Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

All hail the time of the bunny!

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

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Reader Interactions

183Comments

  1. 1.

    Jeff(the other one)

    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.

    Two words bro’–Par–taaayy! (alright that was one)

  4. 4.

    CarolDuhart2

    Surf the net instead of working? Taking 30 minute coffee breaks and a 2 hour lunch? Man, get creative…

  5. 5.

    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.

  6. 6.

    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.

  7. 7.

    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!

  8. 8.

    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.

  9. 9.

    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.

  10. 10.

    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?

  13. 13.

    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:

    …the most secretive president since Nixon

    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.

  14. 14.

    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?

  15. 15.

    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.

  16. 16.

    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.

    Poland is not the only country in Europe where the U.S. allegedly operated a secret detention facility with at least tacit permission from somewhere within the host government. Black sites are also thought to have existed in Romania and Lithuania, two other developing democracies, as well as in countries in North Africa and Asia.
    __
    But Poland is alone among the European nations in having launched an official investigation of the matter.
    __
    “The reputation of Poland is at stake,” President Bronislaw Komorowski declared in March. “Certainly this is a sensitive and touchy issue, and possibly painful for the Polish state, but it is the task of the legal apparatus to clarify this.” Source

    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:

    In the long quest for accountability for those who ordered, authorized or were complicit in the Bush administration’s torture program, every avenue has been shut down within the US by the Obama administration, the Justice Department and the courts, and the only hope lies elsewhere in the world, and specifically Poland, one of three European countries that hosted secret CIA prisons, where “high-value detainees” were subjected to torture. Source

  17. 17.

    Gozer

    Getting some work done on my balls today. I’m pretty sure I’ll be high on life pain medication come noon.

    Looks like my weekend will consist of Netflix Instant and HBO Go.

  18. 18.

    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.

  20. 20.

    NotMax

    @danielx
    Yum.

    I can justify a slice of pie worth about a thousand calories because it will help cool me down, right?

    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

  21. 21.

    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.

  22. 22.

    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.

  23. 23.

    dmsilev

    Off visiting family. My niece and nephew turn 0.5 years old today, so we’re celebrating.

  24. 24.

    amk

    @the Conster:

    Norah O’Donnel tweet

    On local tv Obama hits Romney for abandoning calling it a penalty “simply because you’re getting pressure for two days from Rush Limbaugh”

    The O team is taking shots at the media thugs. All this ‘never pick a fight with a guy who buys ink by the gallon’ is pure bullshit. The media has as much popularity and credibility as the congress critters. At least the O team’s way, the msm is on the defensive and the facts and talking points stick with people who care to watch and listen.

  25. 25.

    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.”

  26. 26.

    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.)

  27. 27.

    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.

  29. 29.

    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.

  31. 31.

    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.

  32. 32.

    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.

  35. 35.

    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.

  36. 36.

    NotMax

    Sweden rocks.

    Swedish people believe today that the worst scandal suffered by their country in the last 20 years occurred in 2001, when the Government was involved in the controversial program to torture and illegally transfer persons detained by the CIA.
    __
    According to a poll conducted by Channel 5, the scandal arising from the CIA’s secret flights was number one, ahead of poor governance in the face of the 2004 tsunami in Asia, that endangered 10,000 Swedish citizens who were in Thailand.
    __
    Meanwhile, third place went to the controversial support and participation of Stockholm in the construction of a weapons factory in Saudi Arabia, a situation that drove the resignation in March of the Defense Minister, Sten Tolgfors.
    Source

  38. 38.

    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.

  42. 42.

    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).

  43. 43.

    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.

  44. 44.

    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.

  46. 46.

    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.

  47. 47.

    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.

  49. 49.

    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?

  50. 50.

    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… :)

  51. 51.

    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.

  56. 56.

    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.

  61. 61.

    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. :-)

  63. 63.

    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?)

  67. 67.

    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?

  68. 68.

    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.

  71. 71.

    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.

  72. 72.

    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.

  73. 73.

    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.

  74. 74.

    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.)

  75. 75.

    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.

  76. 76.

    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.

  77. 77.

    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.

  78. 78.

    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.

  79. 79.

    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.

  80. 80.

    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.

  81. 81.

    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.

  83. 83.

    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.

  84. 84.

    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.

  85. 85.

    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!

  86. 86.

    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.

  87. 87.

    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.

  89. 89.

    shortstop

    @NotMax:

    haven’t been to Kihei in years

    Because you didn’t want to devote years to being stuck in the traffic over there.

  91. 91.

    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)

  93. 93.

    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.

  94. 94.

    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

  95. 95.

    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.

  96. 96.

    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.

  99. 99.

    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!

  102. 102.

    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.

  104. 104.

    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.

  105. 105.

    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. :)

  106. 106.

    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.

  107. 107.

    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.

  110. 110.

    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.

  111. 111.

    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.

  113. 113.

    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.

