Finally have rudimentary internet- apparently my regular cable modem died, so I am running a line from my phone to the laptop rather than moving that modem to my office where my router and desktop and everything else is.
And yes, I have comcast, but unlike most of you, I have great service. We get power outages and issues out here in east bumfuck, so it is hard to blame Comcast for things they can not control. That may not be the attitude you all have who live in cities, but that is my take here in the middle of nowhere. They’ll be here tomorrow morning to fix it.
At any rate, the first thing I saw when I signed on was a Fox news report that Obama refuses to condemn Serrano’s piss Christ, but did condemn the wingnut who made the film that is being used as a pretext for riots in the Middle East.
Piss Christ was made in 1987.
I’m now unplugging my internet for another 24 hours.
mai naem
Yeah, just run away because we all know you’re a defeatocrat because you’re a Democrat and Democrats just run away. Sorry, Michelle Malkin took over my body for a minute. I gotta go scrub down with bleach in the shower now.
Ruckus
I’m now unplugging my internet for another 24 hours.
Was discussing this afternoon with someone that I don’t have a cell phone. After being married to it and attached at the hip/ear for about 12 yrs it is a delight being divorced.
Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker
You know those old comedians who were once huge and now they’re lucky to get on with Rachel Ray or a guest spot on a weak sitcom and they trot out their once hilarious catch phrase and you can tell they’re waiting for wild applause and hysterical laughter and the silent indifference is more painful for the audience than the comic? Well
.”
She doesn’t remember that ‘going rogue’ wasn’t something she said, it was a critique of her by a McCain staffer, and it was Tina Fey who actually said it. But I don’t feel sorry for her. Not yet. I admit to being mildly curious as to what she thinks a rogue Willard might say.
dmsilev
Amateurs. Obama’s failure to condemn the Moorish invasion of Spain is proof that he is working towards a restoration of the Caliphate and that he believes all Christians have a future only as eunuchs.
cathyx
Blog and run? But how will you monitor us? What if we have questions?
Linda Featheringill
Relax. Once you accept the fact that everything bad that has happened in the past 300 years is Obama’s fault, life becomes calmer.
Maude
@cathyx:
Tunch does the monitoring.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
Modems and routers seem to have a short lifespan. I don’t know why. We’ve had broadband here for 9 years and are on at least our 4th DSL unit/router. We should probably buy a spare to have on hand.
Highway Rob
@dmsilev: Obama’s failure to condemn the Ottoman Turks’ sack of Constantinople is proof that he’s a closet They Might Be Giants fan, and that he believes that it’s nobody’s business but the Turks.
cyntax
Best course of action possible. This will all be better 24 hours from now.
=)
+2
General Stuck
I’ve had no trouble dealing with Comcast in bumfuck nm. We are 60 miles from the nearest interstate, and much further from the big city. Very seldom short outages. I wish it was cheaper, but shit, we don’t even have a movie theater in this desert burg, that I love. So no complaints from moi’ on Comcast. Though I do like the Dish people, having had teevee with them for years, up till my teevee died three years ago. It looks like they have some nice bundle options with wireless internet services these days, so been thinking about going back to them and get internet too. Need a teevee first though.
And wow. been reading some of the nutter gibberish over at American Thinker and elsewhere, in posts and comments, and have never witnessed the psychosis to current levels of the coming agony of defeat at the hands of their personal enemy of all enemies, Barack Obama.
Who is rapidly becoming a mosaic reflecting all the evil that has ever been in the world. Mixed in with barely disguised racism in about all its coded forms. Just short of deploying the Nclang thingy and calling for explicit violence to conduct their politics.
JPL
He is not related to Christ but I have a great picture of mannekin pis over the bathroom toilet. Obama hasn’t condemned that either. Maybe he’ll visit so he can.
General Stuck
And BIG congrats to my Cincy Redlegs for clinching the division title today, and double fun against the hated Dodgers.
dmsilev
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: A lot of the cheap modems/routers are built with basically zero heat-dissipation ability. Eventually, they simply cook themselves.
I eventually converged on getting cheap modems (i.e. harassing AT&T to give me a new one every time their POS unit dies) combined with a vaguely decent router (my main router is an Apple Airport Extreme, and it’s been very reliable for years now).
aangus
@cyntax:
I agree.
: ))
Mnemosyne
I did the other half of my free cycling class today and almost killed myself going up a hill. Turns out that if your sinuses are clogged enough that they’re making your jaw hurt, it may not be a great idea to huff up a hill on your three-speed in 90+ degree weather.
