I was flipping through the channels and found Goodfellas on Encore, and just like that lost 2 hours +.
Some site news, my good friend Wiley Cash will have his book released this week- A Land More Kind Than Home:
It’s going to be a blockbuster. At any rate, Wiley has agreed to host a couple chats here, and we are tentatively looking at this Wednesday for the first one. We’ll also be giving away some autographed copies for some lucky commenters.
In the meantime, I am looking for some sort of live chat plugin for WordPress that we could use for chats like this. If you run a website and know of one that is reliable, please let me know.
lamh35
Just watched Horrible Bosses, and it must be a Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman kinda night, cause now I’m watching The Switch.
In between watching Indian Jones that is and just wondering are there real archeologist like Indiana Jones out in the world right now. I’m also realizing that I hate dust and cobwebs and skeletons and mummified bodies so my dreams of becoming an archeologist like Indiana is done for.
Clime Acts
Just read the synopsis and reviews of your friend’s book, John. I’m getting a “To Kill a Mockingbird” sort of vibe. Any validity to that feeling?
Clime Acts
“A couple OF chats here…”
godDAMmit!
;D
Is that a WV thing?
TaMara (BHF)
Loved chapter one, can’t wait to read the whole thing.
BH
I recommend using Google+ hangouts for the chats. No new infrastructure required.
Jess
Just read about this book in Oprah’s magazine (yes, I pick it up occasionally). It looks really interesting–I’ll have to check it out!
Ripley
You could try php open chat. I’ve never used it with a huge audience but it’s fairly stable.
J. Michael Neal
@lamh35:
The ex-wife has a masters in archeology. My impression of the people she went to school with is that there are a lot of archeologists who really want to be Indiana Jones, but none that come even close.
YellowJournalism
The scene in Goodfellas where the wife gets invited by Deniro’s character to look at some dresses just kills me. It’s done beautifully, where, like her, you wonder for a second if she’s paranoid but know it’s in her best interests to get the fuck out of there as fast as she can. Sends shivers up my spine.
arguingwithsignposts
Try CoverItLive.com. It’s not a plug-in, but it’s a live chat that you embed in a post. All the big media outlets use it. It’s free, too.
General Stuck
Tales of the Undead
The Duke of Darkness
And still pimping torture
We hanged Japanese officers in part for waterboarding prisoners, but this American devil gets a new heart, to continue filling the national dialogue with patented rancid bullshit.
jwb
@lamh35: Indiana Jones wouldn’t be accepted by modern professional archaeological organizations. He’s quite ethically challenged and is basically nothing more than a glorified grave robber. Belloq is actually a much better archaeologist, even if he is a jerk and works for the bad guys.
Quincy
If I find Goodfellas while flipping through my decision to keep watching depends on whether I’ve missed the post-Lufthansa Layla montage. Might be my all time favorite use of music in a film.
Jeffro
Goodfellas is one of those pick-it-up-at-any-point movies …the original DieHard and New Jack City also too
lamh35
@J. Michael Neal: That kinda doesn’t surprise me. Indiana Jones IS an icon. I’m 35 and I’d guess that the majority of peep my age range hear archaeology & think Indiana Jones… Or maybe I’m just a big fan-bot
Yutsano
@lamh35: To be fair, he’s not the only hotshot archaeologist out there…
The prophet Nostradumbass
I just wasted 2 1/2 hours watching the San Jose Sharks stink it up in Saint Louis, and now, the Oakland A’s are losing to the Mariners, too. Bleh.
JCT
@General Stuck:
Of course, just witness that enormous and successful terrorist attack on the US that wiped out 3,000 innocent people. And then he went off half-cocked and invaded Iraq leading to all of those Iraqi and American deaths and then he could even catch the perpetrator. Damn that Obama.
Or that horrific financial meltdown that he aided and abetted. Impeach him!
It never ends, this up is down and down is up stuff. Never.
The odd part is the actual rhetoric, does this war criminal really think that most people think the country is ruined?
