Much as Tom Friedman gleans man-on-the-street wisdom from the cabbies who ferry him to and fro, I sallied forth from the Cracker Cloister yesterday to mingle with the common folk, securing priceless insights that I will share directly. Unlike Friedman, I didn’t board a G6 and fly to Aspen to pick up a $75,000 speaking fee.
Rather, I played hooky along with my teenage daughter to visit a couple of theme parks, including a park that has a section devoted to a fictional young sorcerer. The fiction-based city to which we traveled for this purpose should be renamed “Or-LINE-do” since visitors spend the majority of their day languishing in queues. There were lines to access the $15 parking lot. Lines to pay an outrageous sum to visit the parks. Lines to have our bags searched. Lines to hear a sales pitch before paying $29.95 for a plastic replica of a wizard’s wand.
There were even lines for lunch seating at The Three Broomsticks tavern and the privilege of paying $40.00 for a bagged salad that reeked of chlorine, a dollop of runny mac ‘n cheese accompanied by a sad cluster of grapes and souvenir tankards of “Butterbeer” (which turns out to be cream soda topped with an oilier incarnation of Cool Whip). Anyhoo, it was at The Three Broomsticks that I obtained “cabbie wisdom” by briefly eavesdropping on the conversation of a pair of 20-something women at the adjacent table.
As they consumed THEIR $20 bagged salads, the young women’s discussion turned to the upcoming Republican debate. They admitted to one another that they hardly pay attention to politics at all and hadn’t watched the previous debates, but both expressed interest in seeing that evening’s tussle. Why? Because they were alarmed about what they’d heard regarding the Republicans’ wholesale assault on women’s rights and birth control.
So what did the young women see if they tuned in last night? This and this and this and this, etc.
Thanks to the monsoon that greeted us as we exited our final ride of the evening and the extraordinarily long line in the parking garage that resulted when everyone fled the parks at the same moment, we didn’t get home in time to see the entire debate, though we did catch the tail end of it and the silly Republican gasbags analyzing it on CNN. There was the one with the Friedman-like mustache, sans “understanding.” There was Eponymous Eponymouson of RedState — whose vertical cranial dimensions have expanded alarmingly or else I need to adjust my TV settings. And there was that sallow scold who used to collect a paycheck for lying to the press on behalf of the Bush administration.
If I recall correctly, this trio — to a man — acknowledged that all this talk of separating sluts from their contraceptives might redound to the discredit of the party in the short-term. But all expressed hope that the empty-headed trollops would be consumed with more pressing issues come election time, like the cost of the fuel they expend as they drive their Camrys from one irresponsible sexual tryst to the next.
One of the women on the panel threw cold water on that hope, saying that women “don’t forget” and pointing out that the GOP already had a gender gap problem before its presidential slate decided to channel the town fathers in The Scarlet Letter. If my chance encounter with the formerly apolitical young women at The Three Broomsticks is any indication, she’s right.
[X-POSTED at Rumproast]
Shinobi
I think the republican presidential candidates have forgotten that women can vote nowadays.
c u n d gulag
Yes, because their “religious freedom” “Dick’s for Dildo’s” legislation is going so very well, that even the knuckle-dragging cave-dwelling Christianista Governor of Virginia is having second thoughts about signing the bill if it passes the state legislature.
Before trying this, they should have created a “Woman’s Voice to Vote” bill nationwide, where the little ladies would be free of the hassle of pulling the lever, or filling-in the circle, and letting their hubby’s vote for them.
MattF
A bit OT, but it must burn the wingers that the Obamas really are a classic nuclear family. And then they go back to the not-so-clean-living Limbaugh for their snort of the political drug of the day. It’s a strange world.
kay
This is great:
Linda Featheringill
Lovely anecdote!
But I wonder if some of the right wingers are more motivated by getting votes than by their distaste for contraception. If this is so, then they are probably echoing strict Catholic doctrine in hopes of pulling in the Catholic vote.
But I don’t think that the bishops can deliver votes. They can’t even persuade 90% or so of their female members to avoid contraception. How will they succeed in telling them how to vote?
Rosalita
Good God, I can’t stand the happiest place on earth.
They really DO think women are stupid (and sluts,and have short memories and can be easily distracted). Yeah, let’s see how that works out for them.
GeneJockey
@MattF:
They’ve got an app for that! Obama, you see, is actually gay, and Michelle is helping him cover it up. Just look at pictures of him. He’s slender and well dressed, and we all know what THAT means! But the Lame Stream Media won’t tell you about it!
No, I’m not kidding. I actually saw this claim put forth on a bowhunting forum I used to frequent before the wingers completely lost their minds, and still sometimes look in on to check the pulse of wingnuttery. They were serious.
Linda Featheringill
@Rosalita:
Hmmm. Women as a species are not noted for being overly forgetful and overly forgiving of transgressions committed by males.
Soonergrunt
@Shinobi: They’ve got an opinion on that problem, as well. More than one conservative pundit, including “Ann” Coulter has claimed that women’s suffrage was a bad idea that should be revoked.
Cue the endless whining about how Republicans would’ve so totally won the 2012 elections if only women hadn’t voted.
Marcellus Shale, Public Dick
i take slightest confort in knowing the customers of florida’s most popular theme parks are concerned with birth control.
if the gop has hosed themselves in terms of winning, the candidates, especially santormentum, make sense. they will be using the platform to piss-in, as nixon would say. picking fights on the local and state level.
28 Percent
Republicans thought they could frame this as “Religious Freedom” – the problem with that is 1) Religious Freedom is an abstract idea, and the concrete outcomes tend to have greater impact than the abstract idea; and 2) it could remain abstract in most people’s minds if the “Religious Freedom” in question had to do with abortion, which most people don’t think is relevant to them, until suddenly it is, at which point theirs becomes a unique case and irrelevant to the discussion, but birth control is something that 98% of adults have used, and a great many currently use, which makes it concrete.
More to the point, Republicans have been pushing the idea that money is speech and permission and that if somebody makes you pay for a thing they’re taking it away from you… they’ve been playing this for eons. Expecting that all of a sudden, now that it serves them, that people in general would parse the position and decide that Republicans weren’t taking away birth control, they’re just making it cost consumers several hundred dollars more a year and therefore those consumers aren’t affected by it… not gonna happen.
Republicans put themselves in the position where, by the same logic they use when they discuss taxes, they were punishing people for using contraception – something that for most Americans is as fundamental a cornerstone of responsible behavior as getting a job and paying your bills on time. Losingest loser fight EVAR.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Shinobi: I think they’re counting on Republican state legislatures to restrict women voting in November, now that they have made it harder for minorities and college students.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Larry Sabato? Or Alex Castellanos? No, no, I am not at all sad that I need so little a hint to name two right wing TeeVee pundits. Somebody linked to a Sabato piece this morning, and it was in the National Review. One good thing about the increasingly partisan media environment, about which I shed Broderist tears of course, it’s harder for CNN to pass that hump off as a non-partisan academic.
