Speaking of Kaplan hacks, Kathleen Parker wants you to know that Ann Romney’s dressage horses are actually elaborately upholstered, living physical therapy appliances, rather than impossibly expensive playthings for a useless rich lady. Therefore, if you have a problem with the Romneys’ deducting more than you made last year for expenses associated with their part ownership of a fancy dancing horse, you’re a bad person who probably finds the sight of orphans on crutches and in wheelchairs hilarious.
Why this war on success, you guys? Parker really wants to know:
And why this war on success? People who are struggling through rough economic times didnât suddenly become stupid, and surely most see through this absurd, sustained attack on the Romneys, whose only apparent sin is having been successful.
Romneyâs opponents seem to be aghast that he has made money for investors (arenât we all investors?) [uh, no, you idiotic, out-of-touch fuck, no…–ed.], though they studiously ignore other greed-less facts: He never took a dime in salary for heading the Olympics in Salt Lake City nor as governor of Massachusetts, to mention a couple.
Jesus god, really? How did the Romneys manage to feed themselves, their livestock and the Mini-Mitts without the Olympics and gubernatorial salaries? Oh right, they were already gazillionaires before Mittens got those gigs, which were essentially rich dude hobby jobs. Parker somehow forgot to mention that Mittens claims he didn’t inherit any money from his father either, which makes him a Self-Made Man. I’m sure the fact that his father was a multimillionaire CEO of General American Motors and governor of Michigan didn’t grease the skids for the Marquis de Mittens a bit.
We’ll soon get to test Parker’s theory about the plebes’ ability to see through “absurd, sustained attacks,” alright. But rather than discerning if the manifestly out-of-touch, fuck-you rich Romneys are indeed manifestly out-of-touch, fuck-you rich people, the plebes will demonstrate whether they’re capable withstanding the tsunami of bullshit Rove & Co. will funnel through their TV screens shortly.
This fall will witness the ultimate test of the American people’s gullibility as we see if unfettered SuperPAC cash can sell Little Lord Fontleromney as a bootstrapped businessman and cast a moderate president who continued the bank bailouts and attempted to reform the private insurance industry as a Kenyan commie. The obscene gobs of cash necessary to fund this test are being raised right now by the Romneys’ fellow out-of-touch, fuck-you rich people.
And more than an election is on the line: The slender moorings that link things we call “words” to their corresponding concepts will be tested as well. I’m not all that optimistic. Rove was able to sell a not-so-bright, daddy-supported ex-cheerleader and serial fuck-up as an unassuming cowpoke, and that was before he had unlimited KochBucks at his disposal.
However, Parker ends her column on a more optimistic note, hoping that if Ann Romney becomes First Lady, she’ll use her influence to prevent retired horses from becoming “circus or zoo meat.” A worthy goal indeed. But by widening the wealth inequality gap even further, Mrs. Romney’s hubby might inadvertently direct that sad protein elsewhere. Romney-Ryan 2012: A Horse in Every Pot!
[X-posted at Rumproast]
ruemara
Dear dumb rich stupid columnist. I have no desire to be ruled for free by a plutocrat who is so rich, the trivial salary of a couple hundred k for ruling me is dismissable because his interest income is more. And most people with MS can’t afford dressage horses to bounce them around for treatment. In fact, as we cut public services to the bone, they now can’t afford any treatment or special helpers, so fuck you very much you walking, talking, dripping, syphilitic symptom of cultural evil. Bless your heart, Me.
Hill Dweller
Did Parker find time to mention Ann Romney being sued for selling a horse loaded with drugs?
Phylllis
What’s the over/under on how soon that guy with the bug up his ass about working-class folks who do the horse thing shows up to explain why this kind of badmouthing will lose those two votes?
rkd
Just to be pedantic – George Romney was CEO of American Motors, not GM.
shortstop
I wish you lived next door to me, Betty.
catclub
Sacred cow (horse) is … tasty!
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
“Success” implies effort. “Success” implies starting with little to nothing, to create something of value. “Success” implies standing on your own two feet to achieve your goals. “Success” implies hard work, taking risks, and overcoming the odds.
