Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

Republicans in disarray!

No one could have predicted…

An almost top 10,000 blog!

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Thanks for reminding me that Van Jones needs to be slapped.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Hot air and ill-informed banter

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

The words do not have to be perfect.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

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169Comments

  4. 4.

    liberal

    Today’s Wash Post had an article on a proposal in VA to have a statewide independent currency. IMHO it was unbalanced, ie not enough space criticizing the general notion.

    I did catch the reporter in what I thought must have been an error: she claimed that money in circulation had tripled as a result of the Fed’s actions post-crash. I emailed her and said that reserves might have done that, but not “money in circulation.” She graciously replied and agreed it was a slip-up.

  5. 5.

    Cassidy

    Chris Pratt has been cast as Starlord for the Guardians of the Galaxy movie. I don’t watch Parks and Recreation, so I’m not familiar with his work.

  6. 6.

    patroclus

    Richard III’s killing of the princes in the tower was the continuation of an unlawful war over roses that was unauthorized by the actual text of the titulis biblius that merely declared Edward V’s claim to the throne illegal, but did not specifically authorize his disappearance and presumed death. Anyone who disagrees is a right-wing Richardbot who believes in the killing of children…

  9. 9.

    dan

    Let me grab this thread early. My daughter is going to college in the fall (FSM willing). I intend to give her a copy of Astral Weeks. What other albums are required for college? Something an 18 yo won’t, but should know about.

    I am thinking, also, Aja.

    Thoughts?

  11. 11.

    Jewish Steel

    Matisyahu’s backing band breezed through the coffee house I was in yesterday. I considered just getting on the bus. By the time they noticed, it’s too late! I’m in the band!

  13. 13.

    Ted & Hellen

    Judging from his prolific commenting here, Cassidy’s boss has been out of town all week.

    Sneaking Cheetos in the cubicle while surfing the Intertron.

    Good times.

  17. 17.

    ? Martin

    @Cassidy:

    Chris Pratt has been cast as Starlord for the Guardians of the Galaxy movie. I don’t watch Parks and Recreation, so I’m not familiar with his work.

    I’m not a comic guy, but can someone reassure me that Guardians of the Galaxy won’t be epically stupid, because it sounds epically stupid. I think it’s the raccoon that’s a bridge too far for me.

  20. 20.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @dan: My oldest goes to college this fall as well. Hopefully my years of making him watch things like Blue Brothers, Star Wars, and Blade Runner will pay off.

  21. 21.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @dan: Sandinista. London Calling. Exile in Guyville. Mothership Connection.

    That should cover some ground.

  22. 22.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    Anybody wanting to get the balanced perspective on Richard III should read Sharon Kay Penman’s ‘The Sunne In Splendour’:

    http://www.amazon.com/Sunne-Splendour-Novel-Richard-III/dp/031237593X

    Fantastic historical novel which for many people was their first exposure to the probably “historical” Richard as opposed to Shakespeare’s polemic.

    Also too, ‘Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough’ rocks. In fact, all of ‘Off The Wall’ rocks. I liked it back when it was released and back then I was as prog rock as you could get.

  23. 23.

    Cassidy

    @? Martin: Rocket Raccoon will probably be the best part, if they voice it right. Rumors haev swirled around Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler to which I’m very against. I’m looking forward to it, though. The characters are interesting and I like James Gunn. Also, it makes a nice bridge from the Avengers into the more space epic side of Marvel. I didn’t particularly like those comics or stories, but it leads to Infinity Gauntlet.

  24. 24.

    Scout211

    Another horrible murder-suicide, this time in our rural Northern California county.

    Phillip Marshall, author of the book “The Big Bamboozle, 9/11 and the War on Terror” murdered his teen-aged daughter and son and the family dog, then killed himself while his estranged wife was out of the country.