Schlemizel
From your keyboard to His noodley appendages!
As much fun as it would be to have ol Frothy to run against I still think is Willard. It will be interesting to see him try to walk this back when he needs too. I sure hope the Dems don’t let him.
Everyone see TDS last night? They had Bruce Bartlet on. He was one of the tax guys for St. Ronald. He said “One party is completely insane, and we all know which one”. Later, after recounting some GOP insanity he commented on how the Dems seem to be unable to muster the strength and courage to beat the insanity back. Its painful to watch but he is so spot on I wish that the Dem leadership would take note.
vernon
Not that anyone has any particular reason to care what I think, but since it’s better to speak up when you have something nice to say, I would like to express gratitude to Balloon Juice for bringing Betty Cracker on board. She is quality; she is the quill; and you can’t knock her prose.
Downpuppy
@Linda Featheringill: I’ve seen at least 2 short stories, a book and a Mamie Van Doren movie where women do become a species.
The machines are no fun but the costumes are silly.
cmorenc
@Betty Cracker:
This is a sound bit of folk wisdom well known from experience to anyone who referees competitive-level women’s soccer, from teenage through adult ages. If #5 on the red team commits a foul against #7 from the blue team that #7 thinks was unnecessarily rough and dirty, in a men’s game any woofing and shoving about it is likely to happen right away, and then dissipate quickly. But if it’s a women’s game, #7 is more likely to simply give a quick yelp and dirty look at #5 and walk away…and then bide her time waiting for an appropriate moment to retaliate, even if it’s a half-hour later or sometimes even not until the next game between these same two teams. In a competitive women’s game as a male referee you’re much more likely to see some puzzlingly inexplicable incident of intemperate rough play and wonder “what the hell was that all about?”, because whatever it was actually about was the long-interrupted continuation of some feud over an incident that happened much earlier on.
Women DON’T forget.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Schlemizel: Normally, you can’t beat insane, unless you shoot the person or put them in a straight jacket; only the voters can do these, though. It’s impossible to respond rationally to them, because they don’t respond to rational.
Nemesis
The gop believes it can nominate something with ovaries as VP and all will be forgotten.
Yes, the gop has THAT level of distain for women. Evidence: see 2008 VP, Snowbilly Snookie.
Although the current crop of gop women who could be tapped (sorry) is rather miniscule.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): Added: Did he have any suggestions?
Litlebritdifrnt
As I posted over at Rumproast Betty: On MJ this morning Joe said that he went to FL for the weekend and his wife (who he describes as more right than he is) and her friends were going nuts about the contraception issue and how stupid it was of the Repubs to be doing this, he finished with (I think) that she would never vote for a democrat but in this case who knows. It was very interesting.
feebog
Yesterday’s polling numbers seem to indicate we have reached and passed peakSantorum. The Romneytron 3000 was ahead again (slightly) in MI and AZ.
Shinobi
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): New voter screening laws require a penis scan before voting. Voters who cannot present a penis will not be able to vote.
Paul in KY
@GeneJockey: I think those ‘bowhunters’ have a secret woodie for the Pres & are just explaining that desire to themselves by accusing the President of emanating ‘gay rays’ (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
Paul in KY
@Linda Featheringill: Thank God for that ;-)
Ben Cisco
Every time I think no one can top the last mocking moniker for ol’ Combs With Garden Rake, somebody steps up. Well done!
Jennifer
Again…the Republicans want to pretend that the contraception “issue” is all about the slutty sluts driving their Camrys from one hookup to the next…but probably over half of the women using contraception are married. Their “keep your legs together” prescription probably isn’t going to fly with married women…or their husbands. Their treatment of this “issue” isn’t so much anti-woman as it is anti-sex; they’ve yet to publicly say that contraception is ok for married couples, which is a concept that is broadly embraced by the electorate at large, including as Betty notes at least 90% of American Catholics (though that figure might be a little low – I’ve seen stats quote that 98% of all Catholic women in the US have used contraception at one point or another).
I can’t imagine that they’re winning over even conservative-leaning married male independent voters who are convinced that all these young, unmarried slutty women are slutting up the joint with this line.
ericblair
@28 Percent:
I don’t know if logic is a real problem for them: I think their big problem is that they’ve fucked up and made a lot of people realize that This Means You Too. Big mistake. With abortion it’s not so much of a problem for the goopers, since most people don’t plan to have abortions and can rationalize that it doesn’t affect them or their families, but this is different. The goopers may realize this, and that would explain the weird pivot in the debate into teenage pregnancy (where This Doesn’t Mean You, Voter).
Apparently this happened before Prohibition, too: a lot of people got the idea that it would just ban hard liquor and leave their beer and wine alone, or it was just for Those People.
Remember: The GOP: They’re After Your Ass, Too.
jibeaux
@Marcellus Shale, Public Dick:
You have to be. Hell, it broke the bank to take my two kids to Disney. I have to give WDW props, though, if you can accept it on its own terms, i.e. make peace with the cheese and just let go, no, you’re not in Europe or Taos or Portland or anyplace cool, and you have kids, it is fun. I can’t say that I understand people who honeymoon there.
As they’ll be older though by the time we can afford to go back, I was looking forward to Universal and the HP themed stuff. I hope it’s not too lame.
Soonergrunt
@cmorenc: Old (and admittedly sexist) saying about women in the Army–“you know why women aren’t allowed in the Combat Arms? Because they don’t know when to quit.”
The last month or so has been one continued assault on women from the right wing of this country. One would’ve thought that they’d have retreated after the SGK fiasco, but the just keep attacking the one group that will remember FOREVER.
The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of compassion
@Paul in KY: On the nose. I’ve seen this phenomenon several times now, when uptight “straight” guys find themselves sexually attracted to another guy, it somehow proves that the guy they want to bump woodies with is gay.
Carnacki
@Soonergrunt: And women votes aren’t legitimate in their minds
rikyrah
Matt,
IT KILLS THEM that Barack and Michelle Obama seem to be a happy, in love couple, with total devotion to one another and their two daughters.
BURNS THEM UP!!!
When they blather on that Black folk need ‘ positive examples’, just once I wish they were in the room saying that to a Rev. Al or Melissa Harris-Perry, who, I don’t doubt, will point out the obvious –
Black youth have the best possible role models – LIVING AT 1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE.
Soonergrunt
Golf Clap
Seebach
Is SGK still remembered? I hope the hate there hasn’t dissipated yet. That’s still an organization that needs to disappear.
Jennifer
@jibeaux: I was at WDW once as an adult, sans children, because a company I worked for booked us at one of the hotels there for a sales meeting.
