What’s on tap today? For me, in addition to it being Friday, it’s payday, my supervisor and the department head are both gone, and it’s the day before I start vacation.
The world is going to fucking drag.
Reader Interactions
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Jeff(the other one)
Two words bro’–Par–taaayy! (alright that was one)
Tom Johnson
I’m sure your productivity will be high.
Linda Featheringill
Resenting the heat. I know that’s illogical but you asked.
CarolDuhart2
Surf the net instead of working? Taking 30 minute coffee breaks and a 2 hour lunch? Man, get creative…
CarolDuhart2
I know the feeling. going to work and there’s nothing really to do and no one really wants to take on anything that isn’t urgent. On days like this, I just tell myself at least I’m getting paid for it.
As for me, living like a mole with air conditioning. Yesterday, I took the bus, and even at 8 am it was smoldering hot. I think I’ve been outside a total of 2 hours all this week, and if it weren’t for therapy, it would have been maybe an hour.
Phylllis
Need to tidy up the house a bit. After that, settling in with my season 2 Sherlock dvd’s. I didn’t realize until after perusing a couple of online fan forums that Masterpiece cut several minutes of each episode. Blasphemy.
geg6
Last official day of vacation. Got tickets to see the big O in Pittsburgh today.
Speaking of which, David Axelrod just kicked some ass on CBS this morning. Not only doubling down on Rmoney being the most secretive president since Nixon, but calling out the media and specifically Jan Crawford for not asking Willard about his finances. It was awesome!
Steeplejack
Still on the hunt for an apartment. And probably still hiding out at my brother’s house for a couple of more days. Even though my power is back on, my puny air conditioner is scarcely up to the 100° heat expected in NoVa today and tomorrow.
JPL
@Phylllis: I do love Sherlock.
Yesterday wasn’t near the temperatures of last week but for some reason I just could not cool down. Working outside til noon probably didn’t help. Today I’m doing chores early and then vegetating.
danielx
Sounds like a pretty good day to me. Today will consist of…trying to stay cool. Another three days of blistering weather before it cools down to something resembling normal temperatures. However…there is a key lime pie in the refrigerator with only one slice out of it. I can justify a slice of pie worth about a thousand calories because it will help cool me down, right?
Chris
@Linda Featheringill:
I concur. Death to the Sun, or as a good friend of mine so correctly refers to it, “the Cancer Star.”
JPL
@geg6: Thanks for the info! I’ll try to find it online later.
WaterGirl
I have all 6 episodes of Sherlock on my Tivo. Just watched the first one on the 4th of July – too hot to go to the fireworks.
Now I know what you guys have been raving about. They really did an amazing job with the show – the actors, the update to current times, everything! We are going to watch at least one more tonight, maybe two.
Now, why would Masterpiece have cut several minutes of each episode? Blasphemy!
@geg6:
That’s gonna have legs. It immediately conners up a very clear image for anyone who lived through Nixon and watergate. I’m thinking that would even get the attention of my sister, whose picture is in the dictionary next to “low information voter”. Smart, but completely disengaged.
Off to early morning swim It’s sad when you have to swim half an hour early because it’s too hot to swim at 7am.
Mino
Mark O’Mara, Zimmerman’s lawyer, is worried about getting paid, I guess.
For those who have given in the past, for those who have thought about giving, for those who feel Mr. Zimmerman was justified in his actions, for those who feel they would do the same if they were in Mr. Zimmerman’s shoes,for those that think Mr. Zimmerman has been treated unfairly by the media, for those who feel Mr. Zimmerman has been falsely accused as a racist, for those who feel this case is an affront to their constitutional rights — now is the time to show your support.
Not even being subtle, is he?
Phylllis
@WaterGirl: I guess to get the episodes to fit into the 1.5 hour running time. While I love to hear Alan Cumming speak, I’d be just as happy without his intros if it means getting all of the episode. Plus PBS needs time to run their non-commercial commercials.
NotMax
So, what with the Romney campaign making noises about Mitt making a foreign policy speech in Poland, it becomes yet more evident that his campaign staff must get their current events served up in a FOX ‘news’ bubble.
Particularly for a Republican running for president of the U.S., not an auspicious time to mention America and foreign policy in the same breath there.
Decent get-up-to-speed rundown on the status of the slow-burning case that has been roiling the government there and that won’t go away here:
Gozer
Getting some work done on my balls today. I’m pretty sure I’ll be high on
lifepain medication come noon.Looks like my weekend will consist of Netflix Instant and HBO Go.
Keith
Picking up my rescue kitties (2) this morning. It’s going to be interesting, because the two I have now are like some old couple, and I haven’t had this many cats for a couple of years.
amk
@Mino: Are lawyers allowed to
solicitbeg like that ?NotMax
@danielx
Yum.
If it helps with the justification, remember the old comedic hint that if one tilts the plate, all the calories flow to the downhill end; therefore don’t eat that last bite where they’re lurking in wait en masse.
/rimshot
Elizabelle
House-sitting the World’s Cutest Dog (TM).
Seriously. This dog could be in films.