(Yes, Angelenos, F-R-E-E, with classes offered in Burbank, West Hollywood, and Santa Monica. I took the Confident City Cycling course and scored lots of free stuff also too, including my new favorite helmet.)
JPL
@General Stuck: Are they blaming the Chicago thugs yet?
Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker
@Highway Rob: don’t know if you’re referring to this, but i thought it was one of the funniest wingnuttisms in a while:
peaking on the House floor Friday afternoon, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) claimed President Obama’s foreign policy in the Middle East was “a massive beginning of a new Ottoman Empire that [he] can take great credit for.”
JPL
haha.. someone called Obama is calling me but I’m not answering.
dmsilev
@General Stuck: From that massive of gibberish you linked, this caught my eye:
Umm, yeah. That’s kind of how our government is designed to work.
Hal
Piss Christ has been around since the late 80’s and I still giggle every time I read that name. Sorry, the teenage boy in me can’t help it.
Litlebritdifrnt
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
I often say that routers have the lifespan of fruit flies. It appears to be true.
General Stuck
@JPL:
They are grabbing everything they can reach and slinging it against the rage wall. The linked post though, concentrates on the well traveled ” lucky lazy nigger” racist frame.
Highway Rob
@Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker: Would ’twere that I were. Gohmert defiles the good (bad?) name of the district that produced Good Time Charlie Wilson, where I was born and raised and from whence I fled as soon as I could. I mock him whenever I get the chance.
ETA: But I was not mocking him here, sad to say.
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
I heard he rented the Last Temptation of Christ, just to see what all the fuss was about. And declared it “long, and kind of confusing” just like most everybody else. He’s been suspiciously silent on We’re no Angels as well.
Baud
I’m a single issue voter. The only thing I want to know is where the candidates stand on Jar Jar Binks.
SiubhanDuinne
@cathyx:
Send John emails with your questions. He loves getting emails from us.
Djur
“Piss Christ” isn’t a political work or an attack on Christianity, and Andres Serrano is a legitimate artist (albeit one with something of a fixation on the grotesque and vulgar). What a ridiculous comparison.
Anibundel
@Baud: This single issue voter wants to know how Obama feels about The Hobbit being split into a trilogy. Is it worth it to spend nine more hours in Jackson’s middle earth? Or are we being rooked?
Anibundel
Bloody double posting iPad. I blame iOS6.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker:
The trees are too damn high!
Xecky Gilchrist
Yeesh, ANOTHER new frontpager?
…wait, what?
dmsilev
@Baud:
I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
trollhattan
No position on Piss Christ? Zounds, a dangerous non-opinion. Obama can perhaps head that off by weighing in on Terri Schiavo.
Josie
Is this like the times when John Cole says he is not going to post any more and then puts up multiple posts in a row? Inquiring minds would like to know.
4tehlulz
@trollhattan: Too soon.
Djur
@Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker: I think wingnuts confuse the Ottoman Empire with the Caliphate. The Ottoman Empire, by subsuming the role of caliph into the role of sultan, presided over a long period where Islam was essentially subordinate to the secular needs of the state. It was the fall of the Ottomans that permitted the rise of radical Islamism.
trollhattan
Just heard “Republican strategy expert Ed Rogers” on ATC declaring “This is Romney’s race to win.” Does Taco have a radio gig?
trollhattan
@4tehlulz:
Whoops. Who’s on Frist?
Mark S.
Obama also once read the first two chapters of Ulysses before giving up. He has yet to condemn that yet, but it is true that he didn’t get to the Molly section.
dance around in your bones
Ha, I have a Canadian friend who asked me if Bumfuck, CA was an actual place (I’d mentioned some mutual friends who had moved there). She was also unfamiliar with the term ‘going south’, but loved it once explained.
As far as unplugging the Intertubes, good call. I have never been able to do it, but I admire your fortitude.
22over7
I know that Peak Wingnut is a legend, and that the crazy will be with us always, but is it possible that people have finally had enough of it? That enough has filtered through to the consciousness of the average American, and that the average American is like, wait, what?
Laura C
My parents live in…closer to east bumfuck than a real city. College town of 29,000. Comcast fucks with them relentlessly. Constant problems, and then recently on a night they for a change were not having problems, they got a call telling them they’d been having a lot of problems and really needed to talk to a tech. So they set up a call with a tech. Who then did not know why the call was happening (BECAUSE YOUR COMPANY SET IT UP!!!) and wasted hours of their time being befuddled.