Disney World through the eyes of an adult who isn’t there to entertain children is quite different indeed. Finally it hit me – DisneyWorld is like the former Soviet Union, only with better weather and brighter colors. Everywhere I went, I saw long lines of unhappy people waiting in queue to purchase over-priced, shoddily-made crap that they neither wanted nor needed. And looming over it all, at every turn, the larger-than-life-sized visage of one Mickey Mouse…the Vladimir Lenin of DisneyWorld.
TheOtherWA
@cmorenc: So true. The republics have hosed themselves good if they think this will all fade away before November. Not a chance in hell.
And yesterday a federal judge said it was fine for pharmacists in WA state to deny emergency contraception if it make their religious feelings all tingly.
Whether the r’s want it or not, this is gonna blow up in their faces in a very ugly (for them) way.
Roger Moore
@Rosalita:
Maybe because that’s the only kind of woman who would be willing to hang around with, much less marry, a Republican.
Paul in KY
@rikyrah: They are great role models for whites as well.
Don’t think you meant to exclude anyone in your post, but this white guy looks up to them & thinks they set a great example.
Paul in KY
@Jennifer: When I went there as an adult (had never been), I hung out in Epcot & tried to get drunk in every pavilion but ours.
Generally succeeded. Liked the monorails.
Linda Featheringill
Only a little OT:
Daily Kos says that Romney vowed to be further right wing than Santorum.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/23/1067566/-Mitt-Romney-may-have-beaten-Rick-Santorum-but-it-came-at-a-price?via=blog_1
Jesus Christ, man! Does he know what he’s saying? Damn!
Rosalita
@Roger Moore:
there is that…
dan
@Jennifer: No, maybe you saw it through the eyes of a cynical adult. But WDW is really a blast for kids and adults (w/ or w/out kids). And “long lines of unhappy people waiting in queue to purchase over-priced, shoddily-made crap” were long lines of happy but exhausted people waiting in line to buy crap that will sit on a shelf or in a drawer. And those people are going to smile every time they look at it.
Hewer of Wood, Drawer of Water
@Jennifer: God that’s it exactly. There were so many people forcing themselves to believe they were having a good time while gnawing on the smoked pterodactyl legs. The mouse as Lenin – perfect
Culture of Truth
Lindsey Graham?
Tom65
@cmorenc:
Preach it, brother. I retired as a Grade 6 a few years ago (bad knees) and learned early on that things can go seemingly well for 80 minutes, only to have all hell break loose because of some minor infraction in the first half.
Samara Morgan
what i still dont understand is that the republican jihaad on birth control is just going to generate more citizens that wont vote for them.
rich white women can always get birth control, poor darkskinned women not so much.
there is already a tsunami of demographic democrats heading for the polls in 2020.
Cant republicans do math?
patrick II
Since vasectomies are also a mortal sin for Catholics, I would have loved for King to ask a followup question about whether health insurance bought by catholic institutions should be required to cover vasectomies.
I don’t think Rep. Neal is getting much republican support for her bill at the state level. Given their interest in making sure the catholic bishops “religious freedom” is enforced uniformly, perhaps the presidential candidates would be in favor of making sure both sides of the bishops wishes were uniformly enforced.
Democratic Nihilist, Keeper Of Party Purity
@Samara Morgan: Some. I suspect those in charge certainly can, and that this is going to be the last election where the anti-Hispanic freak flag is allowed to fly.
Roger Moore
@Samara Morgan:
Of course they can’t. Anyone who’s taken a brief look at Republican budgets should be able to figure that one out. They also have a hard time thinking about time horizons longer than the next election. They’re doing whatever they think will win for them now, now, now and letting next generation’s Republicans worry about what happens a generation from now.
It’s a more effective strategy in the short and even medium term than you might like. Remember that the Republicans started riding the hate machine almost 50 years ago, and it’s served them well for most of the time since then. They’re not going to climb down until it’s well and truly finished.
danimal
@Samara Morgan:
Have you ever seen a Republican budget?
Origuy
@Samara Morgan: You’re expecting long-term thinking? Republicans are drawing from the same gene pool as CEOs and investors who don’t look past the next quarterly earnings report.They aren’t even looking past the Republican convention.
pseudonymous in nc
OT, but a piece on Mario Rubio’s childhood years as a Mormon includes this nugget:
Say what? Freedom of religion and all that, but has anyone asked a red-beanie for a ruling on that? Because I think they have a bit more jurisdiction over whether you can call yourself a professional Papist while being a regular at a Protestant mall-theater church than they do over ladyparts .
Mark S.
More Republican math: Newt said last night he could save $500 billion a year through civil service reform. Civilian personnel costs (including direct compensation and benefits for all three branches, the military and postal service) totaled $432.6 billion in fiscal 2011.
Emma
@Schlemizel: I would love to find a method to beat the crazy. But rational appeals to self-interest don’t work. Appeals to decency don’t work. Nothing works, short of a straight jacket and meds.
jibeaux
@Jennifer: I think I’d enjoy it o.k. alone as an adult — I like roller coasters and February weather in Florida — I just wouldn’t do it because it wouldn’t rank high enough for me to get around to it. I feel the same way about Las Vegas, which I guess actually is WDW for adults. I would take a free trip, but if I’m paying for a vacation, no, there are 100 places I haven’t been that I need to see first. That’s why I don’t entirely understand it as a honeymoon destination.
Cermet
@Jennifer: If that post isn’t a win, I don’t know what could be … I will steal that, if you don’t mind … well, even if you mind.
Soonergrunt
@Mark S.: If you do away with the ENTIRE civil service, that’s almost $500bn, and I guess you could call that a reform.
DanielX
Disney World indeed…great if you have kids, especially one who is a fanatic about all things Potter, but I’m surprised they haven’t figured a way to put a meter on your nose so they can charge you for breathing.
Yes, St. Rick of Sanctimony has led the Rs down the primrose path. Once he started making a fuss about immorality in all its forms and especially about the harlots who tempt Godly Men, Romney had to respond*. Once Romney responded, well, “it’s out there”, and hey it’s open season for wingnuts on reproductive rights and on women in general. They had just a grand time for a few days hobnobbing with the Catholic bishops and declaring war on the sluts. Then, whoa, sonofabitch, they remembered 1) that women actually vote, and 2) that if you want to make women vote against you, start fucking around with access to birth control. They’ve always been after birth control under the guise of being opposed to abortion, but this time they actually came out and admitted it, which genuinely put the dog amongst the cheeseburgers.
I’m surprised that well known evil douchebag Karl Rove, among others, hasn’t stroked out at the absolute political stupidity on display. I can almost hear it: “Screw the Catholic bishops! Our only Republican true belief isn’t about women, it’s about money! When will these fuckwits get with the program?”
*Notice that Newticles is pretty much keeping his head down in this whole debate. He may be a world class asshole, but after bitter experience Newt can recognize a losing issue when he sees one. Not to mention that he’s probably a huge fan of birth control….
scav
Call me old school and picky, but I’m still waiting for the DNA transcription that includes the dominant melanin-shade/voter identification gene. Not that I’m disputing their mathematical statistical insanity.
currants
@vernon: Hear, hear!
