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You are here: Home / Politics / Republican Stupidity / The Last Four Years in One Quote

The Last Four Years in One Quote

by $8 blue check mistermix|  September 25, 20128:04 am| 118 Comments

This post is in: Republican Stupidity

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In an otherwise innocuous story about the new calorie labeling at MacDonalds, Dick Nigon of Sterling, VA is every Republican:

I did find one customer who had noticed the calorie labels: Dick Nigon of Sterling, Va. He and his wife, Lea, had stopped by McDonald’s after seeing an exhibit at the Renwick Gallery. Dick had ordered for the couple, noticed the calorie labels and liked them.

“I like that you have the information before you order,” he told me, when I asked about the labels. “It’s better than some kind of government health mandate in Obamacare.”

I told him that the calorie labels were, in fact, a government health mandate in Obamacare.

“Well that changes things a bit,” he responded. “I thought this was more of a voluntary sort of thing. Now I’m not quite sure how I feel about it.”

What’s dumber: the notion that MacDonald’s would voluntarily tell customers the calorie count of their greasy-ass food, or the way that the mere mention of “Obama” changes his mind?

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Reader Interactions

118Comments

  1. 1.

    PeakVT

    September 25, 2012 at 8:15 am

    Spite is not a good foundation for public policy. Ignorance, also, too.

  2. 2.

    jeffreyw

    September 25, 2012 at 8:17 am

    Greasy-ass food? Check.

  3. 3.

    Emma

    September 25, 2012 at 8:17 am

    After the past four years, color me NOT surprised.

  4. 4.

    4tehlulz

    September 25, 2012 at 8:20 am

    Hey, he didn’t firebomb the McDonald’s for their communist leanings.

    Baby steps, people. Baby steps.

  5. 5.

    Michael2

    September 25, 2012 at 8:21 am

    If we’re going to start restricting people’s access to the ballot box as a general principle (see: Republican goals), I vote we start with *this guy*. So frustrating.

  6. 6.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    September 25, 2012 at 8:23 am

    A perfect example of how these people are unreachable. You can’t compromise with em. He’s simply an example, writ small, of your typical House Republican.

    I know the type in that area oh-so-well from back when I lived in the area. They were what kept Northern VA typically red until the late 80s.

  7. 7.

    cmorenc

    September 25, 2012 at 8:23 am

    To be fair, for many non-tea-party Republicans, the key factor may simply be whether the calorie disclosures were:
    1) the result of enlightened private corporate practice (good) or;
    2) the result of yet another government regulation mandate (bad).
    OTOH, for more ardently ideological or tea-party Republicans, the inclusion of the “Obama” name behind the calorie disclosures is enough to trip their switch instantly from very good to atrociously terrible, regardless of whether they’d have supported this idea had the regulation come from the Bush Administration.

    SO: a more accurate answer to whether the response is determined more by generic ideology or by reaction particularly to Obama would have been to inform them that the calorie disclosure was done in response to a government regulation, without stating the connection to “Obamacare”. It would be interesting indeed to see what the reaction would be if you fibbed and told them the regs were originally proposed and put in place during the last year of the Bush Administration, but the requirement only went into effect more recently.

  8. 8.

    Linda

    September 25, 2012 at 8:23 am

    This doesn’t change things “a bit” for Dick Nigon. He will enter the pantheon of gits, just for a passing remark to a Washington Post writer.

  9. 9.

    JPL

    September 25, 2012 at 8:24 am

    The guy probably thinks that the auto industry voluntarily put seat restraints in because they wanted to save lives.

  10. 10.

    PeakVT

    September 25, 2012 at 8:25 am

    He and his wife talked it over a bit — she eating her grilled chicken sandwich, him eating a Big Mac — and didn’t come to much of a conclusion about whether this was a good idea.

    He can’t even follow through on being a dumbfuck.

  11. 11.

    WereBear

    September 25, 2012 at 8:25 am

    No idea that he grew up in the socialist hell of the New Deal and books like The Jungle and the FDA was created because women were getting blinded by cosmetic treatments.

    He figures businesses just do nice things for people.

    Is “screaming a-hole” one of my choices?

  12. 12.

    hueyplong

    September 25, 2012 at 8:33 am

    Their a-holedom masks the fact that the GOP also fairly uniformly chooses candidates who wear a total lack of intellectual curiosity as a badge of honor/purity/patriotism.

    Look at who they identify as “serious” (they would never use the word “intellectual” to describe one of their own).

  13. 13.

    EconWatcher

    September 25, 2012 at 8:35 am

    I live just a few miles from Sterling, VA. The place is brimming with small contractors who are making a fortune, directly or indirectly, from federal government spending, but want the government to get the hell off their backs. It’s the kind of place where I repeatedly saw gas-guzzling Hummers with “fight terrorism” bumper stickers. What can I say? They ain’t too bright.

  14. 14.

    cmm

    September 25, 2012 at 8:35 am

    I do like the winger endorsement of defying the nanny state by indulging in soft drinks that come in buckets rather than 16 oz cups, and showing those gay marriers that they support the hate by scarfing up fast food chicken. Maybe they will kill themselves off faster.

  15. 15.

    Sargent Pepper's Spray

    September 25, 2012 at 8:37 am

    I hope Obama starts to encourage Americans to flush their toilets after every shit.

    By the end of the month you’ll be able to smell which of your neighbors are Wingnuts from a mile away.