    Here is his Amazon bio:

    Philip Marshall, a veteran airline captain and former government “special activities” contract pilot, has authored three books on Top Secret America, a group presently conducting business as the United States Intelligence Community. Beginning with his role in the 1980s as a Learjet captain first as part of a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) sting on Pablo Escobar, and later in the covert arming of the Nicaraguan Contras, Marshall has studied and written 30-years worth of covert government special activities and the revolving door of Wall Street tricksters, media moguls, and their well funded politicians. Marshall is the leading aviation expert on the September 11th attack, as well as a masterful storyteller. The Big Bamboozle (2012) is his second work to focus on the flight training and preparation of 9/11 hijackers’ after False Flag 911 was published in 2008. His first book, Lakefront Airport (2003) was a novel based on his experience as a government contract pilot during the Iran-Contra operation. Philip Marshall began his 20-year career as an airline pilot in 1985, flying first with Eastern Airlines and then with United. He holds captain ratings on the Boeing 727, 737, 747, 757 and 767. Born and raised in New Orleans, Marshall currently resides in California.

  27. 27.

    Peter

    @? Martin: The movie could very well be stupid, but the Guardians of the Galaxy comic is a thing of incredible beauty.

    Especially the raccoon.

  31. 31.

    Scout211

    @Scout211:

    Tried the linky and I wasn’t able to post:

    From UPI feed:

    Published: Feb. 4, 2013 at 4:53 PM
    SAN ANDREAS, Calif., Feb. 4 (UPI) — An author and former airline pilot shot his two teenage children to death before killing himself at their upscale California home, authorities said.

    Neighbor Merita Callaway said friends of the children found the body of Phillip Marshall, 54, when they went to the family’s Murphrys-area home Saturday to check on Alex and Macaila Marshall after not having heard from the teens for several days, The (Stockton) Record reported.

    The Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office said Alex, 17, and Macaila, 14, were also found dead in the home. Each had been shot once in the head with a handgun, as was the family’s dog, the newspaper said.

    The motive for the shootings had not been determined.

    Sean Marshall, the estranged wife of Phillip Marshall and mother of the children, was returning from Turkey, where she had been traveling at the time of the shootings, The Record said.

    The children were students at Bret Harte Union High School in Angels Camp.

    The newspaper said Phillip Marshall, a former pilot for Eastern Airlines and United, was an author whose published works included the 2003 novel “Lakefront Airport” and “The Big Bamboozle: 9/11 and the War on Terror,” a 2012 book in which he theorized it wasn’t al-Qaida but U.S. and Saudi government officials who orchestrated the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States.

    Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/02/04/California-author-kills-his-children-self/UPI-71001360014835/#ixzz2K99jVa1t

  32. 32.

    Roger Moore

    @liberal:

    IMHO it was unbalanced, ie not enough space criticizing the general notion.

    You mean that the entire article was not mocking the entire concept for violating Article I, Section 10, Paragraph 1 of the US Constitution?

  34. 34.

    Another Halocene Human

    @Politically Lost: That dude is awesome. And that website is awesome, 30-some comments and not one speculation that everyone would have been safer if only they’d been carrying a gun.

  35. 35.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @MikeJ: Prince’s Dirty Mind. An album that contains the original of this* is worth owning.

    *Tegan and Sara version used because one can’t find a Prince version on YouTube for more than 17 seconds and I prefer T&S’s version to Lauper’s.

  36. 36.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @Yutsano: I doubt it will change much. Consider that a lot of things are priced at x.99 or x.49. Yes, these will go up a penny, but since a lot of things are priced at x.99 to fool people into thinking they are cheaper, I would expect to start seeing some things priced at x.95.

  37. 37.

    The Dangerman

    @dan:

    What other albums are required for college? Something an 18 yo won’t, but should know about.

    Do today’s 18’s know Dark Side Of The Moon?

    I am thinking, also, Aja.

    Do today’s 18’s (women, I mean) know what a Steely Dad is?

    ETA: Oops. Steely Dan.

  38. 38.

    Punchy

    Dumbfucks practicing active dumbfuckery.

    It’s clear the GOP, instead of changing to get more voters, is in Full On Throw Anything and Everything Against the Wall And Hope It Finds a Wingy Judge Mode.

  39. 39.

    shortstop

    People around me keep buying the farm this week (so be careful out there). Is there any chance of me flying from Chicago to Boston on Friday in this big nor’easter? I don’t want to miss my cousin’s funeral, but this does not look good.

  40. 40.

    Roger Moore

    @dan:

    What other albums are required for college?

    You can never go too wrong with the Toscanini recording of Beethoven’s Ninth. It got me through a lot of finals.

  42. 42.

    Another Halocene Human

    @Scout211: Doesn’t anyone else find Phillip Marshall’s bio somewhat… unbelievable?