Cermet
@Paul in KY: This white guy has their picture in my house
@Roger Moore:
This is exactly the case for nearly all CEO’s
Soonergrunt
@Jennifer: We went to WDW in February. Short lines. Had a wonderful time. Yes, we went with kids, but we also made them do things that we grown-ups wanted to do like the Cirque du Soleil show at Downtown Disney, and the Fantasmic! water show at Hollywood Studios (still called Disney-MGM studios then)
Saving up to go back, cause it was the most fun, most relaxed, most enjoyable family vacation we ever did, and worth every penny.
The second best vacation was Yellowstone National Park and Grand Tetons National Park, but that was kind of hard with an Asperger’s kid because nature isn’t his thing.
Schlemizel
@Linda Featheringill:
Hes saying the same thing he always says – exactly what he thinks he needs to say to win the next election. After Michigan he will say whatever he thinks will win him the next primary. This will continue until November with (Pasta willing) he will go back to raping & pillaging in the private sector.
Southern Beale
I just found out that Marco Rubio was once a Mormon. I’m thinking he can kiss the Veep slot goodbye. I mean, it’s gonna be Mitt and I just don’t see a double Mormon ticket flying with evangelical voters. They might look past one Mormon, but two? Not gonna happen.
kdaug
Still don’t understand how this is a “women” issue.
I’ve been married for 20 years.
Never had kids, never wanted them.
(Though I will admit to a peculiar glee in loading up my nieces and nephews on candy and espresso (did you know they’ll drink it if you put enough cream in there?) and sending them back to my sisters).
But birth control is a family issue. My family.
Keep your goddamned nose out of it.
Schlemizel
@dan:
Thats true. When we lived in Cocoa Beach we bought annual passes (they were ridiculously cheap ~ 3.5x day pass price). It can be a real PItA and the forced happiness is overwhelming to the point of nausea. But our young kids loved it and if you can take it for what it is there are many fun things. The food is not one of them, it is horrible unless you eat at one of the expensive restaurants then it is merely way over-priced.
One of the ways we made it more bearable was to go at odd times of the day, if it was too crowded we’d just got into Whorelando and bum around. Most people wouldn’t have that luxury. Without the pressure to see everything TODAY you can relax & enjoy. I noticed tons of truly happy people having the times of their lives while really getting worked over by Benito Mouseoline.
scav
@Southern Beale: It’s also rather interesting that the Catholic end of the line-up (insomuch as I’ve been paying attention) consists of two converts (tend toward being more uptight about it) and one Opes Dei-oid. Wonder if that might cause a little mis-reading of what the garden variety laity is like? I’ve not a clue.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Southern Beale: I think Mormon/Catholic is problematic, especially a Catholic whose name ends in a vowel.
jibeaux
@Mark S.: Maybe he thought that $8 billion abortionplex we talked about that was part of it.
Martin
@cmorenc:
True for anyone out of power. Women, minorities, etc. Only those in power can afford to forget. Prop 187 was 18 years ago and has effectively shoved the GOP out of California.
The GOP won’t easily be able to win these voters back. Instead they’re going to have to rely on Democrats doing stupid things to drive them away.
Davis X. Machina
@scav: The garden-variety Catholic laity doesn’t behave much differently, controlling for income, etc, than everybody else. Ed Kilgore:
pseudonymous in nc
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
“Mormon-as-a-kid”, I think, is less problematic than “Catholic who goes to a Protestant church”. Catholics will selectively ignore the red beanies, or go to a non-local parish church, but they’ may find it weird that Rubio’s actually a regular at a mall-theater franchise church. Perhaps this is a thing in some parts of the US, but the Red Beanie Council clearly needs to issue a ruling on whether you’re in communion with the church if you spend every Sunday for the past six years with the splitters.
Comrade Dread
@Linda Featheringill: Not to mention the complete amoral, anti-Catholic (and anti-Christian, anti-Jewish, anti-Muslim, and really anti-anyone with any sort of moral compass) economic policies of “Every man for himself, unless he’s rich, then he can buy the government to give him handouts and advantages and screw the poor”
SiubhanDuinne
@Soonergrunt:
That explains why she’s registered to vote here, there, and everywhere.
The Republic of Stupidity
Hehe…
Ya know, Betty… from my own experience w/ this sort of on-the-fly, informal polling, you can trust the results a hella lot more than the professionals (don’t try this at HOME, kids!) care to admit…
In other words… there’s a good chance the GOP = toast this fall…
Not to mention a SERIOUS fall off in the love lives of Republican males if they keep this crap up much longer…
So… it… goes…
HumboldtBlue
@Jennifer:
That’s brilliant.
Martin
@Mark S.: Newt would fire all of the civil service workers and hire their kids instead. We want kids to get out and exercise to help arrest this childhood obesity epidemic – why not have them deliver some letters while they’re out there?
scav
@Davis X. Machina: That’s what I kinda thought — which meant I rather wondered why the repubs seemed to jump so excitedly when the Bishops started throwing their beanies around the ring and raising their arthritic fists. It did seem more of a play for Evangelicals and Cultural Warriors (on the R’s side, the B’s might be playing for a Vatican based political audience). I think we’re well into the realm of complementary opposition and the “he’s a bastard but he’s our bastard” rule and so might over-count the importance of Catholic v. Mormon v. Etcism on the (R) side. I’m pretty sure the VP won’t be a Muslim but that’s as far as I’d trust myself. Wouldn’t rule out a Jew so long as their pro-Israel enough. I mostly find this part of the jockeying incomprehensible (like a rugby scrum) so I’m always trying to figure out how the ball ended up over there.
Mark S.
@Davis X. Machina:
Ha, I didn’t know Biden was Catholic. I knew Boner was.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m pretty sure it was Castellanos, but same difference, eh?
pseudonymous in nc
@scav:
I think that Pierce is right to talk about Icky Ricky as the culmination of “a 20-year effort to develop Roman Catholics who could talk like Southern Baptists, bonded as both groups were now by their twisted views of human sexuality, and by their desire to re-establish control over what American women can do with their bodies.”
Theology can go take a hike; what’s at stake is institutional power, hence the marriage of convenience.
scav
@pseudonymous in nc: Does that take it back all the way to JPII, the sneakier version of Ratzi? Wasn’t really paying attention then beyond noting that PR and Poland started with the same letter. ETA: Am reading Pierce now.
Martin
@Mark S.: Biden was on TV 2 years ago on Ash Wed.
There was quite a bit of media fumbling over that.
Betty Cracker
RE: The merits or lack thereof of RodentWorld, I’m not a big fan of the place and probably visit it less frequently than the average Wisconsinite even though I live within a hundred miles of it. That said, I have to admit I always have more fun than I thought I would.
