Sorry for the lack of posts, but I’ve had company for the past few days.
What have I missed? Considering it is July during the silly season, I’m assuming not much. BTW, Newsroom last night was awesome.
Open Thread
by John Cole| 44 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Alison
HOW DARE YOU HAVE A LIFE.
Har har, but seriously, hope you’re enjoying your offline fun.
Shit has been fucking crazy in my family. Many major health issues, including my own, as well as possibly-getting-near-the-end for one and God forbid possibly both grandparents, as well as two trips to the ER for my dad last week…OKAY BABY JESUS THAT’S ENOUGH.
Sigh. I think I’m going to watch a funny movie tonight. I need the escape! Save me, OnDemand, you’re my only hope.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Just the glimpse of the cuteness in the front yard Chez Q.
lamh35
I don’t know if I’ve said it before, but if I have I”m sorry, but whenever I see those ChristianMingle.com commercials, I always think “um..shouldn’t Christians be mingling at church”. There is just something odd to me about the idea of people trolling the interweb looking for Christians to date.
I apologize in advance if any members of ChristianMingle.com are also commenters on BJ.
James Gary
Newsroom last night was awesome.
No, it wasn’t. The show is obnoxiously, tediously talky and I’m not going to watch any more episodes. More overrated than “Girls,” if that’s possible.
Just my two cents.
lamh35
I don’t care what anyone says about Rev Al…this is why his show is beating the others in his timeslot and is one of MSNBC highest rated shows if I remember correctly.
MSNBC Stages ‘Re-enactment’ Of Romney Fundraiser
lamh35
Ask yourself this “why isn’t NIKE sponsoring the strongest woman in the US”? Maybe because she ain’t T&F thin or with model looks? Not having model looks sure didn’t hurt Jackie Joyner Kersy or Michael Phelps. It’s a damn shame that this woman does not have a sponsor.
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/07/09/512231/why-nike-should-sponsor-olympic-weightlifter-sarah-robles/
The Dangerman
Mitt decided to say fuck it, running for President is too tiring, and he’s withdrawing from the race. Tampa is an open convention with much hilarity to ensue.
Yes, I’ve been drinking.
ETA Alison, weren’t you the one with a Grandpa that was having Gall Bladder surgery? Or am I confusing posters? Entirely possible, I’m plus a couple (read: lightweight)
piratedan
@lamh35: they’re busy being crucified nationally with all of the Sharia Law being imposed in these states and local jurisdictions. Hardly any time to be personally raptured….
the above remarks are not intended to be construed as a factual statement.
kdaug
Query for our Christian Republican friends:
Were Romney to win, he couldn’t place his hand on a Bible to be sworn in, right? Wouldn’t he’d have to put it on the Book of
MammonMormon?If so, then as far as I know, he’d be the first President ever not to put his hand on the Bible during the swearing-in.
I mean, I suppose he could do it, but it’d mean as much to him as spinning a Tibetan prayer wheel or lighting some incense. It ain’t what he believes in.
The Book of Mormon ain’t the Bible, folks. Just ain’t.
PeakVT
Misanthropes aren’t allowed to have company, are they?
Peregrinus
@PeakVT:
I keep telling people that, but for some reason they insist on occasionally having me around.
Calouste
@lamh35:
Because Nike spends too much money sponsoring the child rape enablers at Penn State?
Linda Featheringill
@kdaug:
I doubt that many Christian Republican Friends read BJ.
It doesn’t matter what book the incoming president swears on. It matters that he honors his oath.
At some point, we will have a president who is not Christian. And the sun will continue to come up in the east and set in the west. Life will go on.
NotMax
@kdaug
Franklin Pierce chose to affirm rather than swear the oath, and placed his hand on a law book rather than a Bible.
Violet
@kdaug: I get what you’re saying. You’re saying it might be interesting to ask that question of any Christian conservatives we know. “How would you feel if Romney swore in on the Book of Mormon? Would he really be President? What do you think?” Just the kind of thing to make them queasy. Excellent.
Punchy
Does this “company” you speak of have jubblies?
BruinKid
You missed my Ron Paul friend (who is a Muslim) going in contortions to try to justify Ron Paul’s endorsement of Ted Cruz down in Texas, now that he’s let his Islamophobe freak flag fly by claiming the U.S. is in danger of falling under Sharia law. Thought it’d be interesting to see what he had to say about this, since he had said some positive things about Cruz last month before today’s news about his anti-Muslim fearmongering.
Well, here’s how he responded.
So the fact that Cruz is now bashing Muslims like him is simply irrelevant, because Cruz is with him on “most” freedom-loving aspects. Just not when it comes to, you know, people like him. But hey, “freedomz!!!!!!!”
Sigh… looks like he’s become a tenther as well. Anyone know of a cure for Ron Paul-itis?
Nutella
Uhh, this does not look good.
via @jricole
BruinKid
And yes, The Newsroom was awesome last night. Philip Baker Hall as a Bob Inglis-type Congressman who gets defeated in his own primary by a Tea Party know-nothing… brilliant.
kdaug
@Violet:
Precisely.