    I mean, except for the working for EAL, getting laid off when they broke up, and then working for United (no doubt for very much less pay).

    ETA: also noticed he had to list every plane he flew. I could list every bus I ever drove but it doesn’t make me an expert on the Madrid subway bombings. Jesuchriste.

  43. 43.

    The Red Pen

    One aspect of Freeperdom I’ve never seen brought up are the regularly-appearing “why is Free Republic doing XXXX?!” complaints where “XXXX” is some browser-spam behavior.

    For example, someone will post a complaint that “Free Republic is highlighting words with weird links and when I click on them, I get ads for boner pills!” They are all posted by people who have not idea how the web works or that anything on their page might not come directly from the site they are browsing. I just don’t see this level of cluelessness on lefty blogs. It really plays to stereotype.

    Example.

  49. 49.

    Another Halocene Human

    @Yutsano: More like a giant relief from not having to deal with frelling pennies. Most businesses in the Eurozone seem to have gone to 5-increments too, and more power to them.

    US was supposed to have stopped minting the penny already, but our elected officials are too chicken. People throw the fucking things out in great numbers annually. If some people really needed ’em they’d turn up in circulation. Actually, they’re so common I saw a spate of wheaties show up in my change about five years ago.

  51. 51.

    shortstop

    @Wag: During an old thread on road trip music — in which some truly horrifying information was freely volunteered — I determined that MikeJ is one of the Juicers I most want riding shotgun on my travels.

  52. 52.

    NonyNony

    @? Martin:

    I’m not a comic guy, but can someone reassure me that Guardians of the Galaxy won’t be epically stupid, because it sounds epically stupid. I think it’s the raccoon that’s a bridge too far for me.

    Well it wouldn’t have to be epically stupid. The comic book is essentially superhero space opera, and despite the look of the mutant raccoon and the sentient plant it’s actually well done superhero space opera. Marvel’s space opera stuff is generally quite good overall and there’s a strong vein of material to mine there full of Space Gods and Planetary Level Threats and Epic Space Wars.

    But I gotta say – the director doesn’t seem to have done much of note, and where he has it seems strong on comedy. If they’re going to go the “comedy” route for this, rather than playing it relatively straight and letting the humor show up where it tends to show up in superhero movies anyway, then it will be terrible. Very possibly “Howard The Duck” levels of terrible as far as comic-book to movie adaptations go.

  53. 53.

    PurpleGirl

    @Yutsano:

    What happens to sales taxes? NYS and NYC have a combined sales tax of .0865 (IIRC). Will that go up, because I don’t see that going down. It’s regressive and will hurt lower income people the most.

  54. 54.

    The Dangerman

    Since there’s a music subthread here, are there any decent Progressive bands in today’s world? I’m sure as shit glad I grew up in the world of Floyd, Tull, and Genesis.

  55. 55.

    Lex

    Back to the original post, now is the winter of our disinterment. Recent DNA tests prove that Richard Hussein Plantagenet was born in Kenya and therefore could not legally have been king of England.

  57. 57.

    Warren

    @dan: For albums someone born after 1990 would actually be interested in (not that those aren’t classics, but they’re basically the equivalent of our parents handing us a stack of Sinatra’s Capitol LPs and thinking we’re going to latch onto them immediately), I’d recommend:

    My Bloody Valentine — Loveless
    Yo La Tengo — I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One
    Neutral Milk Hotel — In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
    Air — Moon Safari
    The Shins — Oh Inverted World
    Broken Social Scene — Your Forgot It In People
    The New Pornographers — Twin Cinema
    Panda Bear — Person Pitch
    LCD Soundsystem — Sound of Silver
    Grizzly Bear — Veckatimest

    Preferably, of course, on vinyl.

  58. 58.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Lex: That kind of thing wasn’t really an issue for William I or Henry II. Hell, they were born in France, and you know what that means.

  59. 59.

    dan

    King Crimson? Spirit, 12 Dreams of Doctor Sardonicus? I am homing she stays away from LSD!

    I liked the Murmur suggestion. Also AFTP.

  62. 62.

    dan

    @Warren: Well, I would have liked if my parents had given me Sinatra, and secondly, my daughter’s ipod includes, not only Sinatra, but Louis Prima Bobby Darin and Dean Martin (yeah, we go to a lot of Italian restaurants).

  64. 64.