If you enjoy people-watching (which I really, really do), the opportunities are unmatched. And it truly is a magical place for the kiddies — even teens who are working hard to get their jade on like mine — as long as you keep the money spigot fully open.
One new discovery to share with anyone who might be going: There is now an app that estimates wait times at the rides. That came in very handy.
Tmill
@ericblair:
Yes! Finally, proof that the gop is an all inclusive party.
KS in MA
@Soonergrunt: Women are such a narrow special interest group.
Amir Khalid
I went to Disney World in 1997 as a guest of IBM’s Lotus software division. (My only trip to Florida, which also featured my first and last Super Bowl party.) Meh. Universal Studios’ theme park was better.
cmorenc
@jibeaux:
By far the best WDW for adults is a trip abroad to Amsterdam. It’s a very safe, beautiful city with great public transportation, terrific museums, great food, and the Dutch (at least the ones in Amsterdam itself) have a wonderful sensibility about practicing safe libertinism.
By contrast, Vegas is fun to wander around for about six hours maybe as a fascinating museum of wildly gross excessiveness, but after that the unsustainable artificiality and underlying sterility of the purported adventurous “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” wildness overwhelms any further fun potential.
Rita R.
@efgoldman:
When I went to Disney and saw these large groups jumping to the front of the lines because one of them was riding a scooter, I was convinced a lot of the scooter use was really for that reason and not out of necessity. Guess I’m a cynic. In fact, that wouldn’t be a bad way to make some money at the Happiest Place on Earth, rent yourself out to ride along in a scooter with people so they don’t have to wait on line.
Paul in KY
@Cermet: I need to get one. have a nice photo of Abraham Lincoln. I keep it to remind me of when Republican presidents could be giants.
Churchlady320
@MattF: Apparently it matters more what you espouse than what you do. So long as you point fingers at other people’s personal actions (that you’ve mostly made up), you’re qualified to be a conservative and even MORE qualified to be a Righteous Christian. Bah!
Linda Featheringill
Please allow me to go all Judeo-Christian on you.
Remember Joseph and the dream of the seven fat cows and seven lean cows? And the interpretation of a famine coming?
Maybe this season of downright stupidity on the part of the GOP is our good season and we should make as many gains as we can and store up that good will in case there are rough times between here and November.
Enjoy the good omens but continue working.
scav
@cmorenc: Well, if we’re sharing baroque gob-smacking jaw-dropping experiences that didn’t need to involve drugs, I’d say the Gaylord Opryland when filled with conventioneering Anthropologists/Archaeologists and a plumbers equipment show (as best I could tell) is right up there. As is the Madonna Inn when accompanied by SCAers on their way home from a war, overlapping with not one, but two beauty pageants, one of them exhibiting the charms of the dewy mascara-eyed three-year-old set. The peeing-waterfall men’s room was simply an anti-climax.
gex
These guys are proof that you can’t make gay people. Or there’d be conversions to lesbianism by the truck load whenever these guys start talking.
Southern Beale
Boehner would have profited from Keystone XL pipeline … watch this video before it gets pulled for copyright infringement …
Comrade Dread
@Churchlady320: That’s been going on for quite some time. See Pharisees.
Seebach
Good on Jake Tapper for grilling the press secretary about abuse of the Espionage Act.
gex
@Mark S.: Someone is going to pay us $60 billion annually to shut down our civil service? We should take that deal! /innumerate real American
Kyle
That’s their next project once they ban birth control.
Ronzoni Rigatoni
Women forget? Haven’t these asshol3s ever been married?
Rita R.
@Samara Morgan:
The wingnutterati, particularly the fundamentalist Catholic/Christian branch, really believe this anti-sex, anti-birth control blather, and I think they’re glad that Santorum and the cardinals are taking the Republican Party down this path, finally letting them say it all out loud. They’re not really thinking logically — the truth is being preached, and the consequences be damned. Just take a look at how messianac Santorum gets when he talks about these issues. Either that or they’re so locked into their own worldview bubbles that they think this will actually help them politically. Either way, Davids Plouffe and Axelrod are somewhere smiling.
harlana
@kdaug:
you are eeeviiil! i like it.
Violet
@Soonergrunt:
I’ve heard Rush Limbaugh say that our country started going downhill when women got the vote. Yeah, they’d love to take away women’s right to vote.
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
OT: Remember when Bush invited Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, and Warren Haynes for a blues jam?
Me neither.
Check out Obama’s O face at 2:20.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvtmEvXL1uw&feature=player_embedded
Egg Berry
@Violet:
No, our country started going downhill when Limbaugh got a nationally-syndicated talk show.
Betty Cracker
@kdaug: I got my (child-free) sister a refrigerator magnet that says, “Unattended children will be given complimentary espresso and a free kitten.”
gex
@Kyle: They’re banking on women being too tired or too pregnant to vote so they don’t have to look like they are disenfranchising women. They like to disenfranchise on the DL nowadays.
jl
@Violet:
The GOP would like to take away the right to vote of everyone except registered Republicans. That is the only election math they really understand.
Look at their crappy caucus vote tallies.
I hope these miserable lying murderous lunatics keep it up.
I’m still steaming from what I heard at last night’s debate. Next time I see my teabagger relatives, I might blurt out the question “Why do you support lying murderous thugs?” But I have time to think of more ept approaches.
Other than Paul’s refusal to give his blueprint for their planned war crime campaign in Iran, watching the debate was like swimming in a pool of political and moral vomit. IMHO.
Barry
@Democratic Nihilist, Keeper Of Party Purity: “Some. I suspect those in charge certainly can, and that this is going to be the last election where the anti-Hispanic freak flag is allowed to fly.”
No, because this is the Base speaking; in addition, the leadership of the GOP has been quite deliberately cultivating racism for decades now. It’ll take quite a while to trim that back.
Martin
@harlana: Protip: Barqs root beer is caffeinated and in ice cream float form, you can easily cram enough into the kids that no only will they be spinning around the house like the Tasmanian Devil, but there’s a high probably they’ll barf on the car ride home.
Regulate the amount whether you’re simply trying to curry the kids favor at mom and dads expense or you want to ensure you’re the babysitter of last resort.
jl
Too borrow a phrase from the neocons, all of the GOP candidates are ‘objectively’ in favor of femicide, increased abortion rates (as long as not done in medical facility), infanticide, and child poverty.
And also, they are butt ignorant, and lie about everything.
I think that should be the assumed starting assumptions for all of our discussions about the GOP slate with friends and family, and anyone you happen to bump into who mentions this collection of lying murderous loons.
Peter
The only really revolting thing about Disney World (provided you go in the off-season, when lines are bearably short) is those fucking smoked turkey legs. I’ve never seen a supposed food product that disgusting, and everywhere you go SOMEBODY is eating one.
Rita R.