Day off, and trying out a lemon bars recipe once the butter softens. Have never made them, and they’re a favorite.
the Conster
@geg6:
O’s people have got their narrative and it’s a good one, because it has the added benefit of being true. He’s secretive in every aspect of his life, and doesn’t want to talk about any of it. It’s going to make him blue screen too, when he finally gets pushed for answers, because he’s never been pushed and can’t answer. Get yer popcorn ready.
Murdoch was right – O’s Chicago pros > Rmoney’s pros.
dmsilev
Off visiting family. My niece and nephew turn 0.5 years old today, so we’re celebrating.
amk
@the Conster:
Norah O’Donnel tweet
Linda Featheringill
From dkos:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/06/1106729/-Abbreviated-Pundit-Roundup-The-failure-of-the-Mittness-Protection-Program#comments
In a post about Romney’s campaign:
“There are no plans, however, to alter Romney’s core team of advisers, most of whom have worked for the former Massachusetts governor for years, and campaign officials said it was highly unlikely that Romney would demote or fire any of his senior staffers.”
Answered by one of the commenters:
“Bet a lot of plant managers thought the same thing when Bain took them over.”
RedKitten
Today’s Friday and I’m freaking exhausted. Fell asleep at 11 last night, and woke up at 1, 2:30, and 4:30 to pee. Damn pregnancy bladder!
In happier news, SamKitten makes the move to his big-boy bed tonight. Mind you, this also does not bode well for my future sleep (I can just envision the 3am whisper of “Momma!” and rolling over and opening my eyes, only to see the kid’s face 2 inches from mine.)
geg6
@the Conster:
The calling out of the media was what really impressed me. It had the hairdo doing the interview flummoxed and he changed the subject and ended the interview. It was beautiful to see. They don’t know how to handle a Dem campaign that uses hardball tactics like a GOPer does but with the added value of having facts and honesty on their side. This is what you want to see in our candidates and their campaigns. Some backbone is nice.
Litlebritdifrnt
Romney gets schooled on what a real Venn Diagram looks like here
http://www.upworthy.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-mitt-romney-in-one-graphic
Check it out and share it far and wide.
the Conster
@RedKitten:
BTW, congrats! It’s all worth it. My two are the same ages apart as yours will be and now that they’re grown, they’re best friends.
danielx
@NotMax:
Now there’s some grade A justification. Gazpacho is sounding pretty good too.
Kirbster
Today’s agenda: vacuum, dust, tidy up, and run a few errands. The weekend weather is supposed to be hot inland and I have a Cape Cod beach house, so I halfway expect short-notice guests on any given summer weekend.
the Conster
@geg6:
Well, it’s win win for the O team to go after both Romney and the press. Getting the press to complain about the campaign being unfair about not asking Romney about his offshore accounts and his record as Governor, or getting the press to ask Romney about his accounts and record works for me.
Linda Featheringill
@RedKitten:
Mile stones! Love ’em!
JPL
Jobs are not great… 80,000
EconWatcher
Maybe I’m slower than y’all, but it just hit me what the theme of Obama’s campaign is going to be. It hadn’t occurred to me until now how well it all fits together:
Romney claims he’s the solution, but he’s exactly the problem. He’s the guy who got rich from gaming the system, rather than building a better mousetrap. He’s the guy who won’t pay his fair share. He’s the guy who’d rather hide his money in foreign tax havens and move jobs overseas, rather than bet on America. Why did our economy collapse in 2008? Because of guys like him.
NotMax
Sweden rocks.
JPL
@EconWatcher: Will the folks who vote care, though.
Litlebritdifrnt
@JPL:
Can someone explain to me (in simple terms cause I am an idiot) how yesterday ADP said 173K payrolls were added but only 80K jobs were added per the report today.
rlrr
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Mitt Romney’s tumblr site almost looks like a parody…
Also this.
rlrr
@danielx:
Gazpacho: The revenge of soups, best served cold.
JPL
@Litlebritdifrnt: ADP hasn’t been reliable. Private sector added 84,000
Patricia Kayden
@JPL: Yes, I saw that. Too bad — but at least some jobs are being created, even if it’s not enough. (Trying to look on the bright side).
General Stuck
The offshore tax havens
cheats, as well as foreign banks accounts probably shielding some of his wealth, is like a yolk of kryptonite around Mitt’s neck. Not to mention his corporate raiding past putting greed above all else, including middle class jobs. And all around unlikeability.As long as the bottom doesn’t fall out of the economy, mediocrity for job growth, is Mittigated for Obama, with the wingers nominating a poster boy of what is wrong in America right now. Add that onto better econ numbers in some key swing states, and all the other alienation created from an ever purer strain of wingnuttery, and we are sitting fairthee well right now for the election.
Mitt and his CU surrogates only have one path, go UGLY in a big way, to try and disappoint the electorate into not bothering to vote.
scav
@Litlebritdifrnt: Different sources of data, different techniques of estimation, possibly even different definition of what jobs they count. I remember people getting into the details on CR before the housing crash but that’s all I retained in my pea-brain.