    Another Halocene Human

    @Roger Moore: No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts

    I’m not a lawyer so… how’s that last bit working out? I have no problem with fiat currency but it seems to ban it. Also trying to figure out why it’s legal for businesses to refuse cash unless Congress made it legal?

    Municipalities have issued paper currency during recessions before, I guess not being states that’s okay.

    I can see how the fledgling government wanted a monopoly on coining money, because it used to be (lol) a profitable enterprise. Took them a while to get started. Technically, there’s nothing banning US merchants from accepting other currencies, like Mexican pesos, which used to pass for hard cash in the former colonies.

  65. 65.

    Punchy

    @dan: Ice Cube’s Amerikkka’s Most Wanted and Death Certificate, Split Lip Rayfield’s Should Have Seen It Coming, and Madonna’s Greatest Hits.

  67. 67.

    drkrick

    @The Dangerman: None selling in the kinds of numbers those bands used to do, but apparently there’s still a pretty active scene. Slate ran a three parter last year on the past and present of prog. The articles themselves are pretty YMMV, but there were a lot of current bands mentioned that would be a good resource.

  70. 70.

    Another Halocene Human

    @The Dangerman: Ew considering where the name comes from but setting that aside I think the typo quite appropriate considering the association most Millenials will have with that particular musical offering.

  75. 75.

    Another Halocene Human

    @shortstop: There’s an overnight train? Late-for-sure Limited? It goes good to Albany and then all bets are off, heh.

    Sleeper is probably sold out but it has those comfy long-distance coaches… I remember sleeping like a baby in those when I was riding LD Amtrak. And the food is decent if you don’t have too many food allergies.

    They used to dump coach seats on LSL for $29 but I think it’s a tad more pricy now. I think there’s a website called Amsnag that has the best Amtrak pricing.

  78. 78.

    Another Halocene Human

    @Omnes Omnibus: Is that really it? I guess I’m starting to get a picture here. Does that have anything to do with regional courts and government offices taking cash as payment? Are they required to do that?

  79. 79.

    bemused

    I laughed reading Dana Millbank’s description of Cantor attempting a sunny disposition while delivering his Republican happy talk yesterday. Cantor seemed to have work hard at not scowling, smiling “at inopportune times such as when he described a boy’s failure in public school”. Cantor must have been dripping in sweat after that ordeal.

  82. 82.

    shortstop

    @Another Halocene Human: Thanks…it’s the driving part between Boston and southern CT that’s especially flummoxing me. Guess we’ll have to wait and see if flights to the NE even go out of O’Hare that morning.

  84. 84.

    handsmile

    @dan:

    In addition to the many excellent suggestions already made, and guided by your instruction, “Something an 18 yo won’t, but should know about,” some more for your credit card:

    John Barleycorn Must Die – Traffic
    Hejira and/or Blue – Joni Mitchell
    Rickie Lee Jones
    The Curtain Hits the Cast – Low
    Pour Down Like Silver – Richard and Linda Thompson
    Thelonious Monk Quarter with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall
    Shackman – Medeski, Martin & Wood
    Brandenburg Concertos (Trevor Pinnock) – Bach

    She’ll be one of the most popular kids in the dorm.

  85. 85.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Another Halocene Human:

    Does that have anything to do with regional courts and government offices taking cash as payment? Are they required to do that?

    I don’t think it has anything to do with that. It is a simple delineation of what aspects of sovereignty the states are giving up to become a part of the US.

  86. 86.

    Warren

    @dan: Maybe it’s better to think of them as “Albums to have so her classmates don’t think she’s weird,” then.

  87. 87.

    Jewish Steel

    @schrodinger’s cat: Grove’s massive multi-volume dictionary, IIRC, and it’s been a while, described Pink Floyd’s harmonic palette as being distinctly French. Possibly Rick Wright’s influence.

    I can imagine Rolling Stone fanatics, and people who are into rootsism and “authenticity” like Doug Galt being turned off by Pink Floyd’s European vibe.

  88. 88.

    Another Halocene Human

    T0M LEVENSON you bastard, posting a long post and then yanking it down before I could read what was behind “more”! @#(*&@)#(*&%#(&#@!&^#!&*@#^(

    eta: oopsie on the nomen, sorry

  89. 89.

    ellie

    How about Joy Division’s Closer and Unknown Pleasures and New Order’s Substance 1987? I danced through college on those.