@Violet:
The misogyny is pathological, because, really, how is this anything other than hatred of women.
As for Coulter, I’ve become convinced that “Ann Coulter” is actually a long-running piece of performance art created as a commentary on the moral bankruptcy of the news and political media for giving her the attention they do.
Egg Berry
@Martin:
Wait, what? ! ?
I thought Root Beer was, by definition, not caffeinated.
Lee
@cmorenc:
Both my daughter’s play competitive soccer. You speak the truth. We’ll be going to a game and they’ll relate to me in detail the previous time they played the team.
Of course I’ve lost count the number of times I’ve had to run forgotten homework to school.
What I cannot understand is how not one woman in the GOP has told these idiots how they are screwing up. They only thing I can think of is that they were told and have decided to ignore or discount it.
Benjamin Franklin
A harbinger of things to come? animal rights and drones: The sneaky little buggers are probably surveilling your neighborhood, as we speak.
Support your local sheriff
http://thetandd.com/animal-rights-group-says-drone-shot-down/article_017a720a-56ce-11e1-afc4-001871e3ce6c.html
jl
@Peter: Whenever I think about the Rodentworlds, I think of the first Shrek movie. That about nails it. Went to the CA Disneyland after I saw the Shrek spoof of Disneyland, when the place was half empty, and they nailed it.
Met a woman once who worked at Disney productions, and she never met a more humorless pompous bunch who supposedly did humor. She said that the Shrek spoof left them fuming. That was a fun conversation for me.
Martin
@Egg Berry: No sir. Most root beer is non-caffeinated, but Barqs is most certainly caffeinated, at least outside of Utah.
So parents, if you’re steering your kids to root beer instead of Coke at the restaurant, check what kind of root beer first.
Lee
@Egg Berry:
I believe Barq’s is the only one that is caffeinated.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Egg Berry: I didn’t know that either, but according to Wikipedia, it does, though the diet does not. It makes it different than other root beers. It has the same caffeine content as green tea.
jl
@Benjamin Franklin: The animals have drone now? Probably Iranian agents gave them the technology. Note that down for an issue at any future GOP debate.
Egg Berry
Wow, learn something new every day. And all this time I was drinking it at restaurants because I thought it was non-caffeinated.
scav
@Egg Berry: Conspiracy! It’s right up there with converting Mormons to homosexuality after death! eek! Religious Ffffrrrreeeeeeeeeecom(tm) is in peril! I wonder if they’ll now see the point of the unsanctified fat in french-fries hoopla or just ignore it? Probably Ignore It. Not all religions are created equal.
ThresherK
“G6” is another one of those bubble tests, right?
My guess: Tom Friedman thinks “luxury jet”.
And he spends little time with people who think “late, unlamented Pontiac”.
Martin
@Lee:
Oh, I’m almost 100% certain they have told them – and in strong terms. Just not publicly. But:
a) How many women are in politics generally?
b) How many are Republicans and not themselves religious extremists?
That’s probably a damn short list, so it’s not a message that can be delivered loudly. It’s also why my voting strategy is what it is. For races that I don’t know the candidates, particularly if they are non-partisan, I vote for women and minorities. If you don’t get underrepresented groups into local political positions, you can’t get them into state positions and then you can’t get them into national positions. We don’t need more white men in the pipeline.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Rita R.: Coulter suffers from the Republican disease of “It can never happen to me.”
Bruce S
This conversation doesn’t count unless it took place at one of those (non-existent) Applebee’s salad bars. Unless these urgently symbolic “real people” spring from the pens of David Brooks or Tom Friedman, you’re probably just echoing the irrelevant musings of random members of the cognitive elite. Sorry, but this doesn’t pass the Brooks/Friedman authenticity test.
Barry
@Soonergrunt: “@Mark S.: If you do away with the ENTIRE civil service, that’s almost $500bn, and I guess you could call that a reform.”
Eliminate the entire civil service, that $450B right there. Contract that work out to the ‘private sector’ for $4.50T, at a 20% profit margin. that’ $900B of profit, which the elites would certainly count as ‘cost saving’.
We’re now up to $1350B.
GeneJockey
@Paul in KY:
You know, they DID tend to have an odd obsession for discussing the mechanics of gay sex…
Linda Featheringill
@Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937:
That was a very nice cover. They done good.
John M. Burt
The photo at the top of this post makes me worried that the Repubs may win in November . . . .
Rita R.
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
And its corollary, “All the crap I spout about applies to everyone else, but not me.”
Benjamin Franklin
@jl:
Probably Iranian agents gave them the technology
Or a Papist with programming written in Latin :>)
wrb
@Mark S.:
Don’t think he’s gonna lay off everyone and continue to gas the government vehicles and heat the empty buildings, do ya?
Bob
@Shinobi: POTD
jl
@John M. Burt:
” The photo at the top of this post makes me worried that the Repubs may win in November ”
That’s a statue of a flying pig? I did not know that.
Violet
@Rita R.:
I see it as more of a fear of women than a hatred of women, although hatred figures in there too. They like women when they’re in a sex object role, or a very traditional maternal role, but they don’t like it at all when women have opinions or rights. They don’t respect women as people. They just think of women as objects for their own use.
That sort of thinking manifests from fear. For some reason they’re terrified that if women are strong and independent and able to think on their own that it undercuts them (the men). A strong man recognizes that a strong woman is an asset. A weak man thinks they have to push women down.
At this point Republicans are just weak bullies. They lack confidence in themselves to such an extent that they have to push down anyone who doesn’t look like them or think like them just so they can feel halfway good about themselves. Pathetic. I wouldn’t care about their psychological problems except they keep inflicting their messes on the rest of us.
twiffer
@Shinobi: i fear such a law would result in mass-bobbitization. no one said it had to be attached, did they?
(god, it’s painful to even type that)
Felinious Wench
As an obvious woman, I can tell you we remember everything, and we are infinitely patient. If it takes years, we’ll wait, and we won’t forget, ever. And the revenge is always worse than the original offense, because we’re going to make damn sure it never happens again.
The Republicans REALLY don’t understand what they’re doing right now.
Martin
@Violet:
Republicans focus on maintaining power structures. White, straight, Protestant men at the top (because they know best because we’ve always been run by white, straight, protestant men – QED), with various other groups slotted in below which we can jostle over.
Obama threatens the white power structure in a big way, and the GOP has done its best to convince the cowards that the Protestant (or at least Christian) power structure is also threatened. Give women power and who knows what chaos would ensue – it’s uncharted territory. Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!
The GOP is really feeling threatened and they’re reflexively reasserting their power.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Nice post Betty.
I think this means you are now officially our Mouse-stash of Understanding.
jl
@wrb:
“Every word they say is alie, including ‘and’ and ‘the'”
I forget who said that.
The whole debate was a lying contest.
Newt made up numbers about the payroll of fed employees, lied about the bogus infanticide issue not coming up in the last election.