Litlebritdifrnt
@scav: Thanks that helps somewhat. It is still confusing though.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
Sitting at LAX waiting for my flight to board and desperately hoping US Airways doesn’t manage to lose my bag when I change planes in Phoenix.
p.a.
made my 1st gazpacho (tomato and red pepper) last year from an online source, and was underwhelmed, but at least it was cold. (yes I used garden heirlooms and quality ingredients, but still ended up adding hot sauce to give it what flavor it had). Don’t have much interest in trying almond-based gazpacho.
NotMax
Gazpacho is just lumpy V-8 juice.
Anya
I am so sick about being in a long vacation (unemployed). I’ve been traveling for 6-weeks and now I am so ready to go back to work.
@Mino: That’s awful. He’s saying killing a kid was justified. What an inhumane thing to say. How do these people sleep at night?
Odie Hugh Manatee
My day started out with me coughing up blood, the thick dark red blood that you know isn’t business as usual. After a short panic we loaded the car up and headed to the hospital a half hour away. Once there they took some chest xrays and found a small nodule (4mm) in the upper right lung that is the problem. They stuffed me up with some Valium and sent me home with more of it, plus some antibiotics because they think there is evidence of pneumonia in the upper left lung. Not showing any signs of having pneumonia but it’s better to treat it than worry about it.
Next it’s off to a surgeon so he can take a sample for testing, then I wait.
Now I am off to take the wife to work. bbl… :)
shortstop
Since most of my clients are out of town/on vacation and my workload is manageable, I agreed to do an extra shift for one of my volunteer gigs (normally I do a half-day a week with them). The trick? It’s all outside and it’s topping 100 again most of the day. Not sure what I was thinking, but here we go.
Litlebritdifrnt
This is just obscene. Duke Power CEO lasts one day on the job and gets a 44 million exit payment.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2012/07/06/duke-ceo-lasts-one-day.html
shortstop
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Good luck, Odie. I’m waiting for the results of a similar test, different body part, myself. Not knowing is tough.
SiubhanDuinne
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Oh wow, so sorry to hear that. Wishing you well and a good, speedy outcome.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
My DH just got over a bout with pneumonia. All the best to you and your speedy recovery.
Mark B
The one issue the Republicans have this election year that resonates with voters is the mandate, and they have the one candidate in the world which also enacted a health care mandate while in office. It’s like they’re not even trying to win.
Raven
Last day of work before Maui!!!
Valdivia
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
feel better soon, hope it all gets resolved with as minimal pain for you as possible.
Raven
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Damn bro, hang tough.
SiubhanDuinne
@Litlebritdifrnt:
WUT!?
Linda Featheringill
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
It sounds like you caught it early and it can be corralled and removed. Good. Even if they have to remove pieces of lung, you can live another 15 to 20 years. Hang in there. We need your wit around here.
Besides, you can float on Valium for a while. :-)
Southern Beale
Hey everyone, it’s Good News Friday, if anyone wants a round-up of good news to start the weekend off with …
scav
@Litlebritdifrnt: Data is always like that: basically, confusing. It might help if you think that these different measures are designed by different groups for specific purposes — even though they’re measuring the same thing to us on the outside. So, of course they’ll be different. If you’re doing XYZ, it makes sense to include, um, seasonal agricultural workers as a part of your total but not self-employed contractors. For the purposes of ABS, you might exclude both or include both. One measuring agency might have set things up to poll a specific set of companies on a regular basis and build its estimates off of that. Another group might choose to run a model based on other govt data. It’s kinda like the difference between different polls only even with even more variability (yee-haw, no?)
shortstop
@Litlebritdifrnt: @SiubhanDuinne: Would make a nice addition to Obama’s “what’s not working in America for all but a few Americans” file.
Linda Featheringill
@Southern Beale:
I could use some good news. Off to peruse the cheerfulness.
amk
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Hope it turns out to be nothing serious. Best wishes.
scav
@Litlebritdifrnt: Those supposed best and brightest are really beginning to paint large targets on the shirts and tease the populace. Do they feel that immune and find it funny?
Litlebritdifrnt
@scav:
Okay this is beginning to make more sense, but surely if ADP (who manages payrolls) are writing 173K more paychecks a month then there must be 173K more jobs right? Would seasonal workers make the difference? I don’t mean to be dense but I am not an economist nor do I play one on TV. :)
@shortstop:
I think it is a nice addition to the “its time to get out the rusty fucking pitchforks” file to be honest but YMMV.
Raven
@Southern Beale:
It’s good news week
someone dropped a bomb somewhere
contaminating atmosphere
and darkening the sky
General Stuck
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Good luck dude :-)
gene108
69 Politicians as They Were in High School
What’s sad about the link is the lack of famous folks, who were in high school in the 1980’s and 1990’s.
Also, too Paul Ryan graduated from high school the same year as my brother. Scary my generation’s getting old enough to do that kind of damage to society.
shortstop
@Litlebritdifrnt: Hell, I don’t disagree. Sometimes I just like to pretend there are decorous solutions. It makes me feel all elegant and understated and shit.
NotMax
@Raven
Glad you’re here. Wanted to be sure to alert you about just one thing.
When you’re traveling on Haleakala Highway, there’s a spot where the posted speed limit suddenly drops from 55 to 45 for only about 1/10 of a mile because there’s a sugar cane haul road that crosses the highway.
