her rather than the trolls, well, I think that shows you missed the whole point.

  126. 126.

    Emma

    @wrb: Of course they can. I knew the moment the original kerfuffle started that we would have the Glennbots descending en masse. And that would allow the “I don’t hate ABL but I can’t pass one of her posts by without crapping on it” brigade to let the freak fly.

  127. 127.

    Omnes Omnibus

    I think I shall watch a movie and not participate in any aspect of the current fight. This is a boat that I have no intention of leaving. The mangoes don’t even look inviting.

  128. 128.

    Roger Moore

    @AA+ Bonds:

    I live in anticipation of everyone fuckin forgetting Blog Wars on BJ

    The only way we’ll forget this round of Blog Wars is when the next round of blog wars starts. We have always been at war with Eastblogistan!

  129. 129.

    Cassidy

    Thank you, everyone, for the Monatan responses. Just got the email today, so not sure if I’ll get an interview. it’s at one of the Vet Centers, which I really like. It’s also a GS-9 starting which is a good way to sell it home to the wife.

  130. 130.

    MattMinus

    @Roger Moore:

    Bullshit. ABL got no worse than she gave, but, like a true bully, she couldn’t handle the getting. It wasn’t as if people started picking on her for no reason. She started fights. That combined with lazy, amateurish, just plain shitty blogging, and an INCREDIBLY thin skin made sure there were always plenty of combatants.

    It’s not like it hurt the discussion, there was none. You either agreed with her or you were a racist.

  133. 133.

    Chuck Butcher

    1500 fucking comments don’t do the job for some of you? WTF? Cripes, go read all that shit and post a comment if you really think there is something left unsaid after all that. I sure the hell am not going to do either and I suppose I’ll just abandon this one as well.

  134. 134.

    gene108

    Va. Tech got robbed by the replay official in OT. Too much of a high to come crashing down from for team to mentally recover that quickly.

    Replay shouldn’t decide the outcome of games, when there isn’t conclusive proof of a specific fault.

  135. 135.

    Montarvillois

    Romney’s boy talks about how cheap his father is. I figured that out when I heard the story of strapping the family dog on the roof of their car on the way to a Canadian vacation. A wealthy man like Romney could surely have afforded to rent a Winnepego for the journey and the dog’s accommodation.

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