We like SUCCESS just fine, Ms. Parker. It’s just that scions and entitled aristocrats like Romney and his milky-toothed brood of crypto-theofascists just don’t count as “successful” by any true meaning of the term.
How many workers’ dreams did Romney crush back in the 1980s, as he destroyed their employers for no reason other than to line his pockets? In terms of opportunity cost, how much potential ‘success’ was thwarted there?
ETA: And here’s why we hate the horses. All that fucking money, and that’s the best thing you can think of to spend it on?
Hunter Gathers
Never mind the fact that Mittens and Pat Nixon Mark II were forced to sell some of Daddy Romney’s stock to help out when they decided to ditch the magic underwear and reproduce. Which is exactly the same as getting a job.
I don’t hate Ann Romney because she’s rich. I hate Ann Romney because she’s an upper class cunt.
RobNYNY1957
It was American Motors, not General Moters, but same point.
David
Was Taggart “Tagg” Romney named after Dagney Taggart the character from Atlas Shrugged?
Gary
Wasn’t it American Motors?
Xecky Gilchrist
Rove was able to sell a not-so-bright, daddy-supported ex-cheerleader and serial fuck-up as an unassuming cowpoke, and that was before he had unlimited KochBucks at his disposal.
If enough people can remember what it was like to have that faux unassuming cowpoke in charge, I think we’ll be OK. This election is as much a test of the public’s memory as the public’s gullibility.
spaceman spiff
“sheâll use her influence to prevent retired horses from becoming ‘circus or zoo meat.’ ”
True…she’ll make sure human beings are repurposed for circus or zoo meat instead.
spaceman spiff
& #$&&$@ing blockquote doesn’t work on my phone…
RSA
If Parker were writing in the late 1700s, she would have reviewed the marriage of Marie Antoinette to Louis-Auguste in Versailles with an article titled, Marie Antoinette has a house. So what?
Nellcote
I don’t resent Rmoney’s fancy dancing horse. But I resent like hell that he gets a tax deduction for it. And like Lawrence O. I question why the deduction was for a business expense rather than a medical expense.
YellowJournalism
Exactly how does someone else riding the horse in the Olympics count as physical therapy for Ann Romney?
amk
americans reached peak stupidity in 2010. let’s see if they top that in 2012.
pseudonymous in nc
And before all the 4-H-ers show up, as they will, this isn’t about equestrianism in general. This is about dressage as an exclusive, tax-deductible hobby for a small group of rich people. It’d be therapeutic fox hunting elsewhere.
@Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God:
Nonono: it’s “all that fucking money spent on dancing horses, and because the dancing horse brigade all have good accountants, you can claim it back in taxes? You mean the rich don’t even have to pay for their hobbies out of pocket?”
Southern Beale
Right and Julia Hurley’s Chinese crested is a therapy dog.
Not.
They do this shit all the time. The ol’ razzle-dazzle switcheroo. Suddenly something that was supposed to be a negative to the phony populists is now a positive and HOW DARE YOU EVEN MENTION IT fucking hippie! Remember when Dick and Lynne Cheney were so PISSED off that Kerry mentioned Mary Cheney’s sexual orientation?
Why were they pissed off? No one asked. No one knows.
Haydnseek
@Xecky Gilchrist: A test of the publics memory as well as gullibility? The public has zero memory yet infinite gullibility. If this is the deciding factor, we are surely doomed.
lacp
@spaceman spiff: I thought Bain Capital was going to offshore the horse meat to France.
Haydnseek
@amk: Unlike oil, stupidity is a limitless resource. Peak stupidity will occur in November, fueled by peak money, peak hatred, peak anger, peak resentment, and everyone’s favorite, peak racism.
kay
@YellowJournalism:
She rides, herself, in addition to paying other people to ride.
I still think yours is a fair and good question, though. Obviously she doesn’t have to have this wildly expensive hobby to ride or own a horse for therapy. Personally, I think hacks like Parker have successfully conflated two very different things.
Linnaeus
@Gary:
Yes, it was AMC.
FlipYrWhig
I’m sorry, but there’s no way I’m ever going to accept this “horse for therapy” stuff. It’s ridiculous. It’s like someone who loves Ferraris getting a serious disease and then buying more Ferraris to feel better, ergo “Ferrari therapy” is a medical treatment.