There’s nearly always an unmarked police car (gray sedan) sitting off the side of the road there, ready to pounce on those who don’t slow down.
Other than that, have a grand trip, and be sure to hydrate before the long, long flight.
scav
@Litlebritdifrnt: I don’t know the details and included seasonal workers as an example because I know some measurements vary because of how they treat them (some discount them because they’re interested in the underlying trend in the data and summer jobs or Christmas jobs in retail are basically noise, you know they’re going to go away). Other common groups that get swapped in and out of different measures are anybody in agriculture and govt workers. ADP might be good because they’re counting paychecks, but that measure is also biased if they tend to write paychecks for certain types of industries and not others. Small business that cut their own checks could very well be the part of the economy that’s gaining or shedding jobs at the moment. We also don’t know know much about how they’re counting part-time vs. full-time checks, so we can’t say much about the quality of the jobs being counted. (All this is just me off the top of my head being a data-juggler. Somebody who knows these exact measures could do a better job of this.)
SiubhanDuinne
@Southern Beale:
I love your blog, SB, and your righteous rants — but my very sanity has come to rely on your Good News Friday editions. It’s great to see these aggregated. Thank you.
WaterGirl
@p.a.: I love my gazpacho recipe. They stopped making the picante V-8, which had a nice kick but wasn’t overdone like the spicy V-8, so you will likely want to adjust the spiciness. Maybe 1 cup spicy V-8 and 3 cups regular, or half and half if you like really spicy.
I like my gazpacho with small chunks of vegetables rather than pureed.
Gazpacho
4 c. cold picante V-8
2 c. fresh diced tomatoes
1 small, minced onion
1 c. minced green pepper
1 diced cucumber
2 scallions, chopped
1/4 c. fresh chopped parsley
juice of 1/2 lemon
juice of 1 lime
2 T. wine vinegar
2 T. olive oil
1 tsp. honey
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp. tarragon
1 tsp. basil
dash of tabasco
salt and pepper
dash of cumin
Combine all ingredients.
Chill for at least 2 hours.
Raven
@NotMax: Thanks, we talked this morning and think, maybe, we’ll try the sunrise the first day. We get in @ 3pm. My sleep patterns are whacky anyway, I get up around 4:30-5am here. I can’t sleep on planes but 3am there is going to be 9am here so I doubt if I’ll be sleeping. My bride is game to being loaded in the car at any time so we’ll just have to see. I assume we won’t be able to get coffee at 3am but the condo should have a machine. We’re in the Kamaole Sands.
bemused
@gene108:
I burst out laughing when I got to Joe Deadbeat Dad Walsh photo. He looked like a cocky jerk with a big ego even then. The pose he struck was rather interesting.
NotMax
@Raven
Sounds like a perfect plan.
Drove down the mountain into town today to drop some moolah at Costco and saw the police sedan, so made a mental note to mention it. ;)
Safeway supermarket in Kahului is open 24/7. Presume the one in Kihei (where your condo is) is 24/7 as well, but haven’t been to Kihei in years. But don’t know what time they brew and begin to offer coffee.
shortstop
@bemused: And Santorum looks like just as big a dork as he is now, and Walker has the same expression of ignorant mean spiritedness.
Love the implicit insult in putting Alito in a list of politicians.
NotMax
BTW, Raven, you must be an incipient good luck charm, as regular gas has dropped from $4.89 to $4.43 in just the past week.
Gadsden Flag Burner
Here at work. It’s going to be slow and we may get out early.
scav
@scav: Oh bother, the inner datageek has been unleashed. I end with this and run away. The number ADP reported is likely not the exact number of new checks they cut, but extrapolated/derived from that, so the result is no better than the model. Also, they’ve got to do some juggling so that they can distinguish actual trends in economy from trends in the number of companies using their service. geekspasm hopefully O-Ver. In fact, I’ll log out and hide somewhere cool until the social faux pas is well past.
Steve in DC
@General Stuck:
All elections always get ugly, worrying over it won’t change that.
Will Mitt be worse than McCain, probably, as he was the only one preventing things from getting truly ugly. But ugly American elections are part of our tradition and pride, nothing has really changed. It’s just now easier for people to find out who called who an uncle fucker.
Raven
@NotMax: What do you do? Are you a farmer? I guess I just figured anyone who lived there must visit every part of the island. Friend told me this morning that Peter Busk has a place in the Hana area. My wife knew him better than I did but I’m sure the last thing any of the rich and famous need is to see someone from back in the day!
SiubhanDuinne
@shortstop:
I’m actually wondering if a line could be drawn, or at least implied, between “Power Company Pays CEO $44 Million for One Day’s Work” and “It’s Been a Week of Triple-Digit Temperatures and the Power Company STILL Hasn’t Turned My A/C Back On!”
I don’t even know if the outages are in Duke’s coverage area, but extrapolating to generic “power company” kind of makes the point where their priorities are.
bemused
@shortstop:
I missed the Alito connection.
Santorum’s pants were ridiculous. At first, I thought maybe it was a photo of the cast of a play but the others didn’t look like they were in costume. I don’t think I’ve seen pants like that on a high school kid other than in movies from the 40’s.