  16. 16.

    EconWatcher

    September 25, 2012 at 8:38 am

    @cmm:

    We really should remind them, often, that the warnings on cigarette packets are mandated by the government, and therefore must be false propaganda.

  17. 17.

    Schlemizel

    September 25, 2012 at 8:39 am

    @JPL:
    I was having breakfast in a DC hotel years ago and at the next table was a national salesman for USA Today and a buyer from some astroturf group. The buyer explained that his organization was funded by the (then) big 3 in Detroit and needed some number of states to pass mandatory seatbelt laws. They had gotten Congress to delay airbags if some number of states had mandatory laws and this buyer said they were so far behind Japanese manufacturers it would kill them if they had to install airbags.

    So the “evil government dictating seatbelts”? Yeah that was Detroit using the government as a shield to protect them from their own stupidity & greed.

  18. 18.

    Linda Featheringill

    September 25, 2012 at 8:39 am

    @PeakVT: #10

    He and his wife talked it over a bit — she eating her grilled chicken sandwich, him eating a Big Mac — and didn’t come to much of a conclusion about whether this was a good idea.

    The guy read the nutrition labels and then had a Big Mac anyway? That heart attack on a bun?

  19. 19.

    Schlemizel

    September 25, 2012 at 8:41 am

    @Linda Featheringill:
    Just because they post it & he read it does not mean he knows what the hell it means.

    Otto: Apes don’t read philosophy.
    Wanda: Yes they do, Otto. They just don’t understand it.

  20. 20.

    beltane

    September 25, 2012 at 8:42 am

    I hope Obama comes out with a public service announcement urging people to avoid eating the yellow snow.

  21. 21.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    September 25, 2012 at 8:43 am

    “Now I’m not quite sure how I feel about it.”

    It’s funny when you can actually hear them thinking “Let me go listen to Rush first to see what I’m supposed to think about this” almost as if out loud.

    “Knowing the calories, that’s good. But “Obama”, that’s bad, right??”

    Poor guy. Rush and FOX need to give these people tools, dammit, to go out and be talking point generators on their own.

  22. 22.

    Uncle Cosmo

    September 25, 2012 at 8:44 am

    Doesn’t this fit right in with that psychological study that found when right-wingers are shown a list of statements they agree with & then shown that each one of them is demonstrably wrong, they double down on their support of the wrongness?

    IMHO the worst aspect of contemporary computer technology is how it enables the ignorati to live not just in their own private bubbles but on their own personalized holodecks, where they can dial up an illusion that the world is exactly as they want/believe it is so thick & detailed it crowds out the really real. Charles Pierce called their mind-messing substance of choice Sterno but let’s face it, these folks are by&large WiFi wireheads.

  23. 23.

    Scratch

    September 25, 2012 at 8:45 am

    Just this morning I was thinking about how some conservatives went all weird when Obama said that checking the tire pressure of you car is a good idea to help save gas and money.

    If Obama were a genius sociopath, he would say how it’s really not a good idea to put a plastic bag over one’s head and seal it up around the neck with duct tape. This country would then likely see a 27% drop in population.

  24. 24.

    hueyplong

    September 25, 2012 at 8:46 am

    Or Obama could forcefully tell Americans to go to the polls on Nov 6 and NOT on Nov 7.

  25. 25.

    cathyx

    September 25, 2012 at 8:48 am

    He was for it before he was against it.

  26. 26.

    rikyrah

    September 25, 2012 at 8:53 am

    it’s Obama Derangement Syndrome typified.

  27. 27.

    Elizabelle

    September 25, 2012 at 8:54 am

    Fun having a laugh at Mr. Nigon’s expense.

    Thank you for posting this.

    No idea calorie labeling was an ObamaCares requirement. Excellent.

    They’ve done this in California for some time, and it DOES change the way you eat, if you care about nutrition and calories.

  28. 28.

    Laura

    September 25, 2012 at 8:54 am

    @Uncle Cosmo: Do you have any more info about that study? I’ve never heard of it.

  29. 29.

    dr. bloor

    September 25, 2012 at 8:55 am

    @Linda Featheringill:

    The guy read the nutrition labels and then had a Big Mac anyway? That heart attack on a bun?

    You can choose to believe the theory or not, and it’s a maddeningly slow process sometimes, but evolution will prevail.

  30. 30.

    General Stuck

    September 25, 2012 at 8:56 am

    Republicans are so desperate, they are all sitting around the tribal camp fire taking turns making up the most bizarro shit, in hopes of snagging the next news cycle.

    Today, Michael ‘torture apologist’ Mukasey pens an article in the WSJ, reading the chicken entrails on one of the latest memes of bullshit spun by the wurlitzer. There is all kinds of double reverse sekret messaging going on in terrorist support society that is the Obama administration.
    Including such damning reports of Obama officials telling the world they have no such plans to release the so called “blind sheik” currently in federal prison on terrorist convictions.

    Then there are the statements of U.S. officials on the subject, which all have sounded excruciatingly lawyered. Asked before Congress in July whether there is an intention “at any time to release the Blind Sheikh,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano responded: “Well, let me just say this. I know of no such intention.”

    Velly suspicious denial, what she really means is “Obama hates America”, of course.