And this asshole probably got some nice young accident victims’s heart. The horror if the family every finds out.
Suffern ACE
@General Stuck: He keeps Talking about that information that we got but never says what it is. I certainly would like to know what it is. If only someone would put his dick in a vice until he squeals.
Amir Khalid
@efgoldman:
As I recall, Dick Cheney became toxic about halfway through George Walker Bush’s second term. By 2008 it was so bad that when he endorsed McCain for President, it was Obama’s campaign that gleefully trumpeted the endorsement to the world.
I suspect Cheney’s name remains toxic; that his endorsement would be about as helpful to Mitt as an endorsement from Lord Voldemort. Mitt will no doubt be asking people to ask Cheney to refrain from publicly endorsing him.
Walker
Just got back from Woodfire Grill, Kevin Gillespie’s restaurant in Atlanta. Damn, that place can make pork.
Martin
Ok, this is fucked beyond all reason. Finally confirmed that my taxes are correct. On $100k in income (1/3 of which is cap gains), we’re paying an effective rate of 0.98%. Our regular income of ~$60k get eaten up enough with mortgage interest and property taxes, child credits, and so on that we land in the lowest tax bracket. That allows us to take the $30k odd capital gains at a 0% tax rate. We theoretically could have sold $5M in stock and paid 0% so long as we kept our AGI low enough to land in the lowest bracket.
The tax code is simply insane. I’m not quite sure what to do here.
Martin
@Amir Khalid: Cheney became toxic when he shot a dude in the face. That was the ‘hide the old codger in the closet’ moment.
Southern Beale
We just watched Martha Marcy May Marlene … interesting film …
Citizen_X
@efgoldman:
Fuck, that’s practically campaigning for Obama. Every public appearance and utterence by that ghoul has got to get people thinking, “How could I have forgotten what maniacs we had before Obama? Go Barack!”
Martin
Ok, correction. We couldn’t have taken much more in cap gains at the 0% rate after all. I think we just managed to hit he sweet spot. Much more and we’d be paying at least 15%, but still, it’s insane.
We’re going to figure out where to put the money that we had planned on paying.
Suffern ACE
@Martin: Give $3 to the presidential campaign fund.
nellcote
@Martin:
send the difference between what you pay and what you think you should pay to the charity(s) of your choice?
nellcote
@efgoldman:
You mean Mr. I-wish-they-wouldn’t-call-it-the-Bush-tax-cuts?
freelancer
@efgoldman:
We have a couple. At least Martin makes up for it by being on our side and hilarious.
jwb
@Martin: On the other hand, my wife’s income is up considerably this year so we lost a whole mess of deductions we usually get (seems that a lot of things are phased out between $90K and $110K AGI). It looks like our effective tax rate will almost quadruple over last year, though our income is only up by about a third.
Amir Khalid
@efgoldman:
I think that if Dick Cheney realized just how toxic his name was, and if he wanted to see a Republican win the White House, he might decide that the best move for him would be to turn around and endorse Barack Obama.
muddy
On Friday Rachel Maddow was talking to Bill Maher about Iran-Contra, he said he thought it was worse than Watergate and she agreed. She was saying about the idea that if the president does something it is automatically legal, and how the peeps in Congress said not, all except one guy, the one from Wyoming, Darth Cheney. They agreed this was spooky foreshadowing.
I probably didn’t get that word for word, but here’s the link:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/#47047603
Martin
@nellcote: We thought of that, but that doesn’t feel right. I think we’re leaning toward giving most to the schools – at least being govt services, with some to the Dems to help get this shit fixed. After all, the GOP seems to think that I’m still paying too much.
jwb
@efgoldman: WIth $100K income, Martin’s not even close to 1%. It’s somewhere around of $380K, I think, maybe a bit higher this year since the market has been up.