JPL
@Litlebritdifrnt: I just returned from errands but I’ll add more to the discussion. During the Bush years they were known to over estimate the self employed.
shortstop
@NotMax:
Because you didn’t want to devote years to being stuck in the traffic over there.
ruemara
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Good thoughts of good health going out to you.
Raven
@NotMax: We are by no means well-healed but this is such a once-in-a-lifetime for us that we are going to try not to get too hung up on $. In comparison to my idiot family who are going to the Grand Waliea we are getting off cheap. (they cannot even begin to afford what they are doing but it’s not my business)
shortstop
@bemused: Do you think he occasionally changes the stick up his ass, or has the same one been there since junior high?
@SiubhanDuinne: Ooh, I like the way you think.
Steve in DC
@SiubhanDuinne:
Sadly our grid isn’t in the best of shape. If baseline power goes out you’re pretty much fucked. Even if you aren’t directly using the base power but some other source you can be impacted. It’s also often hard to know if your power company was the one who screwed up or not.
Though in hilarious fashion the storm screwed up all sorts of peoples solar and stranded electrical cars up here. Which has caused a good bit of laughing and pointing from the wingers and the lefties up here.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Thanks for the good thoughts and wishes folks. :) I had laid down for a nap and when I awoke I had a small cough when I sat up. If felt like something slippery had slipped up the back of my throat but I swallowed it. I went downstairs and proceeded to get ready for a shower and it happened again (the slight cough). I swallowed that but it happened again immediately after so this time so I spat in the sink and was rewarded with a patch that was thick dark red blood that I knew was trouble. I woke my wife and we loaded up the car to go to the hospital in Gold Beach.
There is no fluid in the lungs, breathing is deep, clear and easy. It seems that the nodule is on the upper right of the lung but the xray showed what could be pneumonia though I have no symptoms of it. I’ve got to call the surgeon later today and we will see what happens from there.
Yes, the Valium is keeping worry at bay quite well right now. It helps you grind your teeth and feel good, which beats not feeling good and being in constant worry.
It really ripped me up to see our daughter crying as we were leaving. I told her that everything is going to be ok and to wish for the best. I feel fine otherwise and if I hadn’t spat in the sink I might still not know what was going on. It seems to have started when I woke from my nap, so from then to being at the hospital was about 45 minutes. The whole thing was a bit unnerving but at least it’s on the path to being treated.
I’ll let everyone know what happens as I learn it. Scary shit but all you can do is deal with it and wait. Right now the valium is telling me that it would be a perfect time to rest so that’s what I’m off to do.
No work for the old man today, I’m taking it easy until this is resolved
Litlebritdifrnt
@JPL:
Ah I see. It would appear to me that we have to look at it this way, at least we are still gaining jobs and not losing them. I saw a tweet earlier that said by comparison in June of 2011 we only gained 15K jobs. Steve Benens charts over at the MaddowBlog are also good to walk me back, it shows consistent growth, and that is good news.
NotMax
@Raven
Nope, not a farmer. Owned and ran a store here for over a quarter-century until the economy went south, my best customers got canned and/or moved off-island and I was forced to close it.
Unemployed and skimping by, but happily so. Nobody particularly wants to hire an old codger. :) This too shall pass.
Just for the record, I have been all over the island. Just no urgency to go to some places again. Kihei has become tourist, condo and strip mall central. Been here so long now, I can remember when it was mostly dusty desert and pig farms and they had just one traffic signal.
And do make the drive to Hana. There’s nothing much there, but the scenic vistas on the sinuous road there are more than worthwhile. 59 bridges, 40-some odd of which are one lane.
NotMax
@Odie Hugh Manatee
Best thoughts sent to you.
Southern Beale
Idiot Republican state rep. supported Jindal’s school voucher program until learning it wouldn’t be exclusive to Christian schools.
Dumbass Republicans.
Raven
@NotMax: Thanks, just thanks! I think it’s good I have not been. I went to Negril in 1972, there was nothing there but a couple of rental shacks up on redground and a few motels on the beach. Fucking place is all resorts now. The Outer Banks is one of our favorite places because 90% of it is National Seashore with little towns tucked in.
Of course I’d like to go back to the Nam but they say it’s just as bad there!
PeakVT
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Hope it’s nothing. Get better soon.
PeakVT
Is Cole’s power out yet again? We need a jobs report thread.
shortstop
@Southern Beale: The other night we had dinner with neighbors. One brought his sister, who is, and I am not making this up, extremely funny and endearing despite being a comic-book Christian. She talked in a surprisingly non-confrontational way about not letting her kids read Harry Potter, the “ridicule” her son took from his bio teacher when the kid said he didn’t “believe” in evolution, and the fact that she’s going to have to start homeschooling because of all this science (that last one is my editorializing).
So the third baseman and I got home and started talking about how we wouldn’t want to hire her kids when they grow up. Really, I just wouldn’t want someone working for me who openly eschews the scientific method and critical thinking. And that brought us to discussions about how, not too long down the road, we will be seeing lawsuits from fundamentalist Christians who were turned down for jobs at labs and research institutions and planetaria and so forth because they loudly outed themselves as anti-science, and who will be crying religious freedom/discrimination.