  116. 116.

    gnomedad

    Yeah, it’s the Daily Beast, but I thought this was particularly well-put:

    The reaction to Chief Justice John Roberts’s majority opinion on health-care reform suggests that the GOP is morphing into the Monster Raving Loony Party—which actually exists in Britain but has never won a seat in Parliament. It also provides more evidence for the delusional conviction of today’s Republicans that they are ordained to rule—and if they don’t, it’s because of conspiracy, betrayal, and the sinister subversion of what they see as American ideals and the ideal America.

  118. 118.

    Soonergrunt

    @shortstop:

    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.

    Two, three years, tops. The first cohort of these morons is getting ready to enter the workforce now.

  119. 119.

    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) ;)

  120. 120.

    Culture of Truth

    New Hampshire lawmaker: Kindergarten causes crime

    “We’re taking children away from their mothers too soon,” Kingsbury said

  121. 121.

    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.)

  122. 122.

    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?

  123. 123.

    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.

  124. 124.

    maya

    @Culture of Truth:

    New Hampshire lawmaker: Kindergarten causes crime

    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.

  126. 126.

    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.

  128. 128.

    Southern Beale

    Ha ha took this stupid quiz, Are you more 9 (or less) conservative than Mitt Romney?

    Here are my results:

    “You’re a lefty! You might even be more liberal than President Obama. You won’t be voting for Romney come November.”

    No shit, Sherlock

  131. 131.

    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.

  132. 132.

    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.

  133. 133.

    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.

    Plaintiffs state this complaint against defendants, for viewpoint discrimination and content discrimination by defendants toward Christian school instruction and texts, which violates the constitutional rights of Christian schools and students to freedom of speech, freedom from viewpoint discrimination, freedom of religion and association, freedom from arbitrary governmental discretion, equal protection of the laws, and freedom from hostility toward religion.

    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…)

  135. 135.

    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

  139. 139.

    Nutella

    @NotMax:

    “The reputation of Poland is at stake,” President Bronislaw Komorowski declared in March. “Certainly this is a sensitive and touchy issue, and possibly painful for the Polish state, but it is the task of the legal apparatus to clarify this.”

    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.

  141. 141.

    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.

  145. 145.

    Ash Can

    @JCT: LOL! Maybe you should hang a sign on your house that says “county zoo” and charge admission.

  147. 147.

    Mark S.

    @Southern Beale:

    Shit, I took the quiz and

    Congratulations! You’re more conservative than Mitt Romney! You’re a proud member of the GOP, and you might even identify with the tea party movement. You’re probably worried that if elected, Romney won’t always act as conservative as he says he is.

    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.

  148. 148.

    Citizen_X

    @Mark S.:

    D’Souza is really a slimy piece of shit.

    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.

  149. 149.

    Nutella

    @shortstop:

    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.

    Already happened. He’s not exactly anti-science but is anti-evolution, and he won.

  151. 151.

    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.

  152. 152.

    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.

  153. 153.

    gene108

    @Citizen_X:

    anti-colonialism.

    How the fuck does an Indian or a second gen immigrant from India have a problem with anti-colonial rage?

    Jack-ass

  154. 154.

    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.

  155. 155.

    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.

  156. 156.

    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

  158. 158.

    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…

  161. 161.

    arguingwithsignposts

    David Brooks takes a hit of meth and imagines Henry V in an american school in 2012. Charles Pierce dissects. Via LGM.

  164. 164.

    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.

  165. 165.

    OzoneR

    @Southern Beale: This is sooooo stupid. I couldn’t even get past the first question

    The health-care system needs to be reformed; Obama’s plan was just the wrong one. We should give consumers a tax break if they purchase their own insurance, rather than taking their employers’ option. This will make the market more competitive and give consumers more options.

    Isn’t that PART of ACA?

    Health care should be entirely free for everyone. The government should be responsible for all costs.

    No where in the world is this true. Even in single-payer systems, there are still copays.

  166. 166.

    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?

  168. 168.

    JGabriel

    __
    __
    No new front page posts in the last six & a half hours?

    I think the front-pagers are partying somewhere without us.

    .

  169. 169.

    Xenos

    @rlrr:

    One would think anti-colonialism should be considered a virtue in the The United States of America…

    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.

  170. 170.

    trollhattan

    @Xenos:

    FTW. A more punchable neck has seldom been seen than that squeaky-voiced little shit’s.

  172. 172.

    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?

  175. 175.

    trollhattan

    @Boudica:

    Hoo-boy, it’s “Left Behind–Teh Balloon Juice Chronicles.” One of you sinners had best go feed Tunch, stat!

  176. 176.

    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.

  179. 179.

    JGabriel

    via catclub:

    ‘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.

    OH MY GOD! It’s a thousand points of fright!

    .

  180. 180.

    trollhattan

    @Boudica:

    If so, that’s some awesome power that Tunch ascended by. He’s rather glued to the planet, otherwise.

  181. 181.

    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.

  182. 182.

    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.

  183. 183.

    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.

Comments are closed.