And if any of y’all got more fortitude than me, go ahead and post that question to any Christian websites you can find.
Personally, I’m going to wait for the next forwarded “rainbows and prayers” emails and reply to all.
You know, I bet they haven’t thought of that question yet…
DCLaw1
Newsroom started out promising enough, and I do like the broadcast scenes, but the desperate jealousy thing between Mr. Anchor and Ms. Producer is embarrassingly juvenile and ruins the rest of the show.
Those parts seriously seem like they’re written by someone else, and they make the characters completely unbelievable as people.
ETA: I’m also finding that the female characters in general are gratingly and unrealistically shrill/frantic.
BruinKid
@Nutella: Ah, Russia Today seems to have fallen into nutjob conspiracy theory land lately. It seems like every other day they have another breathless news piece claiming Obama is the worst tyrant/dictator/mass murderer ever. And usually it stems from how nobody there seems to understand what an executive order actually does and does not do.
One of the earlier EO’s that had all my Ron Paul friends freaking out turned out to be a standard EO that every president signed going back decades, but they thought it was a sudden usurpation of power, LOL. I wouldn’t be surprised to find a similar reason behind this one as well.
And no, the fact that not every single liberal blog out there hasn’t breathlessly reported on this doesn’t mean they’re all in on the conspiracy as well.
WaterGirl
@Nutella: Putting on my IT and preparedness hat, I can see why the president / government would want those capabilities in case of a crisis.
As a regular human, I think “holy crap!” and am thankful that I trust our current president. I would be completely flipping out if this were a republican president, and I may well flip out tomorrow, even with our current president. Reserving judgment for now.
This also makes me think wonder if there is reason to expect to see more technological warfare and internet attacks on the horizon.
TG Chicago
I haven’t watched Newsroom yet, as I was turned off by Sorkin’s misogyny. But I enjoyed this review of the 3rd episode:
—————
Well that episode (“112th Congress”) flipped me. This show sucks.
Goddammit. That was like a brochure for the show masquerading as the show. Goddammit, Sorkin, I’m not Northrop Frye but I’m not a fucking idiot either. If you watched the first two episodes, you know what the main philosophical conflict is. We didn’t need another hour-long infomercial explaining it to us again. I’ve actually already seen that: an infomercial preparing me for THE NEWSROOM.
It was called watching the news in 2010.
I know that Sorkin and other t.v. writers love that form, where we see a meeting dealing with the aftermath of something that happened in the past, and then fragment by fragment we see what happened. But, usually there is an element of mystery or an unexpected twist that got us to where we end up. plot. that’s the word. and it’s usually something related specifically to the characters in the story, but maybe set against the backdrop of real events.
That could not happen with this because there was no “plot.” They didn’t bother to add a problem actually related to these particular characters. It was just a reenactment of some stuff we all already saw happen but with a guy shouting some stuff we all shouted at our own t.v. Everyone who would conceivably be tuning in to this show also follows “the news” and we all know what happened in 2010 and we all know what’s happened since then. If they have nothing to offer but a summary of that with a few cutaways to a guy getting some snappy shots in….fucking save me the time. I’ve been there…I’ve sat across a coffee shop table from the guy who wouldn’t shut up about what he saw last night on Rachel Maddow and it’s not a fun hour. Why would you turn coffee-shop-Atrios-reader into a one-act operetta?!
Yeah, yeah…but now we’ve set up the big conflict….FUCK we set that up in the opening episode….that’s the reason I was so forgiving of that premier and all of its lectures…because I thought he was getting it out there all at once so he could move on from pitching the show, what with, you know it already being on the air and everything, to actually making the show.
Nobody watching this show doesn’t know who the KOCH brothers are! We all know why the debt ceiling debate was stupid. So either he thinks we need a textbook explanation because somehow there are people watching THE NEWSROOM who are both dumb enough not to know this already and yet quick enough to absorb a :20 summary filmed in chaos-vision…or this is the worst example of the “fantasy-booking” thing people like to throw at Sorkin.
And those stupid little asides where we had to have Jane Fonda mutter that, yes, she also hates the Tea Party, but she has to do business with the Congress, in case we couldn’t figure out such a subtle character motivation. Everyone in that room already would have known how she felt and any half-sentient viewer could have pieced it together.
Come on, Coach, give me a chance. Put me in the game. Let me figure one or two things out for myself without a coloring book and a Cap’n Crunch treasure map maze. Figuring out things on your own is a really fun part of reading good writing (or watching it). Have some Faith!
The prophet Nostradumbass
@NotMax: John Quincy Adams also used a law book.
NotMax
@Nutella
Pure unadulterated bushwah.
A modernization of the existing Civil Defense system’s emergency authorities to address evolving technologies? Not a biggie.
Nary a mention at EFF, and that’s good enough for me.