Linda Featheringill
@Southern Beale:
Vouchers for Islamic schools:
I saw that and thought it was funny. Dumbasses.
Raven
@shortstop: My wife works for the health department in breast feeding and nutrition. They had hundreds of applicants for a part time secretarial position and these women would come in with that shit and be quicly 86’d. Damn they are dumb.
NotMax
Raven let me amend that. Do make the drive to Hana, but don’t dare attempt it on the same day you do the crater. The driver might never recover from such a one-two punch. :)
maya
Did you know, today is Commander Codpiece’s birthday? It’s also Velociraptor-riding Reagan Nancy’s B-day too!
If that doesn’t make your day, then I give up.
Redshift
@geg6: It occurs to me that the other advantage of getting Romney’s financial secretiveness in circulation is that it reminds the evangelicals that he’s secretive about his religion, too, without actually mentioning it. “What else is he hiding?” serves multiple purposes when he actually is hiding a lot.
NotMax
@maya
What is up with painters mixing velociraptors and celebrities?
Is that now the cheesy successor to matadors painted on black velvet?
Violet
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Sorry to hear about that. Sounds scary. Hope it’s nothing serious and you have a swift and complete recovery.
Maude
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Don Imus had a very bad scare about his lung about a month ago. Had to have a test to see if it was cancer. He said that the night before he was thinking of not doing the test. He said he couldn’t handle it. He did do the test and he was okay.
Hypatia's Momma
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Very scary and I hope this is something readily treatable with simple antibiotics.
I’ve been musing on this verdict.
“Nobody wanted to convict, but we had to consider what the law says.”
This is tying in with something I’m still working through from earlier this year, when I was sitting in for jury selection for a rape trial. (I had no idea such a thing could actually trigger a PTSD episode but I was very wrong!) Mainly, I’m wondering if this would have been treated differently if the assault had been committed by a woman. Maybe not, but I’m in a very pessimistic mood.
JPL
@geg6: Thanks again for the heads up.. Here is the link cbsnew
Ruckus
@scav:
Also if they do weekly reports it should avg out but there are companies that pay every other week. There could be a larger number of paychecks every other week if more pay first and third week vrs second and fourth. As stats go you’d think that might be taken care of but one never knows.
ding dong
@Litlebritdifrnt: I am sure he is a friend of Mitt Romney ‘s.
Citizen_X
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Good luck, and here’s hoping you get better.
gnomedad
Yeah, it’s the Daily Beast, but I thought this was particularly well-put:
maya
@NotMax: Hey! Thanks for the idea! I’m now working on a Tyrannosaurus mit Elvis.On Blue velvet.
Soonergrunt
@shortstop:
Two, three years, tops. The first cohort of these morons is getting ready to enter the workforce now.
Valdivia
@gnomedad:
thanks for the link, good piece
though more problematic than the Daily is that it’s Shrum who seems to have a record for always being wrong (see Kerry, John Campaign) ;)
Culture of Truth
New Hampshire lawmaker: Kindergarten causes crime
“We’re taking children away from their mothers too soon,” Kingsbury said
gogol's wife
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
I’ll be thinking of you. You are a great commenter. I hope it’s nothing serious. (I’d hope that even if you weren’t a great commenter! And I love your nym.)
Citizen_X
Oh goody! Distort D’Facts–oh, sorry, Dinesh D’Souza–has a movie coming out this summer about Obama’s “rage” and anti-colonialism. (You know, like the opposite of America’s pro-colonialist Declaration of Independence that we celebrated the other day, right?) After getting reelected, Pres. Stealth Mau-Mau is going to unleash his plan to bring down America, we’re told. This production is being lavishly funded by right-wing billionaires, fill in the blanks blah blah blah.
I recommend watching the trailer. Apparently, now Wall Street is Real America, and flyover country doesn’t count for shit. Who knew?
John Weiss
A lot of folks here have said that they’re suffering from the heat wave. Believe me, I offer my sincere sympathy. I feel your pain, I lived in North Texas for most of my life.
Here in the Left Coast of Southern Oregon, the high temperature this summer might have been seventy-five. In fact the folk here are all wondering what happened to summer.
maya
@Culture of Truth:
Well, no shit. Kindergarten was a German concept and we all know about Hitler, right? Obama is naturally in favor of kindergarten, therefor: Hitler = Obama. Easy equation for plant-life IQs that grow in the right-wing garten.
Mark S.
@Citizen_X:
D’Souza is really a slimy piece of shit.
Soonergrunt
Well, I seem to have underestimated just how uninterested in work I would be today. On the bright side, there have NO calls for assistance, so it’s not like I’m shagging it. I did close two tickets today. Looking at the parking lot and the garage, I can see a huge number of empty slots, so there are a LOT of people on leave right now.
I feel a LITTLE better. I’m taking Annual Leave early. Going to start at noon.
ThresherK
@Keith: Yay! New kitties!
Southern Beale
Ha ha took this stupid quiz, Are you more 9 (or less) conservative than Mitt Romney?