LittlePig
@RSA:
My reaction was how well Parker would have done writing a column in a Southern paper circa 1855-1865. So they own a few slaves, why all the outrage?
BudP
A Horse in every Pot, and a Car Elevator in every Garage!
MITTENS 2012
FlipYrWhig
@FlipYrWhig: And, for that matter, weed really is therapeutic, and I don’t see the Romneys prancing around in support of decriminalizing it.
Mino
Would children who “should never have been born if their parents couldn’t feed them” replace the horsemeat fed to circus animals.
shortstop
@kay: Successfully conflated, and not accidentally. This has real resonance with people struggling to pay the mortgage and buy groceries, which is why Romney’s people and their media supporters are pushing back so desperately. It doesn’t matter that the $80K tax deduction is perfectly legal; it sharply illustrates the great divide in a way that bleeds votes from Romney, and they know it.
FlipYrWhig
@FlipYrWhig: And, for THAT matter, I don’t remember conservative hacks begging Republicans to stop picking on Theresa Heinz Kerry.
handsmile
Simply wish to add that your choice of illustration for this post is magnificent. The best example of graphic art I’ll see here until Tom Levenson comes along (and maybe not even then).
Mino
@FlipYrWhig: If it’s therapy, why doesn’t their insurance pay for it instead of taxpayers?
Can you say mechanical bull?
scav
Olympic Standard Physical Therapy for Rich Folks gets Tax Breaks: Physical Therapy for Poor Folks gets Tough Breaks. See, for poor folks it’s their own damn business and it’s their fault they don’t have insurance and they shouldn’t get any commie government assistance when buying insurance.
kay
@FlipYrWhig:
It is ridiculous. Her hobby has no real connection to the “horse is for THERAPY!” Issue.
Of course she could have one w/out the other. It’s so plainly misdirection.
Why do the Romney’s lie so much? It’s exhausting.
Yutsano
@kay: Hippotherapy is a legitimately recognized field. But notice how nowhere does it mention the horses do dressage as a therapy routine. And maybe if Ann had an actual therapist who spoke and said that’s what the horses are for, then it MIGHT be legit. But then shouldn’t it be a medical deduction?
Roy G.
Looks like my favorite quote from Gordon Gekko rings true for rich Mormons as well:
“That’s the thing about WASPS: They love animals, but they hate people.”
Mnemosyne (iTouch)
@FlipYrWhig:
To be fair, hippotherapy is a real thing and can be helpful for people with MS. But, as YellowJournalism said, I don’t think that having someone else ride the horse for you really counts as therapy.
shortstop
@Yutsano: Yuts, you should ask if your PT can be hippotherapy. That would rock, and think of the outfits.
LittlePig
Hmmmm, either WordPress ate it or I triggered a trigger, but shorter me: legal now is strictly a question of having enough money to hire the right lawyers.
different-church-lady
No they didn’t: what they suddenly became is BROKE, you jackass!
scav
@LittlePig: Legal Tender must mean that which is used to purchase legality.
ETA: ok, and for Hippotherapy? I know, but try to avoid the image of Disney hippo in tutu lying back on a couch now.
LittlePig
Trigger test: John Yoo.
LittlePig
Nope, that wasn’t it.
different-church-lady
@RSA:
FT obvious one FY.
Josie
@Hill Dweller: I looked this up and it is indeed true. Mrs. Romney’s part of the suit was settled out of court, but the evidence is that that there was something wrong with the horse’s foot and there were four strong pain medications in the horse’s system at the time of sale. Just, wow! I am waiting for our non-partisan pundits to complain about animal abuse and fraud. Waiting…………
jim filyaw
wrong car company. right conclusion. the two wapo romney groupies, rubin and parker, are either liars or idiots. there’s no realistic third option.
kay
@Yutsano:
Hey, I’m not the one who made the ridiculous claim that I needed a dressage hobby to own or ride a horse for therapy. The Romney’s did that.
Seems to me that the Romney’s are the ones lying about the benefits of “success”.
Why didn’t she just say “I’m rich, we earned it, so I have an expensive hobby”?