NickM
I have to go to Las Vegas for a week in early May, and I hate Vegas. I get the weekend off there. I was thinking about backpacking on night in the Grand Canyon, which is about 4.5 hours away, but then I read about Zion National Park, about 3. It seems like someplace I’d have a hard time getting to before I retire, whereas I can see visiting the Grand C with the family at some point. Anyone know the area and have any thoughts?
dead existentialist
@Martin:
Be happy that you live in a tax bracket in a country that allows for this? If you’re suffering from some sort of societal guilt, you can always “tax” yourself with some donations to your favorite charities or causes.
Your friend at the dead-existentialist-needs-a-new-car-fund.
Martin
@efgoldman: Well, we’re a ways from 1%. The cap gains are half college fund for the kids. We’re about 15% above the median for the state thanks to my wife’s PT jobs coming in a bit stronger than usual. We’re about 1/2 the median income for our city. My 6 yr old Honda is no match for the guy across the street with the new Lamborghini.
So yeah, we’re not suffering, and we’re getting ahead some, but we’re not quite 1% ers.
I’d bank on there being a few proper millionaires here, though.
eemom
@General Stuck:
Don’t worry mon General. I have a new theory about this. The more — ugh — cocky he gets about his new heart….the more his sycophants slather about how great he’s doing…..eventually he will end up overextending himself and then…..pfffffft. Even the devil can’t beat the actuarial tables.
And the more unexpected, unanticipated, and gleefully defied the pffffft is……the sweeeeeter it will be when it comes.
I have a DREAM, mon General…..
Martin
@jwb: Yeah, it looks like we came in right under a bunch of thresholds. Just got lucky I guess. I’ll be sure to tell my boss to not give me the same raise he didn’t give me each of the last 5 years.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Martin:
__
Not quite sure what to do? Take the money and run. If that income had been in wages you’d have owed ~$12,000. And after you take the money and run, see if you can vote in somebody who’s interested in fixing this mess.
elmo
@Martin:
Don’t forget that part – it adds just the right touch of horror and disbelief to the story.
Mnemosyne
@Martin:
I just finished my taxes and discovered that because my employer didn’t withhold any taxes from a $600 legal settlement they paid me (and several thousand other employees) on a 1099-MISC, I had to PAY federal tax rather than getting an $800 refund.
Fucked up system, indeed.
ETA: Plus now G is pissed off at me because I forgot about this 1099 until after he filed his taxes (married filing separately) and he’s convinced that he’s going to get audited over my frickin’ $600 extra.
If that happens, I am holding Yutsano personally responsible.
Chris
@J. Michael Neal:
Not as easy as it looks? Being Harrison Ford ain’t like dusting crops, boy…
suzanne
Did anyone else see this unbelievable horseshit today? GOD.
Actually, it’s an insult to horses to insinuate that their shit is as gross as what sprays forth from Virginia Foxx’s mouth. My sincerest apologies to my equine brethren.
freelancer
@suzanne:
She should gag on graduation tassels.
Martin
@Mnemosyne:
I think that’s the only reasonable thing to do.
Martin
@suzanne: 7 years? Shit, financial aid now cuts you off no later than 5, and college was fuckall cheaper in 1940 Germany when she attended.
Cromagnon
Damn, you ‘just’ saw Goodfellas when channel surfing? Are you kidding? When can’t your find Goodfellas? Hell you can find that movie on cable at least 4 times a week. When ISN’T Goodfellas on is the question LOL
That said, it is a good movie. And based on a true story at that
Yutsano
@Mnemosyne:
A chill pill is in order here. Even in a community property state married filing separate means just that. It should only be listed under your income and should have no impact on his return at all.
And legal settlements distributed as self-employment income are especially evil. It messes a lot of folks up.
@Martin: I suppose now is the time to mention I got a positive response from the IRS watchdog organization for a new gig? It’s just the initial qualification round but still, it’s a start.
Jebediah
@eemom:
I will be a bit happier when he is no longer on our planet, but the only thing that will really make me happy is if someone renders him unto the Hague.