    The State Department’s spokesperson last week, after the ceremonial “let me be clear,” said that there had been no approach on this topic “recently” from any “senior” official of the Egyptian government—an elucidation laden with ambiguity and certain to send chills up the spine of anyone familiar with Abdel Rahman’s record and President Morsi’s inclinations.

    elucidations elucidations. Laden with ambiguity. Go fuck yerself Michael, with Albeto’s dick. If you can find it.

    Then there is this right wing echo chamber smear attempt of the “Occupy Movement’

    The Weekly Standard picked up the story this afternoon, writing that the Iranian dictator was going to meet with Occupy activists.

    Bill Kristol must be sneering in his sleep again. But I love the Occupy Wallstreet response.

    “Nobody in their right mind would meet with a fascist dictator like Ahmadenijad,” said Shawn Carrié, a longtime Occupy activist, in a direct message. “I think it’s been blown way out of proportion. There were some emails floating around on listservs about going to *protest* his appearance.”

    Easy to misunderstand. Emails floating around of the Occupy movement “protesting” Achmahandjob, is a clear signal of “planning to meet with him”. I don’t know how I can feel any more contempt for these malignant assholes, but each new day brings new disgust.

  31. 31.

    SenyorDave

    September 25, 2012 at 8:58 am

    @PeakVT: Fortunately there will be some Darwinism at work, so in about ten years after his heart explodes from eating his 10,000th Big Mac (all eaten to spite the blackity, blackity, blackity president), his wife can re-marry a man with an ounce of common sense.

  32. 32.

    Napoleon

    September 25, 2012 at 8:58 am

    @Laura:

    I think what he is refering to is a study done, if I am remembering correctly, this guy:

    http://www.brendan-nyhan.com/

    a little google work or looking at his site may get you the specifics

  33. 33.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    September 25, 2012 at 8:58 am

    @Elizabelle: No kidding. Been a few years, hasn’t it?

    Seeing that the muffin you’re about to order at Starbucks contains a third of your entire day’s calories, that will wake you up faster than the coffee does.

  34. 34.

    cathyx

    September 25, 2012 at 9:01 am

    Or that vente frapachino you’re going to have for breakfast is enough calories for the entire day.

  35. 35.

    Dennis SGMM

    September 25, 2012 at 9:01 am

    @dr. bloor:

    You can choose to believe the theory or not, and it’s a maddeningly slow process sometimes, but evolution will prevail.

    Red states tend to lead the nation in obesity.

  36. 36.

    Elizabelle

    September 25, 2012 at 9:01 am

    @EconWatcher:

    Oh yeah.

    I have done some Obama canvassing very near you. Government and contracting with the government built those expensive houses on rolling land, with a view of the far hills and jets bound for foreign lands.

    A change in behavior this week: got loads of people who refused to talk to me, and that’s new.

    A lot of them women, and I think privileged women who don’t take perceptions of losing to Obama very well.

    And we ARE finding Obama supporters in those expensive neighborhoods.

    I love telling them they have more support than they think, even on streets festooned with Romney yard signs.

  37. 37.

    Ash Can

    September 25, 2012 at 9:04 am

    @cmorenc: This. The mindset is, even if I think it’s a good thing and I like it, the fact that it comes from government makes it a bad thing — i.e., my ideology trumps my own personal well-being. It’s the essence of irrationality — there’s no way to reason with it.

  38. 38.

    Elizabelle

    September 25, 2012 at 9:05 am

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    I remember when everybody was eating Happy Meal sized fast food. And happy with it.

    Before Hardee’s went national, and before food was super-sized.

    I still order my Happy meals from time to time.

    And now they come with apple slices, automatically.

    Asked the young kid I was with “do kids eat the apple slices?” He didn’t think so, and continued with his quarter pounder with cheese.

    However: the apples make a nice snack for the adult who drives.

  39. 39.

    jibeaux

    September 25, 2012 at 9:11 am

    McDonald’s nutritional info has been out there voluntarily, if you hunted for it or asked for the special menu behind the counter, for years. Putting it up for everyone to see, even in apparently small type, is the required part. I appreciate big gubmint coming in because there are still places that I like to go where you can’t find their nutritional info even on the website. It’s crazy.

  40. 40.

    amy c

    September 25, 2012 at 9:18 am

    @EconWatcher: I’m also a (semi-reluctant) NoVA resident, and yeah – the cognitive dissonance here is like nothing I’ve ever seen. So many people here have these wonderful, picture perfect lives – good schools, nice cars, beautiful homes that only ever go up in value – and they owe every damn bit of it to government spending and programs. Which is fine, but eight times out of ten these same folks reflexively want big bad socialist Obama out of their business.

    When a person has a college degree thanks to the GI Bill and buys a beautiful house thanks to a no-downpayment VA loan and owes her job security to huge defense contracts and earns an inflated salary due to the Security Clearance apparatus and gets a nice tax refund thanks to the mortgage interest tax deduction, I cannot take that person seriously when she turns around and preaches about the need to vote libertarian in order to keep government out of our lives. And this place seems to be crawling with these folks. I know several of them. They never have any self-awareness of the situation at all.

    I would love to understand the brain that can compartmentalize like this, that can suck down every last drop of government assistance when it benefits them, then vote to pull up the ladder behind them without any irony at all. Of course they don’t usually say it that way, they usually say they’re SO concerned with individual freedom. Bullshit. You’re concerned with keeping the defense gravy train rolling then making sure nobody else gets a cut.

  41. 41.

    EconWatcher

    September 25, 2012 at 9:18 am

    @Elizabelle:

    More power to you.