Because they think that’s politically damaging, despite Parker’s whining.
Yutsano
@shortstop: I wish the clinic was set up for that. Unfortunately I’d have to go outside to be able to get to do that. I get to do this instead, which doesn’t exactly mean I get to relate to rich folks. But at least I get wet.
Hill Dweller
@Josie:Oh, I know it’s true. She is just as dishonest as her husband.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@YellowJournalism: Well, you know, just because. Or shut up, that’s why.
LittlePig
I got really pissed this week at NPR (yeah, I know, Nice Polite Republicans, what should I expect?) when the REPORTER said “people can’t get loans because of damaged credit”. Gee, thanks for the Republican framing there, Sparky, ‘preciate it.
Let me have a whack at it: “the banking system is still sitting on so much bad debt that they don’t dare loan to anyone that is not certain to pay it back”. The “people” didn’t change – that same “damaged credit” score would have been fine to buy a house with in 2007. The banks changed, specifically by being horrible risk managers, which is incidentally their damn jobs.
These damn Fox people don’t know leftist from Shinola. The Monday after the inauguration I’d have had whole divisions of CPAs waiting for the bank doors to open, along with the marshalls to arrest the management. ‘Course I’d be swinging from a rope in the Rose Garden by Friday, but I’d a damn well showed ’em what a leftist looks like.
Mutaman
@Roy G.:
Funny, last night that old WASP Bill Maher said he hated people but loved animals.
shortstop
@Yutsano: That looks like more fun, anyway.
Unrelated PT story I’m laying on you guys because it was one of the proudest moments of my life. I was going through therapy for a frozen shoulder and the therapist was bending my arm at a weird angle behind my back, then running stakes through it and setting it on fire. I might be making that last part up. Anyway, it hurt like hell, but I had vowed not to be a baby in front of other people after several observations by my husband that physical stoicism is not among my positive traits.
So I stayed perfectly silent, even though my eyes were a little wet. And the therapist said, “Wow, you’re tough! You didn’t let out a peep. I did this same move on a Chicago Bear this morning and he screamed like a little girl.”
suzanne
OT, but I would like to try making my own Thai red curry for the first time. Can anyone recommend or share their favorite recipe? Any tips/pointers?
shortstop
@LittlePig: “These damn Fox people donât know leftist from Shinola. The Monday after the inauguration Iâd have had whole divisions of CPAs waiting for the bank doors to open, along with the marshalls tFo arrest the management. âCourse Iâd be swinging from a rope in the Rose Garden by Friday, but Iâd a damn well showed âem what a leftist looks like.”
Reading that just made my day.
JWL
Ralphie [spoken to a group of boys, all watching Lisa Simpson ride her pony]: “She certainly has tamed that horse”.
Reply [spoken by one of the boys]: “Yes, but who can tame her”?
Yutsano
@suzanne: Red curries vary greatly on heat level, so make sure you determine where yours is before you dive in. Also if you’re not in a tofu mood portabellas make a great backbone for the curry. And indulge yourself: do the full fat coconut milk. Your tummy will thank you!
kc
@kay:
Because hacks like Parker enable and support the lies.
Raven
@suzanne: Lots of fresh basil and try cubed sweet potatoes.
Ruckus
@jim filyaw:
Sure there’s a third option.
C. Both of the above.
RSA
@different-church-lady:
Oh, yeah. Thanks.
Ruckus
@shortstop:
I was in the same position on the PT table also not making a peep(my reason was because I was trying to be macho for once) when a firefighter walked by and asked the therapist what the hell she was doing to me to make me cry like that.
WereBear
She could effin’ do it now, if she wanted to. But none of the Romneys show any sign that they have an empathetic bone in their bodies. Not even in those upraised pinkies.
Ruckus
You guys.
Don’t you see? The therapy is spending the money, not on what.
It’s a business deduction because he is in the business of money. When he wins(makes some) he pays(relatively little, but still), when he loses, we pay.
ABL
“Liitle Lord Fontleromney” = Best.Ever.
Commenting at Ballon Juice since 1937
I don’t envy or care much that the Romney’s are rich. I care that they’re evil people who benefit from causing others misery, lie about it, and then claim they’re just average Joe’s.