Here are my results:
No shit, Sherlock
WereBear
@Keith: Most awesome! It is great getting the 2 NEW kitties as a unit; they can bond with each other… and NOT harass the older folks…
Ben Cisco
@Litlebritdifrnt: More shenanigans from the Myers Park set – those HOA fees aren’t going to pay themselves, you know…
GregB
@Citizen_X:
Only a clown wannabe rightwinger douche like D’Loser would think calling an American anti-colonial is an insult.
America wrote the first chapter of anti-colonial rebellion.
Ahistorical propagandist shitheel that he is, he wouldn’t know that.
chopper
well, today was the day. i took my sophie on one last walk and held on to her at the vet as she slowly slipped away. jesus i never thought this was going to be so fucking hard.
Redshift
@Soonergrunt: It’s already started. There was already a lawsuit against the University of California by a group Christian high schools for “content discrimination,” because they wouldn’t accept creationist and other wingnut “science” courses as qualifying for college.
They lost, but they’ll surely be back.
(A constitutional right to “freedom from viewpoint discrimination”? “Freedom from arbitrary governmental discretion”? I guess wingnuts are only dead set against “special rights” and “finding new implied rights in the Constitution” when they apply to abortion and gays…)
Southern Beale
@chopper:
So sorry for your loss, what a sucky way to spend your Friday. But she’s at peace now and you have so many good memories.
Raven
@chopper: Oh, I’m so sorry. I’ve been posting this too much here but. . .:
We who choose to surround ourselves
with lives even more temporary than our
own, live within a fragile circle;
easily and often breached.
Unable to accept its awful gaps,
we would still live no other way.
We cherish memory as the only
certain immortality, never fully
understanding the necessary plan.
— Irving Townsend
Redshift
@chopper: Aw. I’m really sorry to hear that. It’s always hard, even when it’s the right thing.
Cassidy
@chopper: That sucks. Sorry to hear that.
Ash Can
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
@shortstop:
Both of you get better soon (and easily)!
@Southern Beale: Fuckin’ First Amendment, how does it work? I hope Jindal et al. lose their asses in court over their little voucher scam.
Nutella
@NotMax:
What’s the matter with that guy? He’s looking backward, not forward!
/snark
Good for him and good for Poland. Our politicians should have such integrity.
Interestingly enough, Wikipedia says he is historian as well as a politician. Maybe we need more historians in public office.
Paul in KY
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Hope it is nothing serious.
JCT
@chopper: Hang in there — you gave her a wonderful life and she went in peace as you held her. We should all be as lucky as Sophie.
As for me it’s the first step for my new “Brady Bunch” life. My son arrives from NYC this afternoon as the first wave in my family joining me after 6+ long months in a fucking South Tucson trailer park. At least I’ve had my sweet adopted kitties with me (thanks to some prodding by some of the folks on BJ) — otherwise I would have gone insane. But the boy is bringing our other cat who now has to learn to be an indoor cat (his last act at home was to head-butt his locked cat door until it shattered) AND be nice to his new baby sisters.
Something tells me the trailer will be a pretty crazy place for a few weeks…. and THEN the beagles arrive. YIKES.
Ash Can
@chopper: Sincerest condolences, and kudos to you for doing the best thing for her no matter how difficult.
Valdivia
@chopper:
{hugs}
Patricia Kayden
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Wow. Hope you get better! That sounds scary.
Ash Can
@JCT: LOL! Maybe you should hang a sign on your house that says “county zoo” and charge admission.
Hypatia's Momma
@chopper:
It’s very hard. My condolences.
Mark S.
@Southern Beale:
Shit, I took the quiz and
Aw man! I guess I don’t belong here. RedState here I come!
I was trying to pick the stupidest answer each time. When I took it seriously, I got that I lean left.
Citizen_X
@Mark S.:
Speaking of slimy pieces of shit, the producer is the guy that produced Expelled, the Ben Stein creationist hit piece that equated scientists with Nazis.
@chopper: My condolences.
Nutella
@shortstop:
Already happened. He’s not exactly anti-science but is anti-evolution, and he won.
JCT
@Ash Can: Hah– actually a few months ago the trailer park was filled with Tea Partiers. Now that was a zoo….
Boudica
@Southern Beale: Stupid quiz is right. I scored same as you. The multiple choice answers were awful. And I loved the misspellings…both sides of the isle.
dance around in your bones
Well, having not read the thread yet (aside from seeing chopper talk about his sad event – my total sympathies – been there)I – having got the grandkids off to school and having a few hours free time now, am going to continue my MI-5 marathon on Netflix. I am obviously late to the party on this show, but someone on BJ recommended it and I am enjoying the hell out of it.
It takes my mind off things. Sad things.
gene108
@Citizen_X:
How the fuck does an Indian or a second gen immigrant from India have a problem with anti-colonial rage?
Jack-ass
Paul in KY
@Southern Beale: Took it & got this, commie:
‘You lean left.
You might just be a Democrat, or at the very least an independent. You probably agree with most of President Obama’s polices, and you understand the importance of government spending and oversight.’
I’m an Obot.