NewHavenGuy
Holy shit, anyone else notice what is happening in Libya? The Arab Spring is a big fuckin’ deal, I think.
Chris Stevens seemed to have truly loved Libya and its people; they seem to have noticed. Intellectually these are encouraging developments, but I for one am touched by the depth and ferocity of Libyan sentiment.
Rare that I am plainly and unabashedly proud of American foreign policy, but we did good here.
Mark S.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker:
She thinks going rogue means concern trolling about the national debt, you know, like every fucking Republican (and more than a few Democrat) politician does.
jacy
@cathyx:
If you were in Louisiana, the sub would just use duct tape.
Have I mentioned how much I hate it here? (Lousiana, not Balloon Juice. Balloon Juice is much more fun than Louisiana)
Baud
@NewHavenGuy:
I’ll wait to see how it plays out, but it’s encouraging.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@dmsilev:
My baby brother is a Thermoelectrics scientist who designs cooling & stuff. Getting the heat out is often as big a challenge and a greater expense than getting the circuitry to run. The Kinect device had terrible thermal challenges because it’s basically three full bore computers cranking their brains out in a narrow box. It’s running at the ragged edge of its heat dissipation capacity.
I discussed this with Mrs. inD. and we’ll be buying a new modem/router to have on hand when this one dies. It’s 18 months old, which is about 70 in human years.
jacy
@dmsilev:
My router is buried under a layer of Coke Zero cans and sleeping cats. Is that dangerous?
Mnemosyne
@dance around in your bones:
Back in good ol’ Illinois, we used a slightly longer phrase, usually referring to having to park a long way from our destination, as in, “I had to park way out in Bumblefuck, Egypt.”
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
@Mark S.: And unlike being a maverick what shoots from the hip, a rogue isn’t considered to be a good type.
Just Some Fuckhead
Is it true Serrano is Obama’s gay father?
Mnemosyne
@jacy:
It could be worse. My friend’s sister moved with her boyfriend to Mississippi.
BGinCHI
Over 50 responses and no one here has condemned Stalin?
I’m getting worried about this blog.
ETA: I condemn Stalin. Guy had no idea how communism worked. At times he was blowing into it.
Keith G
As much as I hate to highlight awful news from my city, Houston Police fatally shoot a mentally ill wheel chair-bound double amputee in self defense. He was wielding a pen in a threatening matter it seems.
Text and video here.
Baud
@NewHavenGuy: @Just Some Fuckhead:
I also read that Libya is going to change their flag to this.
quannlace
No need to go that far back. Why hasn’t Obama condemned that immodest painting ‘September Morn’ by Paul Émile Chabas. Those French again. Scandalous!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:September-Morning.jpg
Maude
So, Tiger man said he wanted to be one with the tigers. He almost got his wish.
Mark S.
@Just Some Fuckhead:
I just got a movie in the mail that makes that assertion.
Maude
@BGinCHI:
I condemn broccoli. I spelled that right. Medal for me.
Baud
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Two years ago, I would have replied “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” but Obama’s rendered that joke anachronistic.
Damn that Obama.
Richard W. Crews
If you ever saw “Piss Christ” and didn’t know the title or provenance, you would think it was a beautiful photo.
dance around in your bones
@Mnemosyne: Bumblefuck works.
I just thought it was hilarious that she thought it was a REAL place.
Jay in Oregon
@Baud:
Obama might be diplomatic and say that his daughters enjoyed The Phantom Menace, but that he’s itching to re-watch Star Wars in the Machete Order after the election.
Romney, of course, plans to appoint Senator Binks as Secretary of State.
Mr Stagger Lee
Decisions decisions, Michigan-Notre Dame is good defensive match up but Clemson-Florida State is pretty good also. Keep flipping channels I’m in hell.
dance around in your bones
@Just Some Fuckhead:
No, it’s Obama’s gay pepper.
I’m a pepper, he’s a pepper, she’s a pepper. wouldn’t you like to be a pepper too?
NewHavenGuy
@Baud: Some caution is in order, definitely. Transition of Eastern Europe wasn’t (and isn’t!)exactly easy either.
Still: truly quite amazed that I am not concerned about Islamists taking power in Tripoli, but rather that they aren’t butchered too horribly.
We made some allies here, maybe even some friends. Remember that some people thought our Iraq Adventure would topple walls and bring something resembling democracy to the region. In my wildest dreams I didn’t even think of stuff like that when the Libya intervention started, I just hoped it wasn’t a dreadful mistake. Much praise is due Clinton, Biden, Stevens and President Obama here.