Redshift
@kay:
Well, this sort of lie is of a piece with the Rev. Wright stuff — there’s a real problem for Romney there, and they hope that by pretending it’s an outrageous attack on poor sick family, people will lay off and not talk about the obvious truth.
It’s pure BS, and like all BS, if anyone wastes much time on addressing the BS, it’s successful.
suzanne
@Yutsano: I am a big fan of heat, but my husband is less inclined, so I’ll be aiming for a spice level of about “3”. Do you have a recipe you can recommend? There’s lots of them on the toobz, but if you have one you like, that’d be great.
catclub
@Nellcote: “I question why the deduction was for a business expense rather than a medical expense.”
yes, indeedy. Healthcare expenses have to be over 7.5% of AGI to be deductible.
Business expenses, every penny is deductible.
MaryRC
@WereBear: They’ll do it if there’s a tax write-off in it for them somewhere. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Ann Romney’s dreams of becoming the FLOTUS include finding creative ways to dump her used-up and broken-down possessions on the public for a charitable write-off, it’s what the Romneys do best after all. So Parker’s suggestion isn’t as stupid as it seems.
Of course, it costs hundreds of dollars a month to board a horse, not to mention the vet bills. And these horses will be sick, lame and/or old, which is what Parker means by “retired”, so the vet bills will be enormous and it won’t be Ann who pays them.
If there’s a bright spot in this, it may be that Parker has inadvertently raised the public’s consciousness as to what happens to these animals when they’re no longer useful, if their owners can’t pump them full of drugs and pawn them off on unsuspecting buyers. They go to the Alpo factory, OK? The more she gets people thinking about this, the faster the glitz will wear off the Romneys’ shiny silver-plated “success”.
Tokyokie
@shortstop: Except it isn’t legal. The Romneys knowingly and deliberately mischaracterized hobby expenses as a business loss. It’s tax fraud, pure and simple. (And no, they couldn’t reclassify it as a medical expense, because for those to be deductible, they have to amount to more than 7.5% of AGI, and although $77,000 would qualify as such for the vast majority of Americans who make less than $1.024 million a year, that isn’t the case with the Romneys.)
MikeJ
About the tax write off for the horses: have the Romneys ever made money on this business? Have they ever gone a year without reporting a loss to the IRS since she got in the horsey “business”? And if not, doesn’t that make them horrible, horrible business people? They should get out of the game if they aren’t any good at it. Instead the taxpayers are bailing out their failing business.
Angela
@catclub: This deduction would never have passed for a healthcare cost.
Angela
@Tokyokie: This.
Yutsano
@suzanne: Panang is a specific red curry but you can certainly use whatever red curry you have. Plus Dim makes it easy and acceptable. Her daughter gets a hair annoying though.
different-church-lady
@MaryRC:
But should Michelle Obama plant a vegetable garden, it’s wolverines all the way down.
scav
NeRo-mney: Fiddling tax returns while the country burns. . .
kay
@Redshift:
There DOES seem to be a fundamental problem with the conservative line here, though.
Parker whines that someone or other is FORCING the Romney’s to apologize for their “success”.
But no one is actually doing that. In fact, it’s the Romney’s who won’t admit that an expensive hobby is just an expensive hobby. Ann’s horse therapy is a wholly seperate thing.
If Parker is right, Ann Romney should be perfectly comfortable talking about her hobby truthfully, but she isn’t.
I don’t know why that’s our fault. I had nothing to do with Ann Romney’s (apparent) discomfort with public discussion of the Romney wealth.
bemused
@David:
That’s interesting. I didn’t realize Tagg was short for Taggart. Not a common name and the other boys’s names are not unusual.
jimmiraybob
Wait a minute. Is it Romney (R-Romney Investors)’s position that if he’s elected we’ll all get healthcare ponies? Cus that would like totally change my vote.
Of course I’d need some extra funding for the house elevator to get the pony from the second story to the yard. Any word on if that’s covered in the Romney (R-Romney Investors) healthcare pony plan?
shortstop
@Tokyokie: Okay, then. Let’s get the IRS on it.
gogol's wife
@Josie:
No, they complained about the article in which this was revealed (Trip Gabriel, in the NYTimes, which was castigated by Politico).