  42. 42.

    Culture of Truth

    September 25, 2012 at 9:24 am

    Well just look at Romneycare. It was “fabulous plan” until the Hussein guy tried it. Now it’s fascism.

  43. 43.

    redshirt

    September 25, 2012 at 9:25 am

    LOL. Awesome anecdote. Sums everything up – also, makes me fully understand the Tea Party Republican perfectly represent their constituents, which is Democracy in action!

  44. 44.

    EconWatcher

    September 25, 2012 at 9:28 am

    @amy c:

    My wife and I came here from Chicago because I got a really great job opportunity (yes, indirectly connected to the federal government).

    But we’d like to go back when we can, mainly because we find many of the people around here very unappealing, partly because of the reasons you’ve mentioned. This is the epicenter of IGMFY.

  45. 45.

    Face

    September 25, 2012 at 9:30 am

    We are really to the point that Obummer needs to declare that it’s hazardous to drink glacial acetic acid.

  46. 46.

    Culture of Truth

    September 25, 2012 at 9:31 am

    Hell, it got to the point where they weren’t sure how they felt about getting bin Laden or the fall of Qaddafi. Give them a year and they won’t be sure about bald eagles or whether flag burning is all bad.

  47. 47.

    redshirt

    September 25, 2012 at 9:34 am

    Michelle Obama needs to get out in front of a nationwide anti-suicide campaign.

  48. 48.

    grandpa john

    September 25, 2012 at 9:36 am

    @PeakVT: hmm Big Mac – 540 cal,
    29 g. of fat, 45 g. of carbs.
    All of this information can already be found, I got mine out out of the”Calorie, Fat, and Carbohydrate Counter” book that came with my insulin pump.
    I imagine that if the day comes he becomes diabetic, he will pay much more attention to those details, and that required information, I certainly do.
    By the way, a five guys bacon cheeseburger has 920 calories, along with 62 g of fat. quite a meal huh?

  49. 49.

    Linda Featheringill

    September 25, 2012 at 9:37 am

    @Elizabelle:

    Brava! You’re doing a real service to your society when you encourage the highly intelligent people in that community. You’re giving them courage to act today and in the future. Who knows what they might accomplish if only they would dare?

  50. 50.

    FlipYrWhig

    September 25, 2012 at 9:45 am

    This guy’s head has one switch: government telling someone what to do = bad soçialism/lost liberty.

  51. 51.

    grandpa john

    September 25, 2012 at 9:49 am

    @cmm: Well yes , but the problem is that they are also increasing health cost for everyone, Although my diabetes is hereditary , Much of the tidal wave of Diabetes sweeping this country especially among the young can be attributed to eating habits, like fast food and sugary drinks. the super size it mantra that all the fast food places push.
    Look around sometimes at the number of children even under school age that are actually obese. they have been raised on pop tart and fake juice loaded with sugar breakfasts, mac and cheese lunches, and fast food or pizza suppers. all loaded with fat and carbs.

  52. 52.

    The Fat Kate Middleton

    September 25, 2012 at 9:52 am

    @Elizabelle:

    A change in behavior this week: got loads of people who refused to talk to me, and that’s new.
    A lot of them women, and I think privileged women who don’t take perceptions of losing to Obama very well.
    And we ARE finding Obama supporters in those expensive neighborhoods.

    This is what I experienced last weekend. Canvassed in a very pricey neighborhood, close to a third of those who spoke with me refused to reveal who they were supporting. Exactly two people admitted to supporting Romney, the rest were enthusiastic Obama supporters.

  53. 53.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    September 25, 2012 at 10:04 am

    @EconWatcher:

    Welcome to exurban/suburban VA. I grew up in the area and my family on my mother’s side goes back to the origins of dirt in places like Loudon County.

    As you’ve seen, the further west you go on Route 7, the more virulently red the place gets. The only reason the three counties in the eastern Panhandle of WV aren’t part of VA is back when the “state” voted to secede from VA during the Civil War, Union troops occupied the place and watched the voting closely. As such, all the southerners that dominated the place didn’t vote.

    That pattern has stayed in place to today, particularly as the metro area has spread like a cancer in every possible direction.

    The vast majority of the people there are no more than 2 degrees of separation, job wise, from the federal teat. And they loves them their schools. For example, the voters in Fairfax County have *never* voted down a school bond issue. But get all the McMansion-owning Repups to think about that in a larger sense and as mentioned above by the current residents, you get classic Republican-speak.

    The only reason the area finally trended blue over the last 25 years was the massive influx of outsiders. When I was growing up there and even as late as around 1990, it was still far more red than blue.

    So what do I do? Leave that and move to the second reddest county in Missouri. I are a moran.

  54. 54.

    Steve M.

    September 25, 2012 at 10:05 am

    Funny, I don’t remember any left-leaning 18-20-year-olds refusing to vote because the president who helped get them the vote was Nixon.

  55. 55.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    September 25, 2012 at 10:06 am

    @The Fat Kate Middleton:

    …close to a third of those who spoke with me refused to reveal who they were supporting.

    aka Embarassed Republicans

    They’re a NoVA feature. I knew zillions of them when I lived there, the classic “fiscally conservative’ (ie. I hate paying taxes), “socially librul” (my wife wants an abortion if we ever need it) types. Back in the 80s and early 90s, they could somewhat get away with that claptrap. Now that the loonies have taken over the party, they can’t, but they also can’t admit they still vote that way.