Were that Syria was this “easy”. Interesting back and forth on that at Thomas Ricks’ blog. Good NYRB article too.
aangus
WARNING!! I am running 3 degrees F fever.
Please ignore all posts as if 5+.
:)
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
@Just Some Fuckhead: No. I believe the latest rumor is that he was gay married to his Pakistani college roommate. It’s difficult to keep up. Where’s that kilt wearing lawyer type guy when you need the straight story on these matters?
jacy
@Mnemosyne:
Mississippi only exists so people in Louisiana can say, “Thank Christ I don’t live in Mississippi.”
Inside my head, I live in a lovely Victorian in San Francisco. Also, I am single and childless, and my cat changes his own litterbox.
Josie
Since there is no college football open thread, I would like to say that Kansas State just scored against Oklahoma. Yay. As a proud Texas ex, I would like to see Bob Stoops’ team ground into tiny little bits.
ETA: Oops. I celebrated a little too early. Oklahoma intercepted and is ready to score.
NewHavenGuy
@Baud: Well, if Skynyrd can change flags(?!?) I guess anything’s possible. (Never liked the band much, but good on Gary Rossington. Better late than never.)
trollhattan
@efgoldman:
Don’t fall for it–he’s the Black Knight.
“‘Tis only a flesh wound.”
jacy
@aangus:
We all have headcolds here with varying amounts of feverishness. I blame fall.
On a related note: how many plusses is it for half a bottle of wine that I unexpectedly found in the back of the fridge? I didn’t bother to find a glass.
Bill Arnold
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
I must be an outlier. Have bought three wireless routers so far – a linksys-b, a linksys-g, and an asus-n. The -g and -n are still working and the -b may work but it was retired because the cable service was faster than 10 mb. One cable modem failure after about 5 years.
These have all always been plugged into a UPS (with surge suppressors built in), so they’re pretty well protected from power glitches.
trollhattan
@jacy:
+2.5. Five glasses per bottle, standard restaurant pour. If it’s the Althouse fridge, +12 for guzzling half a box.
Baud
@NewHavenGuy:
Interesting analogy. The Clinton folks deserve a lot of credit when you think about how much worse the Balkans could have been. I regularly see people move to the former Yugoslav republics on House Hunters International. Maybe in another decade, that can be Libya also.
Brandon
The only smart thing that Josh Marshall ever said was when he coined his “bitch slap” theory of politics. Here is a clear example.
TG Chicago
@Richard W. Crews: Agreed. As others have said, it’s actual art. I mean, you can stretch the definition of ‘art’ to include The Innocence of Muslims, but you reeeeally have to work at it.
From wiki:
Also, Christianists might not want to call so much attention to Piss Christ. Their whole take on the Muslim riots is that Muslims are uniquely savage and respond to affronts with violence. Piss Christ has inspired a number of violent attacks from Christian zealots, which kind of kills that (incredibly racist) theory.
Cacti
Given that Romney is now good for about one major gaffe per week, will we reach a point where some Goopers become demoralized and skip voting?
Mitt isn’t exactly a beloved figure on the other side.
I ask because, I don’t just want Obama to win. I want him to clean up in the swing states, and completely grind Romney’s ass into powder.
JPL
@Josie: Piss Christ and Christ Piss punished you for gloating.
BGinCHI
Fuck Notre Dame.
— Acts 23:6
Josie
@JPL: I know. I’m so ashamed.
ETA: NOT!
gelfling545
@Linda Featheringill: This is so. It was tough getting my head around the fact that he controls the weather, though.
Chuck Butcher
@Mnemosyne:
I live well east of East Bumfuck Egypt… oh yeah, middle of nowheresville – for the short time being.
Arm The Homeless
Does anyone else find it funny that West Virginia’s uniforms have digi-camo on them? Does their mascot have a set of truck nutz stapled to it? Jeezus John, how do you explain this shite?
You don’t see Stanford breaking out the tie-dye and paisley. Oregon has yet to introduce its flannel uniforms.
EDIT: GO NOLES!
F-L-O-R-I-D-A, S-T-A-T-E, FLORIDA STATE, FLORIDA STATE, FLORIDA STATE, WOO!
Mr Stagger Lee
@efgoldman: Florida State scores, meanwhile Oklahoma dodges a major bullet forcing Kansas State to do a FG. These games are good.
Jibeaux
Princess Bride was made in 1987. He better as fuck like that or I’m voting Gary Johnson.