Ash Can
@Nutella: Didn’t read the whole article, but this strikes me as nothing more than a reasonable extension of the Emergency Broadcast System, which has been in place for decades. Also, I would expect a publication from the epicenter of the former Eastern Bloc to be hypersensitive to such a policy, since it wasn’t all that long ago that these guys were the gold standard of broadcast media control.
Doesn’t mean the right-wing crystal-meth-festival blogs won’t all crap their pants over it, though.
freelancer
@TG Chicago:
Pretty much. I want to like the show so much, but it keeps fighting me. Last night’s last straw was McAvoy being the lone news anchor to rip apart the astroturf in the Tea Party by pointing out Americans for Prosperity. I liked it when I saw it on live TV that Maddow drank AFP’s milkshake. And she didn’t do gotcha questions to stupid, low-info right wingers, she went right to the head of the organization.
DCLaw1
@TG Chicago: That’s a fair enough (and amusing) encapsulation of episode 3, but speaking for myself, I’m a lot more forgiving of Sorkin’s lectures and over-explanation than I am the absolutely awful writing relating to the characters’ more personal lives and experiences.
But the dialogue in general, even by Sorkin standards, thinks it is ten times more clever than it is. It has that stale over-eagerness that is the hallmark of a lapsing, flattered talent.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Nutella:
Oh noes! The president wants government control of emergency disaster response when everyone knows the free market can respond to tornadoes and hurricanes better than the so-called “government”!
Remember, The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is setting up prison camps to hold everyone who makes anti-Obama comments on the Internet. Better double the tinfoil in your hat so they can’t track you down.
Geoduck
@NotMax:
And LBJ had to use a missal because they couldn’t scrounge up a Bible on Air Force One.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
And, yes, I’m an even crankier bitch than usual because we just spent two exhausting days holding a 6-hour wake for my father-in-law on Sunday and having the funeral, graveside service, and luncheon today.
Next, I get to spend 4 days watching G and the rest of his family bicker as they start cleaning out his dad’s apartment and figuring out who gets what, what gets given away, and what gets sold. Good times, good times.
Groucho48
Just found out about this video. A fellow who saved 600 kids from the Nazis at a surprise tribute…
If you have tears…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbaHtEFBhyA
Origuy
@kdaug:
I don’t think this is true. I’ve never been a Mormon, but from what I’ve heard, and what they claim, the Bible is equivalent to the Book of Mormon. The BOM is “the Third Testament”, not a complete rewrite.
BruinKid
@NotMax: You don’t know how these people think. That EFF hasn’t said anything about it yet only goes to show they must be in on the massive conspiracy for Obama to take over… the world?
BruinKid
@TG Chicago: The assumption that everyone watching already knows who the Koch brothers are is way too generous in underestimating the stupidity and ignorance of the American populace, even when you only look at those who have HBO.
burnspbesq
@lamh35:
There’s only room in the sport-o-sphere for one not-conventionally-attractive female icon, and right now it’s Abby Wambach, who has the advantage of actually having won shit.
Yutsano
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): You need moar booze. There may be another death otherwise.
John Weiss
Goddamn mist and clouds! I love my forest home in SW Oregon, but it’s weather isn’t doing a damned bit of good for my tomatoes. I suppose everyone has something to bitch about.
NotMax
@BruinKid
This word “think” that you use…
/Princess Bride
Gus
@TG Chicago: Yes. also, I want to punch the producer who smirks all the time, and no, I don’t fucking care if he winds up with the girl. Lots of one-dimensional characters, overly “clever” dialog, and lots and lots of lecturing. Man, that show rubs me the wrong way.
Wazmo
The Onion is Your only real news source. Case in point:
Economically Healthy ‘Daily Planet’ Now Most Unrealistic Part Of Superman Universe
Thomas F
John, you simply have to be watching a different show than I am. Newsroom is exceptionally, excruciatingly bad. I understand that you and some others want to fluff it because Establishment Media-types like Tapper have knocked it, but I don’t think it’s worth it when you have to run cover for such a shoddy show. Sorkin does many things well (see Social Network, The), but this is not one of them. His central problem is that he conflates pretentiousness and dickish arrogance with intelligence (I think he actually believes our media environment would benefit from more Keith Olbermann-like anchors, off of whom Will McAvoy is evidently drawn). The show just layers sanctimony upon further layer of sanctimony, rapid-fire bon mot after rapid-fire bon mot, until time runs out each week. This show isn’t worthy of HBO —easily the worst since John from Cincinnati.
This is putting aside Sorkin’s thinly-veiled contempt for women, about which other progressive commentators like Alyssa Rosenberg have done a better job articulating.
Amir Khalid
You missed an attack by a pair of sword-wielding nutters at the Prime Minister’s Department in Putrajaya, Malaysia (the federal government’s seat). The cops shot them both, and the man (who claimed on his blog to be the Imam Mahdi; sounds like a wacko) died in hospital.
I wasn’t in Putrajaya yesterday, and I don’t watch the TV, so I missed it too.