Mitt lied his ass off about Obama’s healthcare reform.
Santorum lied about everything.
Maybe Paul did not routinely lie, but his fantasies took the place of lies. Except for his answer for the ‘What is your invasion plan for the coming Iran war’ question, he was as foul as the rest of them. Not sure he was lying as much though.
Original Lee
@Soonergrunt: I love staying at Shades of Green. They make sure you have a good time for the periods you’re not in the park.
Arclite
@Shinobi:
It’s a feature, not a bug. They’d roll us back politically to 1850 if they could.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Violet: If women and minorities had to be proportionally represented, white men would only make up 30% of the total. There’s the true fear.
Paul in KY
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): When I look at her (Coulter), I think she suffers from rickets.
MattF
@jl: Mary McCarthy said it, about Lillian Hellman.
Soonergrunt
@Original Lee: Shades of Green is fucking awesome!
All the benefits of staying in the park–extra magic hours, package delivery, concierge service, the whole nine yards, and NONE of the hassle–it’s quiet, inexpensive, well done.
We stayed at SOG when we went to WDW on leave from my last deployment in 2007. Same size rooms as Disney Deluxe Resorts, plus breakfast and dinner included in the package for a family of four, $90/day. And the staff were absolutely wonderful. Very helpful when I realized it was the day before Valentine’s day and I had nothing arranged. Saved my life, they did.
WereBear (itouch)
@rikyrah: This got brought up on Rev Al’s show last night!
Rita R.
@Violet:
Yes, fear and hatred both. The men who think this way are so insecure that their egos can’t take being challenged — or rejected — in any way by a woman. So they (I’m looking at you Rush) bluster and bully, objectifying, dimissing and trying to control women. It makes me wonder how many female “dittoheads” there actually are out there?
wrb
@jl:
Can’t convince me. Why the black helicopters if they aren’t really spraying infanticide, huh?
Another Halocene Human
Okay, nobody’s really talking about the setting here and I just had to comment on the chlorined lettuce accusation (lettuce libel!).
Following your convention, let’s call the theme park in question CATHOLIC. Unlike Teh Stepfordist Place On Earth, it attracts a much younger crowd, so it’s not surprising there were young women at another table talking birth control. I went with my friend who was an Obama 2008 organizer during the summer months. Less lines, except for stuff you totally needed, like the Popeye flume ride.
I got sick in that sorceror’s castle ride. Fscking 3D.
I agree that the line to BUY PLASTIC CRAP is truly absurd. However, it makes me laugh that it’s next to a shaded bench area that is full ALL THE TIME. Looks like Penn Station, NY.
As for The Three Broomsticks, I was pleasantly surprised. (I got chicken, though.) Much better food and much cheaper than The Other Place. Also, you can prepay for food at CATHOLIC and get a sizable discount. Not shabby.
I would bet good money that the chlorine smell was the plate, not the lettuce. Florida has somewhat … odd restaurant regulations where dishwashing/sanitation is concerned. If the plates were disposable, then it was trays, serving equipment, etc.
The lettuce, almost without a doubt, was poured straight out of a bag. Local chopped lettuce purveyor Taylor Farms cuts and bags their lettuce in a clean room and the lettuce is triple washed. So called “fresh cuts” are a huge part of the local market, because for a large institution that goes through case after case with local, daily delivery, they don’t suffer any freshness problem and the product is actually better than what they would get by having their Florida Minimum Wage Slaves do prep on whole heads in the morning.
//i’m not crazy. I’m not.
Oh, and that butterbeer oil slick should not be deemed safe for human consumption. My friends and I mix ice cream and warm rum at home. However, I was forced to purchase some of that foul brew (most of it got poured out) because my Obama 2008 friend wanted more souvenir cups. She and her husband were assembling a set.
ETA: the lettuce bags is question are giant, evacuated-air, multipound restaurant bags, not those dinky bags from the supermarket. Not sure why I feel compelled to add that. Aspberger’s taking over the steering wheel, I fear. (And to think, some people only need to worry about God taking the wheel.)
Rita R.
@jl:
Pretty good summary of last night’s debate — and the other 20 too. They are just making. shit. up., putting together all the fever dreams and made-up conspiracies from Fox and talk radio and spewing them back out for applause lines and votes from the toxic GOP base. And the media just won’t call them on it.
Jon Huntsman said on Morning Joe today that there have been too many debates and it’s debased them, turning them more into entertainment than anything else. I think he’s right, and the ratings-driven networks have contributed to it. Informing voters is not their goal.
Another Halocene Human
@jibeaux: No worries, Universal (am I allowed to say that now?) is waaaaaaay more fun.
I tried to enjoy The Mouse when my wife’s inlaws were paying for it, but it’s hard for me to get over: burning to death because the “attractions” are set too far apart in the Florida sun, even in the winter, BAAAAAD, yet insanely overpriced food, the constant propaganda, and my own knowledge of their labor practices and other shitty behavior over the years. It doesn’t hurt that the step FIL is a Florida native who despises WDW and everything they stand for as well. We spent two days grumbling.
Animal Planet was the exception. I actually had a good time there and the food was also, oddly enough, edible. The design is much more modern… more like Universal. Avoid if you have a moral objection to zoos (I don’t… I just don’t like sorry sad-sack ones. At AP the animals are in a decently large, outdoors environment with trees and grasses, etc. I DO get pissed about the large mammals at SeaWorld. The dolphins are criss-crossed with bite marks which is apparently what they do to each other when confined in too small a tank… and it is a small tank. And then there’s the orcas. I had fun petting the rays and I really don’t think the rays minded, but I came away feeling it was just plain wrong to have a walrus, sea lions, dolphins, and orcas in captivity in those horrific conditions there.)
Betty Cracker
@Another Halocene Human: I’m pretty sure the chemical smell emanated from the lettuce — it smelled exactly like the bagged salad at the supermarket, which is why I don’t buy that crap for home consumption. I’m not saying it’s not absolutely fresh, sanitary, healthy, etc. It just smells like lettuce fished from a swimming pool, which puts me off for some reason. Millions of people apparently have no problem with it, so maybe I’m just an oddball.
geg6
@Martin:
I do this, too. Especially in court races here in PA. The rules make it next to impossible for them to tell us anything about their judicial philosophies or their party affiliations, so I go with minority candidates first and women second. Can’t remember the last time I voted for a judicial race where I didn’t really know the candidates and went with the white man (though I have voted for the white men whose background I know something about, like David Wecht). Probably not since the early 80s.
Another Halocene Human
@rikyrah:
Wow, I thought you were going in a different direction of that. Plenty of Black people grow up in loving families just like the Obamas–it’s these close-minded bigots who are having their minds blown by the First Family.
geg6
@Violet:
I agree with what you wrote here so much that I feel I could have written it myself. Fear is what it’s all about. They are terrified by women. Just absolutely terrified. That, after all, is what motivates bullies–fear.
geg6
@Paul in KY:
Myself, I think she suffers from the same syndrome as Cal Stephanides, the main character in Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex. I’m not making a joke here. I really think she does.