Mnemosyne
@jacy:
One of the regulars here (Litlebritdifrnt, maybe?) says that one of her cats spontaneously started using the toilet, so maybe there’s hope on the “cleaning its own litterbox” front.
dmbeaster
Cole crawled out of his internet-free hole, saw his Fox shadow(in the form of piss Christ?), knew there was gonna be another six weeks of bitter winter election hell, and scurried back.
Alison
@Jibeaux: Who doesn’t like The Princess Bride? The very idea is….
…say it with me…
inconceivable!
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
@Jibeaux: Maybe. Unfortunately he was going through a phase in 1987 where he was only watching Films and skipping Movies.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Brandon:
You must not have been around when Josh was pushing this little story he discovered about political firings of US Attorneys who wouldn’t investigate voter fraud. He kept pushing until Big Media finally noticed and took it away from him. End result: bye bye Alberto Gonzalez. I get that you probably didn’t write that to disparage Josh generally, but you have to give him a lot of credit for that.
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
@dmbeaster: Ftw
Dennis SGMM
FWIW: I have had great reliability with LINKSYS routers. My wired one is seven ears old and still working fine. My wireless version is three years old. I do buy the expensive ones, but I only buy them once.
Redshift
@efgoldman: The Sith have given enough to demand his appointment, in order to undermine the Republic. (Autocorrect tried to turn the Sith into the South. Hmm.)
catclub
@Mnemosyne: Congrats! I remember when you posted happily about your new bike. Persistence is a virtue! I Hope the sinuses do not need dynamite.
mainmati
@Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker: Me too. A Rogue Mittbot would have a lot of random strange phrases with a lot of nasty ozone smell.
Corner Stone
Way to go Clemson, way to go!
Clap, clap, CLAPCLAPCLAP!!
Soonergrunt
So I bought a 2011 Ford Fusion SEL.
This is one fracking great car. Thanks to all here who recommended it.
That is all.
catclub
Since it is an open thread. I saw this from the Ritholz Big Picture blog. Not what one expects to find there, but he is pretty eclectic.
http://www.dailygood.org/view.php?sid=308
I (thankfully) resisted the temptation to tl:dr.
burnspbesq
@jacy:
Depends on whether the cats drank all the Coke Zero, or poked holes in the cans with their claws..
catclub
@Djur: Wingnuts confuse the ottoman empire with a furniture outlet. They confuse caliphate with what happens when you move out west and go all liberal.
Corner Stone
@efgoldman: Actually I’m a big Pac-10 sponsor.
Arm The Homeless
@Corner Stone: I expected nothing less from a Cocks fan. Delusional.
FormerSwingVoter
With this being an Open Thread, let me share a personal story.
I’ve decided to quit smoking. Got the nicotine gum and everything. Now I’ve gone six hours without a cig for the first time in god-knows-how-long and I’m about ready to stab someone in the face.
And I thought “I hate the world right now. I should check out Balloon Juice.”
I don’t know what that says about this place, my perceptions thereof, or just me in general ;)
Corner Stone
@Arm The Homeless: Well, I am a big fan of the Cocks.
Heywood J.
Folks, I just started a redesign of my blog, some of you have stopped through in the past, and I’d really appreciate your input, constructive or otherwise. Thanks.
Corner Stone
@FormerSwingVoter: Go fuck yourself.
JPL
@FormerSwingVoter: read comment 110… It won’t help but it will bide some time.
Corner Stone
Good God. Is Meechigan actually still a DIV I football team at this point?
Hill Dweller
Willard rigging the audience for the Univision forum is starting to get more attention in the MSM. Hopefully his tantrum over the initial hosts’ introduction and time limit demands will also get more attention.
different-church-lady
Hate to break it to you Buddy, but 24 hours from now Fox News will still exist.
different-church-lady
@Hill Dweller: Pig pile on Mitt. They smell loser in the water.
Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker
@Hill Dweller: You never know how wingnuts are gonna react when faced with their own hypocrisy, but this could make another double-plus-ungood week for Willard.
At the very least, it will lead to some uncomfortable questions. I seem to recall Tagg and his wife were involved in some attempt to get ‘personhood’ passed in MA.
General Stuck
@FormerSwingVoter:
Funny you should mention this. Though I quit smoking 12 years ago, I didn’t give up the nicotine habit, just swapping the smoke for smokeless tobacco. After over 10 years of that nasty shit, I was pondering ways to maybe quit, by fooling myself with a substitute chew without tobacco. Googled tobaccoless snuff, and found something called Smokey Mountain Herbal chew, with ginseng, cayenne pepper and various other urbs and spices. So I sent off through the ethers for a sample of the stuff. And was shocked how closely it mimicks the taste of skoal, and what I’m really hooked on, the cherry flavored. So that was three days ago I started, and should be clean or near so of tobacco poison and nicotine, for the first time since I was in the Army, a very long time ago. It is very weird, the feeling, light as air, kind of. I’m not certain, but even think maybe my dick grew a little today. Could be withdrawals though, and wishful thinking.