  93. 93.

    liberal

    @Roger Moore:
    They alluded to that, though there’s some claim that there’s a loophole if they mint actual precious metals (don’t know about that).

    I’m referring not to legality but rather the economics. AFAICT there really were private currencies in the old days, or banks which issued what was tantamount to private currency, and the whole thing was a complete disaster.

  95. 95.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Warren: Wow. I was born, let’s say, well before 1990, but I have not heard of a single one of those albums/groups.

    Lawn, off of, &c.

  96. 96.

    ranchandsyrup

    I’m my FB feed’s biggest monster because I dared to post this:

    Been thinking about justifications v. motivations this morning. There is a significantly large group of people that think that we must tackle the deficit “for our children and grandchildren”. That’s fine. But I would guess that most of that same group would scoff at the notion that we should combat climate change “for our children and grandchildren”.

    So far I’m: a liberal tool that eats anything that liberals put in front of me, a “useless number”, my “words mean nothing”, a pretentious prick, a “prius driver”, and someone who should “follow the money” of “big climate change”, and an asshole (x4).

    One of the joys of growing up in a redneck town.

  97. 97.

    handsmile

    @ranchandsyrup:

    Please don’t tell me that American 18 y-os don’t know about Pavement, Radiohead, and the Pixies. Those I’m in contact with do, but perhaps they’re just humoring this old man.

    Very nice recc with Portishead, btw.

  98. 98.

    West of the Rockies

    I’m having a difficult time letting go of this Todd Kincannon story addressed in an early BJ entry. I guess the bottom line is that something like 27% of the country are/is utterly hateful, stupid people with no ability for self-examination. He probably makes a lucrative living from off his fellow 27%ers. Humanity is stupefying.

  99. 99.

    ranchandsyrup

    @handsmile: Maybe they know Pavement and the Pixies from recent tours, but I’d wager that they don’t. They may not know the old “guitar” based RH.

    I saw Portishead last year. It was a great show.

  100. 100.

    Citizen_X

    So, iObama nominates Sally Jewell as Sec’y of the Interior. Worst soshulist DFH evar*, since she was CEO of REI, or Pres. Ofascist throwing Earth under the bus, because she was an oil and gas engineer before that?

    *So DFH she gave a shout out to “our First Peoples”‘ during her acceptance speech!

  101. 101.

    FlipYrWhig

    @ellie: I would nominate the New Order best-of, slightly ahead of the Depeche Mode singles set that ends in 1995. I had a student 6 years ago who had never heard of DM, or New Order, or Pet Shop Boys, and I’m sure it’s only gotten worse since then.

    If we’re not counting Best Ofs, I’d nominate XTC, Skylarking; DM, Violator; and I know it’s heresy but I like Doolittle over Surfer Rosa for Pixies.

  102. 102.

    NonyNony

    @ranchandsyrup:

    someone who should “follow the money” of “big climate change”

    Please tell me that the person using the phrase “big climate change” was being sarcastic. Please?

    (I know they weren’t because I have family members who go on about the “abortion industry”. But it still hurts.)

  103. 103.

    The Red Pen

    @ranchandsyrup:

    So far I’m: a liberal tool that eats anything that liberals put in front of me, a “useless number”, my “words mean nothing”, a pretentious prick, a “prius driver”, and someone who should “follow the money” of “big climate change”, and an asshole (x4) and I’m damned proud of it!

    Fixed.

  105. 105.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Gin & Tonic: My Bloody Valentine is from my college days (1988-92), and Yo La Tengo is much older as a band than even that — I know someone who was in a different band in their same scene, and he’s 10 years older than I am!

  107. 107.

    Cassidy

    @ranchandsyrup: I had a firend get insulted over the gun debate. He stated that it’s something around .01% of deaths in this country due to gun violence and he’s okay with that. I asked who’s it gonna be, his wife, sister, parents, etc.

  109. 109.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Cassidy: IMHO the best Pixies songs are better than most anything. The bottom tier, though, is meh and really kind of all the same.

  112. 112.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Cassidy: But, you know what, the band I never liked, despite how hard I tried and tried and tried to be whatever we called hipsters in 1990: Sonic Youth.

  113. 113.