Paul in KY
@chopper: Wow, so sorry chopper. Remember all those great times & know you did your last best deed for her. Then go get another bundle of joy.
rlrr
@danielx:
It was the greatest night of my life. I’d been invited to the Captain’s Table. I’d only been with the company fourteen years. Six officers and me! They called me “Arnold.” We had gazpacho soup for starters. I didn’t know gazpacho soup was meant to be served cold. I called over the chef and I told him to take it away and bring it back hot. He did. The looks on their faces still haunt me today! I thought they were laughing at the chef, when all the time, they were laughing at me as I ate my piping hot gazpacho soup. I never ate at the Captain’s Table again. That was the end of my career.
— Arnold Judas Rimmer
rikyrah
KAY,
your favorite GOP Senatorial Candidate has pics of him in drag.
BWA HA HA HA HA
rlrr
@Citizen_X:
Obama’s “rage” and anti-colonialism.
One would think anti-colonialism should be considered a virtue in the The United States of America…
Valdivia
@rlrr:
different kind of anti-colonialism, non-white people’s kind, which is obviously evil. and communist!
JPL
@chopper: It’s a good thing that you did and understandably the most difficult. Hugs!
arguingwithsignposts
David Brooks takes a hit of meth and imagines Henry V in an american school in 2012. Charles Pierce dissects. Via LGM.
Yutsano
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Take care of yourself good sir.
@chopper: And peace unto you sweet spirit.
Stooleo
Louisiana congress woman doesn’t realize that freedom of religions means for all religions.
Frankensteinbeck
@Nutella:
I read the article. Their evidence consists of ‘Somebody built a cage at a facility we think the CIA owned, so it must be a black ops prison where people were tortured.’ Don’t expect that to go anywhere.
OzoneR
@Southern Beale: This is sooooo stupid. I couldn’t even get past the first question
Isn’t that PART of ACA?
No where in the world is this true. Even in single-payer systems, there are still copays.
catclub
@Litlebritdifrnt: The stockholder really need to sue the board and the compensation committee for malfeasance general incompetence. Can anyone bet if the CEO read his contract and figured out his upside?
Why did they not get a lawyer to read it and figure out their downside?
Xenos
@Mark S.:
A consistently D’sHonest man.
JGabriel
__
__
No new front page posts in the last six & a half hours?
I think the front-pagers are partying somewhere without us.
.
Xenos
@rlrr:
It is, except for the counter-revolutionary running-dogs. You can tell them by their uncritical love of Churchill and their adoration of Teddy Roosevelt for all the wrong reasons.
trollhattan
@Xenos:
FTW. A more punchable neck has seldom been seen than that squeaky-voiced little shit’s.
Boudica
@OzoneR: Plus “the government” is my tax dollars (and other people’s)….therefore, not free.
catclub
@Stooleo: ‘Unfortunately it will not be limited to the Founders’ religion,’ Hodges said. ‘We need to insure that it does not open the door to fund radical Islam schools. There are a thousand Muslim schools that have sprung up recently. I do not support using public funds for teaching Islam anywhere here in Louisiana.'”
Deist, Quaker, Anglican voucher schools! Who knew?
jl
@Citizen_X:
Good comedies are in short supply these days.
Might check out if things are slow.
Boudica
@JGabriel: Is there such a thing as a Balloon Juice Rapture?
trollhattan
@Boudica:
Hoo-boy, it’s “Left Behind–Teh Balloon Juice Chronicles.” One of you sinners had best go feed Tunch, stat!
Lojasmo
Single track run in 90 degree heat. Buying a used car in an hour. Taking the cat to the vet at two.
Then beers.
Mark S.
@arguingwithsignposts:
That was really horrible even for a Bobo column.
Boudica
@trollhattan: @trollhattan: I believe Tunch is the supreme being. He declared it time for the ascension. Lily and Rosie may need some vittles, though.
JGabriel
via catclub:
OH MY GOD! It’s a thousand points of fright!
.
trollhattan
@Boudica:
If so, that’s some awesome power that Tunch ascended by. He’s rather glued to the planet, otherwise.
catclub
“In a column for the Washington Times today, Nugent complains about a lack of regard for states’ rights, then says, “I’m beginning to wonder if it would have been best had the South won the Civil War.” The statement isn’t a total surprise from a man who often dons confederate flag shirts and recently made a veiled threat to kill the President. But it does underline potential political repercussions for Mitt Romney, who actively sought Nugent’s endorsement. ”
Of course, the real way to maintain states rights is to not assert them by going to war against the rest of the country.
There is a whacka-doodle on the libertrian sites who blames Lincoln for all the evils of the expansion of the US government due to the Civil War. Much is of the ‘we should have known that supporting the Union would lead to this’ sort — but none of the blame is on the geniuses of the south who started the war and _ALSO_ should have, by the same token, known what would result.
PopeRatzo
If I remember correctly from my wage-slave days, those days where you’re the only one in the office and a weekend or vacation is coming, and you’ve got a paycheck waiting, are the best working days of all.
This is why computer games were invented. Put some music on, a beverage, fire up Lego Batman 2 or Minecraft, and the day will fly by.
Frankensteinbeck
@catclub:
These people seriously have not read The Jungle, or understand that the government expanded for very, VERY good reasons because the people not only wanted it to, but fought tooth and nail for it.