Arm The Homeless
@Corner Stone: You’re cute when you flirt. Anyone ever tell you that?
Brachiator
@Mark S.:
Obama read all of Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, and thoroughly enjoyed both works.
This annoys wingnuts greatly, who think that the only books you should have at home should be Atlas Shrugged and the Bible.
danielx
@Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker:
Snowbilly Snooki is so 2009 at this point. That being said, I despair for the country when I think that she is still taken as presidential material by several million people.
Yutsano
@Soonergrunt: Make sure the dickheads in big Ford trucks pay the fuck attention when they are driving. If all goes well you may hand that ride off to one of the Sooner spawn. :)
Patricia Kayden
@Hill Dweller: But he did the same thing for the NAACP speech. Wonder if he’ll try rigging the audience for the debates.
Hill Dweller
@Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker: Obama definitely has the momentum. He had a big crowd in Wisconsin earlier today, and the First Lady apparently gave another powerful speech at the CBC tonight. They’re going to be hard to beat, but I’d love to see the Willard campaign implode, giving away the House in the process.
Speaking of the Willard campaign, Ryan compared Obama’s medicare reforms to death panels today; a day after getting booed at the AARP.
Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker
@danielx: A year from now, Palin will be drawing smaller crowds, and lower speaking fees, than Dan Quayle. And, barring unforeseen icebergs, she’ll still be more popular among REpublicans than Willard
Jeff Spender
@Brachiator:
If ever there was a political lie…
Brachiator
@Hill Dweller:
On the other hand, the MSM will gloss over the fact that the Univision guys asked tough follow up questions to Romney, and that Latinos are not moved by his phoney attempts at outreach.
Rigging the audience is small cheese compared to the fawning and sucking up of Romney and the GOP by NBC’s Gregory and other hack journalists.
And then there is Fox News. I knew that they were in the bag for Mittens, but until a recent Maddow show, I didn’t realize the large number of Fox News special analysts who are coincidentally members of Romney’s campaign team. This dovetailed nicely with Frank Rich’s recent piece about how frustrated many wingnuts are at having nowhere to go to express their unhappiness with Mittens.
catclub
@General Stuck: Of course, it was the Grinch’s _heart_ that grew three sizes.
Foggy F Follansbye
@Baud: TOS or TNG? all i care about
FormerSwingVoter
@JPL: Surprisingly helpful, actually. Good thoughts are good right now.
@efgoldman: Thanks for the support. I don’t know how you quit being around it so often – if I had cigs in the house I would be literally unable to quit.
@General Stuck: I’ve heard that you feel much more energetic for a while once you quit and your body gets used to not having toxins in it at all times. Good to hear it might not be bullshit. Hang in there, and I’ll try to do the same. I’m hoping it gets easier once I get a full day or two under my belt.
catclub
@Brachiator: I see the audience packing as evidence of competence. George W Bush was the recent master of that technique, enforced by the Secret Service.
Desperation as well, but competence, nonetheless.
Mnemosyne
@catclub:
Thanks! I actually did pretty well at riding it to work 3 days a week most of the spring and summer, but we’ve reached that point of the year in So Cal where the temperatures are over 100 almost every day (aka September) so I haven’t done it in a few weeks. It should cool off again relatively soon so I won’t feel like I need a second shower when I get to work.
The only other thing I’m still nervous about is night riding. I may try to find a slow-paced group ride to practice with since otherwise I won’t be able to ride my bike to work between November and April.
jurassicpork
It could be worse, John: You could have my ISP (NetZero).
Top 10 Examples of How the Campaign Trail is Tough on Ann Romney.
Xecky Gilchrist
@FormerSwingVoter: I’ve decided to quit smoking.
Go on with it! The first week sucks, after that it’s hard, but after a month or so you’ll wonder why you ever did it. I’ve been off for close to 4 years and rarely think about it any more.
Old Dan and Little Ann
I was having 2 separate arguments with nutters last night and within about 5 minutes they both told me to stop drinking the kool-aid. Man, I hate that stupid fucking phrase.
Go Irish! Fuck Michigan.
Ruckus
@Keith G:
From the link.