It’s called 5-alpha reductase deficiency: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5-alpha-reductase_deficiency
Another Halocene Human
@Soonergrunt: Aspie kids can enjoy nature, but they need to have some training in what they’re looking at, or it turns into baffling sensory overload and the ADD behavior kicks in.
If there’s one of those classes for kids that helps, or maybe some books read ahead of the trip. If he learns how to identify plants/wildlife, say something small, like lichens (this is how I survived Acadia National Park as a kid), he’ll be interested and engaged instead of vacillating between overwhelmed and bored.
Another Halocene Human
@scav: GWB got a lot of people into his administration that the bigots would ordinarily have been suspicious of because he was a Real™ evangelical and the authority, and being authoritarian followers, when he spoke, it was all good.
I think the Party imprimatur or maybe in this case the True Conservative imprimatur (and Mitt’s having trouble with that, now) makes more of an impact on these voters than his Mormonicity, though I think it’s no accident he never talks about it.
However, TWO Mormons on the ticket, one overt, one SekR1t, is a bit much for voters that already distrust Mittens (but hope he’s “electable”). Mitt and Rubio have unassailable Big Money credentials, but–by definition–most of the electorate is not big money. I’m not sure teaming them up any longer works in their Fool The Rubes calculus.
Mnemosyne
@Another Halocene Human:
For some reason, the older Disney parks (like WDW) have really crappy food, but the newer ones (like Animal Kingdom) have much better food. If you ever come to Disneyland in California, make sure to get a Park Hopper ticket and eat your meals at Disney California Adventure, where the food is MUCH better quality. They have their own on-site Boudin Bakery where they make the sourdough bread for both parks, so at Disneyland I’ve been served crappy, tin-can tasting beef stew in a beautiful, fresh baked bread bowl. Very weird.
(DCA also has Soarin’ Over California, the best all-family ride in the history of theme park rides.)
Paul in KY
@geg6: Ha, ha!! ‘She’ does have a big adam’s apple.
Robert Waldmann
The wait and Chlorosalad at The Three Broomsticks was all your own fault. To prepare to watch chauvinist talking heads, you should have gone to The Hogs Head ableforwith.
Another Halocene Human
It’s fear of womanitude. It’s the DH Lawrence disease. Closeted gay men are terrified of female sexuality because their wives might not be satisfied with their sterile, uncommunicative marriage and might want them to … do things … with other things … ::visceral shudder::
Some Loser
@Paul in KY: ‘She’ is a woman. Even if she is biologically male (which I assume is false), calling her ‘she’ is offensive. Please just stop it.
Another Halocene Human
@Betty Cracker: Ah… I do not smell Cl on bag lettuce, got it.
They do put most fruits and vegetables sold in US in a chlorinated bath at harvest.
ETA: I exaggerated. Sorry. But it is a lot of them.
Another Halocene Human
@geg6:
As a young’un in Massachusetts I started following a policy of voting for the NON-Irish names. With politicians running around using their married Irish names and the electorate all depressed to find out Kerry was not Irish but a secret Jew, I just started getting suspicious, ya know?
Since you can’t write in the ballots here (no more voting for Donald Duck–that was a favorite), I actually try to pay attention to the candidates and what they say in public forums. My candidates always lose, same as up north.
Another Halocene Human
@Some Loser: Seconded. And I’m not seeing the large Adam’s apple thing. Coulter is horrifically thin and probably does her own styling and maybe doesn’t get “work done” as often as a movie star (most of them are horribly thin too but get collagen injected in their face and wear clothes to give an illusion of a normal shape).
Ann is defs past her prime, though. I don’t think her attention whoring gets half the lucre and lurve it did in the 1990’s. Some of the bile she spews must be for real because why doesn’t she take her ill-gotten gains and retire? She could even do a back-stabbing “inside the Republicans” tell-all which would sell even more copies than Slander: Affable Eva Brauns and other Id-Projection.
harlana
the bagged salad really is gross, it goes bad in a day, i didn’t know anything about the chlorine thing – i’m certainly not much of a cook and like things quick and easy, but i find that romaine bunches last forever in the fridge! and, of course, taste better. i just rinse one bunch at a time, let it dry and then cut it up for my salad a couple of days before – stays fresh for days after rinsed, also.
Betsy
@Lee: The GOP women are there on sufferance and they know it, so they stay quiet.
Also, they know that nice, well-off white women won’t be bothered too much by the lack of contraceptive coverage. They trust that the browh people will be the ones to suffer.
Also, they’re relying on the non-GOP women to be sane and hold the line and prevent the GOP from actually implementing any of this.
Ronzoni Rigatoni
@cmorenc: I love A’dam, but by far the best times I had in der Nederland (every summer for 20 years) was along the Belgian/Dutch border in Zeeland. There, at least, where the folx are ethnically & linguistically identical, well, the Belgians are much more fun LOL. BUT Ik spraak Nederlandse/Flams als en Amsterdammer, geel gut, wot? Both sides of the Smokkelweg are great, however.
McJulie
@cmorenc: If you want a WDW for adults, I recommend New Orleans waaaaaaaaaaaaay over Las Vegas. You get the great food and the general air of decadence, plus music, history, architecture, swamp tours, and you have to actually go to the casino in order to get all the clanging and banging and flashing lights, as opposed to being subjected to it every second whether you like it or not.
Ruckus
@Mark S.:
He’s rounding up. Not well, but still.
And remember conservatives think that government should be so small(other than military) that it could be drowned in a bathtub.
1. Get rid of all civilian government workers
2. …
3. Profit. Or as they say, no federal government.
Ruckus
@Jennifer:
On the road in Anaheim had a completely empty day and wanted to pass the time. Went to disneyland and had a blast. Basically road the good rides, one after the other over and over. Great fun.
Peter
Who put wings on Porcelino?
Original Lee
@Soonergrunt: SOG is the best. We stay there when we can (usually in the off-season). The whole place is very well thought-out and excellent.
Paul in KY
@Some Loser: Fuck off. I was referring to a link geg6 had where a particular chromosone problem was explained. In the explanation, it says that people who suffer from this are males only (I don’t know if geg6 had seen that in the explanation).
So go slag her.
Edit: Taken from the wikipedia article: ‘The condition affects only genetic males (that is, those with a Y-chromosome) because DHT has no known role in female development.’
WereBear
Frankly, this is the backstop of a LOT of Republicans; ooooooh, those nasty Democrats won’t let us blow up the world, so we can posture to our heart’s content.
brantl
@Samara Morgan: No, they can’t do math, or they wouldn’t believe in half the shit that they believe in, that math disproves quite resoundingly. Next question?