    Assholes do vex me.

  56. 56.

    Dork

    September 25, 2012 at 10:10 am

    Akin sked’d a presser today, the last day he can bolt the race. I dont think he’s going to walk, but if he does, I wonder how much Koch offered him to bail…10 million? 20 million?

  57. 57.

    Forum Transmitted Disease

    September 25, 2012 at 10:16 am

    This is the kind of guy that would throw away a gold ingot, if it were given to him by a black man.

  58. 58.

    jrg

    September 25, 2012 at 10:24 am

    He and his wife talked it over a bit — she eating her grilled chicken sandwich, him eating a Big Mac — and didn’t come to much of a conclusion about whether this was a good idea.

    Holy shit. Paging John Kennedy Toole.

  59. 59.

    Cassidy

    September 25, 2012 at 10:34 am

    I thought I heard something about Obama coming out against drinking radiator fluid and passing a law making it mandatory?

  60. 60.

    David Hunt

    September 25, 2012 at 10:34 am

    I know I’m late to this party, but it struck me that the fellow quoted above could do very well as a Republican member of Congress.

    Conservatism = the opposite of what liberals want today, updated daily.

  61. 61.

    Villago Delenda Est

    September 25, 2012 at 10:34 am

    I’m afraid Mr. Nigon is one of those twits who needs to be hit upside the head, repeatedly, with a clue by four.

  62. 62.

    Tone in DC

    September 25, 2012 at 10:36 am

    @Sargent Pepper’s Spray:

    Good one, Sergeant.

  63. 63.

    smith

    September 25, 2012 at 10:37 am

    @amy c:

    So is she one of those who insist that she did “everything on her own” and pulled herself up by her bootstraps? Libertarians are so damn annoying when they say with a straight face they never received any government help whatsoever.

    I long to drop these people off in Somalia or some mountain range and see how these Galtians fend for themselves.

    @grandpa john:

    He’ll sue McDonald’s for serving food they knew was bad for people. Or he’ll turn around and blame the government for not banning Big Macs. I can see it coming around the corner.

  64. 64.

    kindness

    September 25, 2012 at 10:39 am

    The bigots….they are hurting America. Now when I use the term ‘bigots’ here, I am not only referring to a person’s race or religion. I’m also referring to the bigotry of partisan politics.

    The right is just clueless that they aren’t supposed to be openly bigoted about other people’s politics.

  65. 65.

    priscianusjr

    September 25, 2012 at 10:46 am

    “It is the very heart of fascism to think that what matters is not what is true, but what one holds to be true.What one holds to be true is important because it can produce that resolute will tuned to its own triumph.”
    George Grant: from ‘The Triumph of the Will’

  66. 66.

    horatius

    September 25, 2012 at 10:52 am

    I think you are being unfair to Dick here. First he was against Obamacare. But after revealing what Obamacare did to McDonalds, not he’s not so sure that Obamacare is all that bad.

  67. 67.

    Uncle Cosmo

    September 25, 2012 at 10:56 am

    @Napoleon: That looks like it, thanks. Here’s a link to the PDF.

    Money quote:

    We also document several instances of a “backfire effect” in which corrections actually increase misperceptions among the group in question.

  68. 68.

    Mnemosyne

    September 25, 2012 at 10:57 am

    @Elizabelle:

    If I end up at McDonald’s, I almost always get the Happy Meal. At least at the one near me, you now get BOTH apples and a little mini serving of french fries (100 calories of fries is tiny!), which is even better IMO. Once I got serious about Weight Watchers, I became very fond of miniature food.
    :-)

  69. 69.

    Dork

    September 25, 2012 at 10:58 am

    Cant link, but Yahoo has just put up a story how Scott “Unions can suck my ballz” Waker now wants unionized refs back on the field.

    Quality labor work force, how does this fucking work?

  70. 70.

    Mnemosyne

    September 25, 2012 at 11:00 am

    @horatius:

    That’s how I was interpreting it, too — he had a knee-jerk reaction to “Obamacare,” but talking to the reporter and then to his wife seemed to make him a little uncertain that Obamacare was automatically all bad. Always hard to say when you’re reading a written piece, of course.

  71. 71.

    Chris Andersen

    September 25, 2012 at 11:05 am

    It’s good until government gets involved. Then it is bad. Why? Because government always spoils everything.

    That’s the thinking we are dealing with here.

  72. 72.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    September 25, 2012 at 11:07 am

    @Culture of Truth:

    Give them a year and they won’t be sure about bald eagles or whether flag burning is all bad.

    __
    Burn a copy of the Confederate Stars-and-Bars. That’ll get a rise out of them.

  73. 73.

    Elizabelle

    September 25, 2012 at 11:14 am

    @Mnemosyne:

    I did notice they had downsized the freedom fries, even (I think) from what used to be served with a child’s meal. Cute little carton, almost like a toy. (Think child’s play kitchen set.)

    Wondered if fries were smaller since that Kenyan socialist is making them serve apples too, but maybe that IS what 100 calories looks like.

    Yum.

  74. 74.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    September 25, 2012 at 11:20 am

    @grandpa john: While the lifestyles – ginormous portions as the norm and lots of sugar and pre-sugar carbs -have a lot to do with obesity, it’s a mistake to overlook the ubiquity of endocrine disruptors in the environment. Those tend to exponentially (slight exaggeration, but not very)increase the effects of poor eating habits.