An HPD spokesperson said quarters inside the home are cramped.
That’s as good a reason as any to shoot a literally unarmed man.
Brachiator
@catclub:
I see audience packing as desperate, delusional and self-defeating. For example, Romney has had enthusiastic women moved to the front at recent rallies. This isn’t fooling anyone or shoring up his support among women voters.
I thought it was Darth Cheney who was more likely to use the Secret Service to prune the crowds of dissident weeds.
Mr Stagger Lee
@efgoldman: Thank goodness there will be a playoff this year, because the NCAA does not want another LSU-Alabama snoozefest, Clemson-Florida State is a very entertaining game and Kansas State is making it hell for Oklahoma, in Norman no doubt. As for Michigan I expect as an Ohio State fan to enjoy the whipping in exchange for not going to a bowl this year.
Jay in Oregon
@efgoldman:
True, but Binks did vote in support of—and spoke extensively in favor of—granting expanded “emergency powers” to the Chancellor, in response to provocation by the breakaway Separatist movement*. Seems right up the GOP’s alley.
*Conspiracy theorists, or “Sithers”, maintain that the Separatists were encouraged to break away precisely in order to allow the Chancellor to seize those powers, but there is little evidence of that…
Mike Dixon
It should be noted that the liquid in Piss Christ is almost certainly apple juice or beer because urine doesn’t actually look like that. Serrano has been coy about this as his self-inflated iconoclast rep is all he’s got.
raven
@Mr Stagger Lee: HOW BOUT THEM DAWGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mike E
Just got back from working (volunteer) at a concession stand at our local state university, proceeds go to my daughter’s HS ROTC for scholarships, competitions, soup lies etc. Thank FSM for a late kickoff and a blowout, it can be a hard 4-5 hours otherwise.
raven
@Xecky Gilchrist: I quit over 40 years ago.
raven
@Old Dan and Little Ann: Before I got banned from FDL every fucking thread had someone saying “kabuki” god I hated that.
piratedan
@Old Dan and Little Ann: you can always respond with “that would be fine but I drink to cover up the smell of the shit you’re shoveling”
or u drop following on them when they use the “kool aid” phrase into… “in order words, you got nothing”
Ruckus
@FormerSwingVoter:
Not trying to break your bubble but my experience is that it takes about 2 weeks to have that 500 pound ass off your shoulder or at least reduced to about a pound and a quarter. You know the one telling you, Go ahead, it’s OK.
After that it is much, much easier. I went cold turkey but YMMV. After about 6 months any tobacco in my vicinity made me want to gag.
lamh35
Watching Star Trek: Generations. The movie where the Next Generation crew and the original crew are both “stars” of the movie. I can’t really remember if it was any good though. I’ll guess I’ll find out. Kinda can’t wait for the next new Star Trek movie with the younger versions of James T and the crew.
Mike G
It’s not getting much attention (I found it on the BBC’s website), but a crowd stormed the Benghazi base of the milita thought to be responsible for the consulate attack, killed six and scattered the rest into the desert.
It’s not often you see a spontaneous pro-US terrorist attack by arabs in the Middle East.
Corner Stone
Ouch. Coming back.
That’s gotta hurt.
ETA, jeez how do you let that guy run past you?
hildebrand
@Highway Rob: I haven’t read the whole thread as of yet, so I don’t know if you have received mad props for tipping your hat to that song – but I wanted to say that that is a great song, one of my favorites by They Might Be Giants.
Mr Stagger Lee
@raven: OMG Rutgers beat Arkansas! They may beg for Bobby Petrino’s forgiveness and ask him back! Georgia-Florida will be fun this year.
raven
@Mr Stagger Lee: I feel badly for John L.
Old Dan and Little Ann
I smoked for 15 years and quit 5 years ago along with my wife. I went cold turkey and haven’t had one since. She on the other hand, has been chewing nicotine gum since and generally bumming smokes when were out and about and someone else has them. Lame. Notre Dame is 4-0. Nice.
raven
@Old Dan and Little Ann: I stared smoking when I was 13 and quit, in Vietnam, when I was 19. Never looked back.
1badbaba3
@raven: I’ ll be very surprised if he lasts the whole season. This is a guy that couldn’t hack it in the Big 10. The pressure in the SEC is exponentially greater. He’ll get crushed like a probe going into Jupiter.
Lojasmo
The last two times my modems went south, the cable company magically discovered that the modems were unsupported.
Fuckers.