FlipYrWhig
@Mnemosyne (iTouch): Well, aromatherapy is a real thing too, but that doesn’t mean your lilac plantation is the Mayo Clinic.
shortstop
@kay: They seem to have settled on an MO of the family making general statements brushing off its wealth, while surrogates in Congress, the media and the campaign do the dirty work of trying to justify the factual details. Even when Romney does the “I’m not going to apologize for being born on third base and having everything handed to me”* bit, he never discusses the details like 80-large horse writeoffs or car elevators or offshore accounts. That’s left for lackeys like Parker to handle.
It seems like an odd strategy, but since the MSM dutifully reports “Romney refuses to apologize for success” and never pushes him on the specific points, it works to a significant degree. However, stuff like this horse really does piss people off, and the Romneys and team know it, which is why they’re madly conflating.
*Not his actual words
shortstop
@Ruckus: Ha! Poor Ruckus. You should have gone ahead and bellowed.
shortstop
@FlipYrWhig: I find this comment incredibly fun and stealable. Shades of “Doesn’t make me a fucking astronaut, now, does it?”
Maude
@shortstop:
Redkitten is the best at those kind of comments.
kay
@shortstop:
Cindy McCain has migraine headaches. Crippling. Sounds horrible, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. She has to retreat to a darkened room.
To her credit, she didn’t run around claiming that’s why she has 5 houses, so she’d have a shades-drawn room available in 5 states.
They are just such sanctimonious liars, the Romneys, is what gets me.
TenguPhule
Reality has a liberal bias. Duh.
Valdivia
@shortstop:
loved your story. I was in therapy last week and the PT guy was treating someone who yelled and yelled and yelled. Then he came to treat me and he was doing using a stick rolling it over my hip where my muscle was hard as a rock. I too have a thing about crying in public so I barely even opened my mouth. He said: it doesn’t hurt? kind of puzzled that I wasn’t howling.
However torturous though, the guys is a genius as I am almost 100% better from the sciatica. what a freaking pain in the ass (literally!) that is.
Ruckus
@shortstop:
How macho is that!?
Valdivia
@FlipYrWhig:
you deserve a drink for that line. So full of win.
FlipYrWhig
@shortstop: Thx. “Botanical garden” probably would have been funnier.
ornery_curmudgeon
It truly is just like the other side of the same f’ing left/right coin here: it’s not just the ongoing ignorance, (o why is the meeeedia doing this agaaaain) it is this view that your ignorance is something okay to act from.
Dressage is the ancient cavalry art that made cooperative horsemanship possible. It was part of the original Olympic Games. Every form of riding that is not brutal abuse is derived from the ancient Greek system of horsemanship, a Classical art that helped spark the Renaissance … which the French called ‘schooling’ or dressage.
Great show, B Cracker. Wonderful job BJ’ers.
Pfft.
FlipYrWhig
@ornery_curmudgeon: Falconry has a noble pedigree too. It would still be funny if a politician had it for a pastime.
shortstop
@Phylllis: Took longer than I thought. 95 comments.
@FlipYrWhig: Dang, you’re on a roll today.
Yutsano
@ornery_curmudgeon: And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a perfect example of missing the fucking point.
@shortstop: Falconry at least involves raptors. Raptors are cool.
FlipYrWhig
@shortstop: :D
shortstop
@Yutsano: I’ve always been fond of them myself.
shortstop
@Ruckus: Maybe do it like an angry bull or Arnold playing Conan. It would at least distract them for a mo.
Jebediah
@ornery_curmudgeon:
So a fraudulent tax deduction is okidokie if it is for an ancient, noble activity?
Got it. Pfft yourself.
dj spellchecka
hard to image any single cause that would resonate with the 99% better than that one….
Ruckus
@shortstop:
I finally figured out that just going ahead and crying like a weak, little girl is best. Gets it right out into the open. A little like coming out of the closet. Everyone suspected, now they know for sure.
different-church-lady
@FlipYrWhig:
Now that’s an Olympic sport I might actually watch.
shortstop
@Ruckus: I can tell you feel freer. I commend you.