    And that drives up health care costs for all of us. Pisses me off from time to time.

  75. 75.

    hep kitty

    September 25, 2012 at 11:21 am

    How about we just get the gov’t to back off, period? Everywhere. At every level of gov’t. See how you like getting murdered in your own home and having squatters on your property and not a damn thing you can do about it. Watching your kids get violently ill from drinking poisoned water.

    Just for starters.

    And you know, cuz of states rights and everything, not much the fed gubmint can do to stop it when it’s been drowned in the bathtub.

  76. 76.

    Tone in DC

    September 25, 2012 at 11:30 am

    @comrade scott’s agenda of rage:

    LULz.
    Arlington has been dragged kicking and screaming into the late 20th century. It had to happen at some point.

    Kaine just needs to beat “Macaca” Allen to keep things moving.

  77. 77.

    McJulie

    September 25, 2012 at 11:32 am

    @Elizabelle: Just a little shout-out to Seattle-area burger chain Dick’s Drive-In. Opened in 1954 and their burgers and fries are still the same size. You want more, order two.

  78. 78.

    f space that

    September 25, 2012 at 11:35 am

    I’m sure I’m late to the party, but he can go f*ck himself.

  79. 79.

    Ben Cisco

    September 25, 2012 at 11:36 am

    I’d saw off one of my arms for either President or Mrs. Obama to do a PSA warning of the dangers of drinking bleach.

    Preferably before the election.

  80. 80.

    smith

    September 25, 2012 at 11:36 am

    @hep kitty:

    These big bad fearsome conservatives and libertarians will just say that since they own guns they’ll just blow the bad guys and squatters away.

    Sadly, most conservatives and libertarians don’t give a shit about people dying as long as it isn’t them or someone they know. Because, you know, they don’t think it will happen to them – the squatters, the poor drinking water, etc. They honestly think they’re the chosen ones who will be spared and it’s just the “moochers” and “freeloaders” who will suffer.

  81. 81.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    September 25, 2012 at 11:40 am

    @Tone in DC:

    My dad was an Arlington County cop for 30+ years. To this day, I’m not sure of his politics. He did see the place change significantly from the 60s to the 90s and much to my surprise, adapted well in his job to the changing context of his surroundings.

    But yeah, NoVA was the Deep South well into the 70s. That’s why most of the surrounding counties are still godawful red. Somebody from Faquier County has a diary up over at the GOS:
    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/24/1135704/-My-First-Diary-A-Small-Red-VA-County
    about the slooooowly changing dynamics there.

  82. 82.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    September 25, 2012 at 11:42 am

    @jibeaux: there are still places that I like to go where you can’t find their nutritional info even on the website.

    My favorite ones of those are the places that know their food is a disaster but have been browbeaten about their not having nutrition info so they have the really hedgy stuff about “If you order the Super-Lite Anorexia Special(TM) and ask them to hold the cheese and the mayo and only eat 1/3 of it the total calories come in well under the total daily allowance. But we’re not going to give you NUMBERS or anything.”

  83. 83.

    Cassidy

    September 25, 2012 at 11:42 am

    @smith: Everyone imagines themselves a king when society takes a shit. It never occurs to them that they and their sons will become food and their wives and daughters turned into sex slaves as the strong dominate the weak.

  84. 84.

    RSA

    September 25, 2012 at 11:49 am

    @Linda Featheringill:

    The guy read the nutrition labels and then had a Big Mac anyway?

    He remembered that Michelle Obama said it was bad for him.

  85. 85.

    smith

    September 25, 2012 at 11:51 am

    @Ben Cisco:

    I heartily endorse this.

    I also want Obama to warn about playing with matches and the dangers of setting oneself on fire.

  86. 86.

    hep kitty

    September 25, 2012 at 11:51 am

    @smith: Yep, I guess they can’t concieve of the day somebody with a bigger gun than theirs is gonna climb those porch stairs and bust open that front door. By that time, IED’s will be legal.

  87. 87.

    Cassidy

    September 25, 2012 at 11:54 am

    @smith: Hey now…I’m going to school to be a firefighter and I live in the South. I don’t need any of that stupid.

  88. 88.

    Forum Transmitted Disease

    September 25, 2012 at 12:01 pm

    Everyone imagines themselves a king when society takes a shit. It never occurs to them that they and their sons will become food and their wives and daughters turned into sex slaves as the strong dominate the weak.

    @Cassidy: Our next ruling class has been through training and finishing school, courtesy of the American judiciary and prison/industrial complex.

    The fat white NoVA assholes who put them there will be first on their very long list of people to exact revenge on.

  89. 89.

    Elizabelle

    September 25, 2012 at 12:03 pm

    @Cassidy:

    Keep me to tell you — Good luck! Somewhere is going to be markedly safer with you as a firefighter.

    And maybe you can add some firefightin’ grub to TaMara’s Thursday food posts.

    Rumor has it there is some good cooking going on in firehouses.

  90. 90.

    Cassidy

    September 25, 2012 at 12:16 pm

    @Elizabelle: I hadn’t thought of the food bit and Tamara. I will definitely rmemebr that for later.

  91. 91.

    AriinPHD

    September 25, 2012 at 12:40 pm

    Hey, people are dumb. Can’t do anything but getting used to it. Dumb is here to stay.