    Warren

    @Gin & Tonic: I gotta say I’m genuinely surprised at that! A couple of them are arguably moderately obscure, but any half-serious list of the best albums of the last two decades would feature them. (Maybe not the New Pornographers album, but I love them so much — probably my favorite band that’s currently recording and performing — that I have to make a special exception for them.)

    I’m considerably pre-1990 myself, fwiw.

  117. 117.

    TaMara (BHF)

    @hildebrand: Omeegosh, you just reminded me of a long forgotten incident in college. We were throwing an after-party (closing night of the current theatre production) and suddenly these older guys crashed the party. This was like 1980-81. They said he was/they were King Crimson and they’d just finished a concert (small venue I’m going to assume). They’d come to the wrong address, but since we looked like partiers, they stayed a while. I still have an autographed napkin tucked in a scrapbook. Party host got an autographed album. I have no idea if it’s the same group, but they were British, I think. Long ago and party fueled memory.

    None of us knew who the hell they were, but they were fun.

  120. 120.

    shortstop

    @NonyNony: Sadly, it’s now a thing to insist that the 90-something percent of scientists who agree on anthropogenic global warming are all in a conspiracy to get the big bucks from…um…I guess solar panel manufacturers and cycling clubs. How can big oil, coal, the auto industry, etc., etc. compete?

  121. 121.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Omnes Omnibus: I’m totally with you on Radiohead. I like “Creep” because it’s been shanghaied and straitjacketed into a “Smells Like Teen Spirit” clone. But I haven’t liked anything else at all from them.

  122. 122.

    handsmile

    @Cassidy:

    Well, dan might have sniffed at it above, but Copper Blue is one damn fine record that any 18 y-o should be proud to own (though File Under Easy Listening is even damn finer). I try never to miss Bob Mould when he plays here in NYC.

    @FlipYrWhig:

    Re Sonic Youth: Try harder. (you’ll get there) :)

    Yo La Tengo is performing at NYC’s Town Hall later this month. Tickets already on the refrigerator door.

  123. 123.

    ranchandsyrup

    @FlipYrWhig: The band hates Creep. The crunching guitar part in the chorus was a deliberate attempt to sabotage the song by Johnny Greenwood. The producer liked it and kept it in. They didn’t play it live for a long time but they’ll trot it out from time to time these days.

  125. 125.

    Warren

    @TaMara (BHF): That…does not sound like King Crimson. Well, let me rephrase that: that does not sound like Robert Fripp, who is a well-known tee-totaller and general ascetic. It could have been the rest of the guys in that lineup (Adrian Belew, Tony Levin and Bill Bruford), but two of those guys were American. You may have gotten had.

    When I was a kid growing up in Boulder in the ’70s, the bars and stores were always full of guys claiming to be minor members of then-current bands. (There were some fairly well-known recording studios in the area, so it was plausible.) It started working less in the early ’80s when MTV came along and people started to know what, say, the bass player from Men At Work looked like.

  127. 127.

    The Red Pen

    @ranchandsyrup: I have tried to avoid having wingnuts in my Facebook circle, but some people have cropped up with some serious bullshit recently. I’m verging on unfriending them.

    I like taking on wingnuts, but usually in cases where I can walk away and forget about them.

  129. 129.

    JCT

    @dan: I sent my son off to UCLA with a copy of “Los Angeles” by X. Apparently created a good ruckus in the dorm the first time he fired it up.

    His older sister took my copies of “Fear of Music” and “Lodger”.

    The best part is when they come home with tons of new music interests.

  130. 130.

    ranchandsyrup

    @The Red Pen: I have been systematically removing as well. I had a few get REAL upset because they wanted to still get updates and kid pictures. I told them to friend my wife. Now I’m getting down to the people who have heretofore remained silent but can stand no more of my librulness.

  131. 131.

    Cassidy

    @handsmile: I would love to see a Bob Mould show.

    I wish I was better at math and business type stuff because I know my generation is dying for a new Lollapalooza. I’d love to see the Gin Blossoms and Mathew Sweet and even the Pixies and Sonic Youth at a festival. All these other bands being mentioned, Pavement, Dinosaur Junior, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, The Verve Pipe…I’d take my kids to that.

  133. 133.

    shortstop

    @JCT:

    I sent my son off to UCLA with a copy of “Los Angeles” by X. Apparently created a good ruckus in the dorm the first time he fired it up.