Did I mention that in the privacy of my own home, I cry like Yosemite Falls?
Betty Cracker
@shortstop: Me too. I figured 25, tops. It’s like Ahab and the whale: Thar he blows!
Funny PT story earlier, BTW.
Ruckus
@shortstop:
I do feel freer.
Maybe it’s my shorts. Maybe not.
In any event now I have to stay home and hid in the closet so that everyone doesn’t think I’m a weak little girl.
Life is a circle.
BethanyAnne
@shortstop: also reminds me of “Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpDLqxL5_tM
Tonal Crow
O yes indeed, the Republican War on Meaning will reach a fevered pitch this autumn, as they try to redefine up as down, black as white, and submission to
SauronRepublicans as perfect freedom.Phylllis
@shortstop: Yeah, I was thinking around forty myself. Maybe he had errands to run.
Rafer Janders
I’m surprised that this part above hasn’t gotten more mention, since to me it perfectly encapsulates the bubble that this moron lives in: it’s not really in her sphere of reference that someone could not be an “investor”. That there are vast numbers of hard-working Americans who have to live paycheck to paycheck, and never even save enough money to set it aside in a bank for a rainy day, much less invest it for a future retirement they’re likely not to have.
grandpajohn
@jim filyaw: in this case the “either” is superflous to the making of the point.
Patricia Kayden
Actually, Ms. Parker, I have no problems with Romneybot and Mrs. Romneybot’s exhorbitant wealth. From what I understand President Obama is now a multi-millionaire too. Kerry was wealthy, as was Bush. In fact, I assume most of our Presidents since Kennedy have been rich.
My issue with Romneybot has to do with his lack of principles, constant lying, his being out of touch with the average American, his advocacy of cutting taxes for people like him, while raising taxes for lower income Americans, his promise to overturn the Health Care Act (if the Supremes don’t do it), his promised to reinstate DADT and to support the Blunt Amendment, his promise to veto the Dream Act, etc.
I have plenty of reasons not to vote for Romneybot, none of which have anything to do with how much money he inherited from his Papa.
ExpatDanBKK
@Yutsano:
Ah Gaeng Panang Moo. My most favourite Thai food ever.
Here’s how we make it at home in The Big Mango. First off, we cheat and use the pre-made pastes. Before you get all snobby, they really are good, *IF* you get the Thai made ones. So, get thee to an Asian Supermarket (pretty much everywhere I have ever been to in the US now has at least one) and get some. Be sure it is from Thailand. Now the methodology, which is where the magic is:
Ingredients
1 pack of curry paste
1 can of full cream coconut milk (more if you like it milder)
1/2 Kg of pork tenderloin (any meat will do, but pigmeat is best)
6 kaffir lime leaves — really not optional as they make a HUGE difference in taste — available at Asian markets. In Thai “bai ma-goud” (spelling varies); cut them into small strips or confetti-sized pieces without the stem
1T olive oil
Prep
Cut the pork into thin slices
Open cans
Get the wok on the stove — wok is a must as it cooks it so much better
Method
Heat the oil in the wok
Add the curry paste and stir fry it for 2-3 minutes
Add the meat and cook until meat is 2/3-3/4 cooked 3-4 minutes, stirring constantly
Add the coconut milk and mix well, being sure that globs of curry paste are all broken up and mixed with the coconut
Add the kaffir lime leaves
Simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring every minute or so.
Add fish sauce, sugar and/or more coconut milk to taste (we generally never do).
Done. As good a curry as you’ll get at 99% of the restaurants in Thailand and lightyears better than any Thai place in the US that we’ve tried anyway. Serve it over good quality jasmine rice or optionally vermicelli-size rice noodles (again, get those at the Asian market).
Mrs ExpatDan and I have made this many times in the States when we visit our friends and rellies. Never had an issue finding the ingredients, even the exact same brands we use at home in Bangkok, in any city over, say, 500k people. Or any college town.
The methodology works well for all Thai curries. The key is to cook the paste in a bit of oil first to release the flavour, and then cook the meat covered in the paste before adding the coconut milk and other ingredients.