  92. 92.

    trollhattan

    September 25, 2012 at 12:43 pm

    @JPL:
    Double rights infringement: not only do I have these unwanted belts on account of the meddlesome gummint, I have to WEAR the things or I get taxed! (Wait: is a ticket a “tax” or a “penalty”? Somebody call the Supreme Court.)

    Rear view mirrors, headlights, taillights, turn signals, fuel injection, catalytic converters, gas pedal on the right/brake pedal on the left….Stoopid gummint–you’ve made cars so uninteresting!

  93. 93.

    Monala

    September 25, 2012 at 12:49 pm

    @jibeaux: No, you didn’t even have to ask. All you had to do was flip over the paper liner they always place on the tray if you were eating in — the calorie information has been provided there for many years now.

  94. 94.

    Monala

    September 25, 2012 at 12:49 pm

    @jibeaux: No, you didn’t even have to ask. All you had to do was flip over the paper liner they always place on the tray if you were eating in — the calorie information has been provided there for many years now.

  95. 95.

    Michael Bersin

    September 25, 2012 at 12:57 pm

    @Sargent Pepper’s Spray:

    Win!

  96. 96.

    Bubblegum Tate

    September 25, 2012 at 1:01 pm

    @EconWatcher:

    We really should remind them, often, that the warnings on cigarette packets are mandated by the government, and therefore must be false propaganda.

    A lot of them already believe this.

  97. 97.

    Chris

    September 25, 2012 at 1:14 pm

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    It’s funny when you can actually hear them thinking “Let me go listen to Rush first to see what I’m supposed to think about this” almost as if out loud.

    I have a friend like that. Well, acquaintance.

    Took a facebook political quiz before the 2008 election to find out which of the Republican candidates was closest to her own views, then pouted when it turned out to be McCain, because “he’s not a real conservative.”

    Whined that “I agree we need A stimulus just not THAT stimulus,” was asked “okay, what would you have done?” and proceeded to outline almost exactly the Obama stimulus (but still couldn’t be convinced to say it was okay when it turned out that that was, in fact, the Obama stimulus).

    Refused to live in black and Hispanic dominant neighborhoods because she was afraid she’d be a victim of crimes, until you showed her crime maps that showed those districts hadn’t had a violent crime in years and years, and then realized she’d been making prejudiced judgments… nah, totally kidding. Still maintains she’d have been violently attacked (but she’s not a racist).

    Talking to a wingnut is like interviewing the members of the Soviet State Planning Committee; everything conforms to the ideology, because if it didn’t, well, then where would we be?

  98. 98.

    El Cid

    September 25, 2012 at 1:20 pm

    DICK NIGON (real name?) should defy the librul nanny-state types by showing up every day at McDonalds and consume double portions of the largest, fattiest, highest salt and sugar content items on the menu.

    That’d show ’em!

  99. 99.

    Ms. D. Ranged in AZ

    September 25, 2012 at 1:24 pm

    @Emma:

    After the past four years, color me NOT surprised.

    “Color” being the operative word there.

  100. 100.

    Ms. D. Ranged in AZ

    September 25, 2012 at 1:26 pm

    @El Cid: Ha! Funny you should say that…I have a co-worker who has been eating at Chik-Fil-A every other day for weeks now in order to show his support for the filthy bigots. I just smile every time he consumes another fat-filled fried chicken sandwich.

  101. 101.

    Tone in DC

    September 25, 2012 at 1:43 pm

    @comrade scott’s agenda of rage:

    I can only imagine the big VA’s northern edge forty years ago. Let alone a few other places, like Stafford and Emporia.

  102. 102.

    Joel

    September 25, 2012 at 1:47 pm

    @Face: The glacial refers to the refreshing qualities of the product. Like vitamin water, only better.

  103. 103.

    Another Halocene Human

    September 25, 2012 at 2:19 pm

    @amy c:

    When a person has a college degree thanks to the GI Bill and buys a beautiful house thanks to a no-downpayment VA loan and owes her job security to huge defense contracts and earns an inflated salary due to the Security Clearance apparatus and gets a nice tax refund thanks to the mortgage interest tax deduction, I cannot take that person seriously when she turns around and preaches about the need to vote libertarian in order to keep government out of our lives. And this place seems to be crawling with these folks. I know several of them. They never have any self-awareness of the situation at all.

    Oh, sure they do. They don’t want regulation or oversight or cost-containment and they don’t want government improving people’s lives because that would simultaneously squeeze the air out of the defense contractor bubble and reduce their class status vis a vis the rabble.

    Remember, Clinton cut back on defense spending. Obama is fixing to do the same. The job creators moochers and looters are getting nervous. War with Iran!

  104. 104.

    Brian R.

    September 25, 2012 at 2:29 pm

    “I love this!”
    “Obama made it happen.”
    “Then I hate this!”

  105. 105.

    Tom

    September 25, 2012 at 3:39 pm

    This guy is typical of Republicans in Sterling, Virginia: you should see the types of people they elect to state and local offices. Most of these people are white blue-collar types who proudly vote against their own economic interests.

  106. 106.

    AA+ Bonds

    September 25, 2012 at 3:50 pm

    Well as all true champions of capitalism know the free market functions best when everyone in it has as little information as possible

    Trust me the Money has gotten lumpenconservatives so far down the road of “defend the fake rights of others to screw you over” that all they need to be told is that someone else will screw them unless forced not to do so, and they will heartily endorse their own moral obligation to die in a gutter as victims of their masters (assuming they have paid their gutter fees for the month, otherwise they will admit that they should remain standing for the process)

    This is, by the way, why they think that getting rid of the Civil Rights Act is a top priority for patriotic Americans

  107. 107.