    That made me laugh just picturing it.

  135. 135.

    handsmile

    @Cassidy:

    Re Bob Mould: I’ll let you know. I’m sure your wife and kids would understand. Even solo, he just rips up the place.

    And that list of bands is taking my mind off my arthritis….

  136. 136.

    Mark S.

    @Cassidy:

    He stated that it’s something around .01% of deaths in this country due to gun violence and he’s okay with that.

    As first I was like “Huh?” but I guess if you count all deaths (heart disease, cancer), guns are a pretty minuscule percentage of that. Shit, why bother with fire departments, lifeguards, or poison control when deaths by those things are even rarer than guns?

    But, still, your friend might want to apply for a job at Slate. They are always looking for good contrarian arguments like that.

  138. 138.

    jibeaux

    @bemused: Republicans should do that conditioning like they do with autistic kids, where you hold up a picture of a person frowning and the kids memorize that it means unhappy.

  139. 139.

    ? Martin

    @Belafon (formerly anonevent):

    I would expect to start seeing some things priced at x.95.

    I forget, do Canadian prices include VAT? Here in the US we’re already round everything on the fly – very infrequently do sales tax calculations drop you precisely to the penny. And then you have variable quantity items like gas that you can price to the fractions of a penny.

    @Omnes Omnibus: Radiohead took a lot of work to get to. Once I did, I never looked back. It was their SNL performance in 2000 after Kid A dropped that got me there.

  140. 140.

    dan

    @handsmile: There you go. That’s along the line of what I am thinking. Albums like these will expand her musical education, but they’re also great to listen to. And share with like-minded dorm-mates. Hyphen-hyphen.

  141. 141.

    SatanicPanic

    @Cassidy: That would be fun. We’re getting old enough that there’s got to be someone readying all those groups for the nostalgia circuit.

    ETA- and I see no one mentioned Cracker.

  142. 142.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Warren: Probably a reflection of my musical tastes. And this from someone who “counts” his albums (both vinyl and CD) using a tape measure.

  144. 144.

    JCT

    @FlipYrWhig: Jim Morrison used to come to our house for dinner (my late father was his attorney). Even at 10 I knew that was a big deal, the only time my uber-cool aunt was ever jealous of me.

    @shortstop: yes – he said is was a ton of “WTF is that?”, followed by amazement that the album was > 30 years old.

  149. 149.

    Steeplejack

    @Yutsano:

    Should be good times as all prices now have to be rounded to the 5 or the 0. Businesses should make a fortune off this honestly.

    Apparently not true.

    Dr. Robert Whaples, professor of economics at Wake Forest University:

    So 99 cents would be rounded up to one dollar; $1.01 would be rounded down to a dollar. But there [are] a lot more 99 cents [prices] out there than there are $1.01. And so people fear that they would end up getting gouged in the process because there would be so much more rounding up than rounding down. And while that makes a lot of sense, especially if you are only buying one item, once you buy a few items, those things tend to cancel out. Especially once you throw in the old sales tax. That tends to cancel it out. So what I was able to do is actually get data from a convenience store chain [. . .] and I looked at data from all of their different states, and added up the numbers and found out that, in fact, [. . .] the rounding would slightly go in favor of the consumer these days. It is not very much. [. . .] In fact, I found that of the 185,000 transactions that they sent me data on, consumers would have won about $100 on that. [. . .] It came out to be a gain of about one-twentieth of a cent per transaction for customers.

    Hat tip to commenter JHeartney, who dug up this info for a thread in September 2011 about dollar bills, dollar coins and currency issues in general. I remembered it because, despite the dry starting premise, it turned out to be one of the most informative Balloon Juice threads I ever read. Amazing the amount of intelligent and fact-based commentary that came pouring out of the Juicetariat. (Not to say that isn’t the norm here, of course!)

  150. 150.

    Mark Bey

    A week or so ago some one over here stated that the far left has been causing Democrats/Progressives to lose elections and embarassing us for the last 40 years.

    I tend to agree with this line of thinking I’d hear the thoughts of pramatics on this matter if they have some. Me personally I am starting to generate some extremely negative feelings towards the firebagging types.

    I blame them for Gores loss in 2001 and the Tea Parties rise to power in 2010 although they never accept responsibility for it.