Lojasmo
OT I just got an iPad 3 using my Amex points. Very nice.
raven
@1badbaba3: Looks like Beckman at Illinois could be in some shit. LA Tech is killin my Illini. As a born and bred Illini let me be the first to observe that the Big 10 sucks. Go Dawgs!
Old Dan and Little Ann
@raven: I don’t miss it for a second. I always thought I coud quit when I felt like it. And I did. Frankly, I don’t give a shit if people smoke around me either. I give my wife a lot of shit, though.
raven
@Old Dan and Little Ann: Yea, my wife smoked when we met and it took her about three years to quit. I was pretty gentle with my criticism and I think she appreciated it.
Old Dan and Little Ann
@raven: It’s a long running joke I suppose. Every time I hear her tell someone that she has quit, I have to pipe up and say, “That’s not true!”
: )
Kathleen
@General Stuck: YES!!! Reds rule!!! Now I just hope Dusty gets well soon.
1badbaba3
And there goes Clemson. My God they are exciting as hell to watch on offense. But that ‘D’ is nowhere near as good yet. Looks like they’ll be goin’ to the chik-fil-a bowl in December.
Man, that Sammy Watkins is frakkin’ awesome!
pastormaker
Back in 1997, the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, Australia tried unsuccessfully to get the Victorian Supreme Court to apply archaic blasphemy laws and issue an injunction against an exhibition featuring Piss Christ.
Afterwards there were two vandalism attacks on the photograph by Christians, both of which the Archbishop refused to condemn.
The exhibition had to be shut down early.
Pseudonym
@Arm The Homeless: Have you seen Stanford’s mascot? Basically the equivalent of truck nutz.
Tie-dye and paisley is much more of a Cal thing anyways.
g
Obama refused to condemn “Piss Christ”? Why would he need to?
Pseudonym
@efgoldman: “Christ” and “Stupid as Piss” are the presumed keywords
Corner Stone
@Keith G:
Jesus fucking Christ.
Alison
Since it’s an OT:
WOOT! SF Giants just won the NL West :)
dance around in your bones
@Keith G:
Was it one of those James Bond kinda pens?
No, really, it’s just too awful to snark about.
AHH onna Droid
@lamh35: Cant remember if it was good? Gah, it was horrible. Pretentious, wildly careening in tone, poorly paced, nonsensical plot, it delivers on Shatner and Patrick Stewart on screen together and little else. Although I must admit I thought the lifeforms song was funny.
As a TOS fan, and aside from the merits of the film in general, I thought that Kirks Nexus fantasy was out of character. I found something off about the TNG part but I believe Redlettermedia and maybe SF Debris did a more thorough takedown of Generations misreprsenting The Picard.
Gretchen D
@FormerSwingVoter: I hope you got cheered up – I’m laughing my ass off – especially the “I’m a single issue voter – all I want to know is where the candidates stand on Jar Jar Binks” post.
Uriel
@FormerSwingVoter:
I can feel ya. I tried quitting on and off for over a decade. (First i’m finnaly gonna quit date: 9/11/2001- turned out to be the mother of all picking the wrong days to quit smoking.) Nohing worked for me untill I got one of the ecigs about 2 years ago- stopped completely the day it arrived, even though I still had two unopened packs. Ended up just throwing them away a month later.
Applejinx
Red Letter Media is _phenomenal_. Plinkett rules. But maybe I’ve been eating the pizza rolls?
As for pro-US vengeance killings in Libya, yay and all, but I can’t help thinking it could be chalked up to self-defense, very legitimately. Sort of “ARE YOU CRAZY? Did you see what they did to Iraq?”
However, i do believe they liked the Ambassador. The pitiable thing is, it’s not that hard to carry off effective diplomacy when you’re honestly interested in and care about the people and the culture you’re interacting with. It’s the wingnut attitude that doesn’t belong.
Steeplejack
I’m way late, but this thread made me feel better about having to replace my Scientific-Atlanta WebStar cable modem Friday after 6½ years.
The new modem (Cisco DPC3010) has been working flawlessly and has given me about a 20% speed increase (to 30 Mbps).
Mayken
@General Stuck: Go, Reds, go!
ComcastMark
Hi Laura – Please feel free to have your parents contact me. I work for Comcast and I will be happy to help. Sorry for the trouble.
Mark Casem
Comcast Corp.
National Customer Operations
[email protected]
ComcastMark
Hi Laura C. – Please feel free to have your parents contact me. I work for Comcast and I will be happy to help. Sorry for the trouble.
Mark Casem
Comcast Corp.
National Customer Operations
[email protected]