    AA+ Bonds

    September 25, 2012 at 3:57 pm

    @PeakVT:

    People like that don’t stay married by coming to “conclusions” in their “conversations”; clearly this guy cannot admit he is wrong about anything and so you can imagine the sort of life that woman has to live

  108. 108.

    Redrains

    September 25, 2012 at 5:35 pm

    @Michael2: Umm Obama is trying to limit voters, he’s currently in court trying to make it to where military personal over seas can’t vote. Also he’s against a voter ID so that way all the illegals can vote. So I don’t know where your getting your information from, but Republicans are against him limiting the voting and are for making sure legal citizens are the ones voting and not illegal ones.

  109. 109.

    Camron

    September 25, 2012 at 5:47 pm

    @amy c: No that person didn’t EARN that life by putting there life on the line, it wasn’t a pay check for being over seas and serving there country, it was FREE money to get the house in the nice neighborhood and go to school. Yeah, risking your life, fighting to have the freedoms everyone holds dear that was for fun, you shouldn’t get paid to do that or nothing. And BTW the GI BILL IS FUNDED BY THE MEN AND WOMEN IN THE MILITARY JUST FYI!!! I was Navy and made regular deposits to my GI Bill so I’d have money for school, so it was money I earned. Do a little bit of more research before you start saying things like that. Oh and btw since they did fight for this country and could have possibly died for this country, then I think that they have more of a right to fight against and complain about their government and the socialism that people are voting for, then someone that hasn’t.Especially when there fighting for freedom when everyone at home is voting to be controlled by the government.Semper Fi

  110. 110.

    Not Sure

    September 25, 2012 at 8:11 pm

    I was at an IHOP the other day, and noticed the calorie counts, as mandated by the City of New York. Nearly every entree had a four-digit calorie count, even stuff I couldn’t imagine being that high. Found out in a few minutes why this was. Every single one comes with a short stack.

    So I ate half my omelet, and about a third of the pancakes, and called it a 500 calorie breakfast.

  111. 111.

    Original Lee

    September 25, 2012 at 8:16 pm

    @amy c: Oh, yeah, I totally know what you’re talking about. I have a friend who lives in the DC suburbs. She took medical retirement from a defense contractor job and is getting Social Security, and her husband is in a very stable defense contracting job. Her mother has many medical issues, all of which are almost completely covered by Medicare/Medicaid. Her children are in college with significant financial aid (including government-backed student loans). Yet she has become one of the most full metal wingnuts I know. Really makes me wonder sometimes.

  112. 112.

    steverino

    September 25, 2012 at 9:28 pm

    @grandpa john:
    One unfrosted strawberry Pop-Tart (there are two to a package) is 37g of carbs right there. Whew! (I get my nutrition info from “CarbsControl”, an iPhone app, and do my carb calculation with a web-based script (http://www.qmss.com/cgi-bin/carbs) which, of course, I tailored for me. That replaces the Palm-based phone I was given with my pump that had a similar app with calculator. I’m not carrying around a phone just for that one app!

    Portion control is my bugaboo (Type II fat and lazy).

  113. 113.

    Stentor

    September 26, 2012 at 8:57 am

    @PeakVT: Call him up & tell him that.

    Richard T Nigon
    332 Silver Ridge Dr
    Sterling, VA 20164
    (703) 444-9639
    Relatives
    Joseph Nigon
    Chris Nigon
    Janet Nigon
    Lea Nigon
    Age: 67

    Figures, he’s already eligible for Social Security & Medicare, but wants to fuck everyone else out of theirs.

  114. 114.

    fuckwit

    September 27, 2012 at 2:27 am

    My daughter understood this perfectly well, back when Obamacare was being debated.

    I explained that, no matter how much Obama acted like a Republican, put forth Republican policies and tried to enact Republican plans and ideas, as soon as they came out of his mouth, Republicans suddenly hated them.

    She explained it thusly: “Oh, it’s like they are saying ‘ballet flats are so totally in!’, and Obama is like, ‘OMG, I love ballet flats, they are totally cool’, and then they’re like, ‘Well actually they’re not.’.

    Republicans: more catty, spiteful, and exclusionary than a clique of middle-school cheerleaders..

  115. 115.

    Alex

    October 1, 2012 at 4:42 pm

    @Linda: The danger of being a full-time git is that one may find oneself exposed as a git to the public at large at any moment.

  116. 116.

    Mikey

    October 2, 2012 at 1:59 am

    Go to about 13 seconds in on this clip:

    That’s pretty much the Republican party since January 2009.

  117. 117.

    inhumandecency

    October 2, 2012 at 5:01 pm

    There’s not anything inconsistent about liking something if you think it’s voluntary, but not if it’s government-mandated. Kind of like the way I’d love it if the catholic church started holding gay marriage ceremonies, but I’d take a stand to oppose the government forcing them to do it.

Comments are closed.

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  1. The Roundup for September 25, 2012 | OccuWorld says:
    September 25, 2012 at 10:32 pm

    […] Fellow in VA notices the new calorie labels at McDonald’s and compliments the innovation, saying “It’s better than some kind […]

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