  151. 151.

    trollhattan

    @Citizen_X:

    This could be an inspired choice, and warms the heart of this backpacker and loooongtime REI member. Yes, they’re a DFH co-op, probably the country’s most successful.

    She also worked in the awhl industry, so will not be bamboozled by those folks.

  152. 152.

    JCT

    @Mark S.: Surprisingly normal — though I still remember my mother being VERY nervous before he came over the first time, she didn’t know what to expect. He was perfectly well-spoken, very friendly with the kids, etc.

    This was back in 69-70 when he was in the big-guy, bearded phase. He would show up in the afternoon with a couple of other guys (not from the band) and they would hang out, swim with us (good memories of them launching my younger brother across the pool), eat and then hit the bar with my folks. My father could drink with the best of them but couldn’t keep up with Jim.

  154. 154.

    PurpleGirl

    As I asked very near the top of the thread: What happens to sales taxes? I used as an example the combined sales tax in NYS/NYC of .o865. I still believe that eliminating the penny will have an impact on low income people.

  159. 159.

    Ash Can

    @dan: What if Daughter gets all these albums to school, starts listening to them, and decides they’re not her cup of tea and doesn’t have enough room in her dorm room for the stuff she really needs/wants as it is?

  160. 160.

    handsmile

    @dan:

    Great, I’m pleased you saw it! Thinking about music I’ve passed along to nieces/nephews/friends for a similar situation, here’s a few more:

    The B52s
    US – Peter Gabriel
    Facing You – Keith Jarrett
    Music for Airports or Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) – Brian Eno
    Tango Zero Hour – Astor Piazzolla or
    Five Tango Sensations – Piazzolla and the Kronos Quartet
    Made in Dakar – Orchestra Baobab
    Music for 18 Musicians – Steve Reich

    Of course, as you noted above (#147), the entire Talking Heads discography would be an adequate start for any lucky 18 year-old.

  164. 164.

    shortstop

    @ranchandsyrup: Just what I was thinking.

    @SatanicPanic: Yes, but as they’re mostly the one libertarian female (there can only be one) being passed around among the otherwise layless libertarian males, wingers won’t have a problem with it.

  166. 166.

    Ash Can

    @dan: No, it’s the very definition of being a daughter leaving home for the first time and going out of town to college. (Which I was, once.) Are you sure her tastes mesh with yours? Have you asked her if she wants to bring this stuff with her?

  167. 167.

    mainmati

    @Belafon (formerly anonevent): I have a college son; didn’t need him to watch those films, he found them as well as Springsteen, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, etc. So has my 14 year old. It’s not like we are blasting this in our household North Korean style. They just absorb it along with contemporary artists.

    The Intertubes has translated/mediated a lot of inter-generational memory.

  168. 168.

    Jay S

    @Comrade Luke: It’s all posturing. Attempting to preserve the online curriculum scam.

    Goedde said he doesn’t plan to press forward with the bill, but it was formally introduced in his committee Tuesday on a voice vote. He said he was sending a message to the State Board of Education, because he’s unhappy with its recent move to repeal a rule requiring two online courses to graduate from high school, and with its decision to back off on another planned rule regarding principal evaluations.

    “It was a shot over their bow just to let them know that there’s another way to adopt high-school graduation requirements,” Goedde said after the meeting. “I don’t intend to schedule a hearing on it.”

  169. 169.

    handsmile

    @dan:

    [in case you check back here; just returned home myself….]

    I recommended US because, without sacrificing emotional impact, it better demonstrates Gabriel’s familiarity with and adoption of various musical idioms: progressive rock, blues, English music hall, and especially, world music. Which is why I also selected Piazzolla and Baobab (mindful of your phrase above, “expanding her musical education”).

    Piazzolla’s tango style could not be less emotionally complicated: it’s direct, infectious, almost melodramatic in its joyful/sorrowful dances and ballads. Essentially dance music, it makes you want to move.

    To my ears, Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians is one of the most exuberant, most accessible works of contemporary classical music composed in the past 50 years; widely regarded as a late 20th-century masterpiece. Counterpoint, rhythm and harmony: it’s Bach with different instruments (but with rather less melody). It’s been my go-to choice for years to persuade unfamiliar listeners that serious new music is not all ponderously theoretical and boring.

    Maybe the other recommendations could wait until your daughter’s sophomore year. Cheers!

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