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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Saturday Evening Open Thread: “Jihad vs. the Shopping Mall”

Saturday Evening Open Thread: “Jihad vs. the Shopping Mall”

by Anne Laurie|  September 21, 20137:14 pm| 103 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Open Threads, Religious Nuts 2

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Purely for entertainment purposes, NSFWCorps’ The Ward Nerd (John Dolan)

… There’s an idea in the progressive Twitter-sphere at the moment that jihadis are just a figment of scared Fox-News victims’ imagination. Well, that’s a reasonable point if you live in North Carolina or any of the other six states that have officially banned Sharia Law. None of the legislators who passed these bills know anything about Sharia, and none but the real loonies among them think it’s a threat to take over Oklahoma or South Dakota. It’s just an excuse to grandstand for the Teabaggers who are old and cranky enough to show up for every midterm election when the rest of us have better things to do.

And, of course, the few real nuts who do think Sharia is an imminent threat are exactly the kind of people who’d enjoy life under Sharia law, where burglars lose a hand and stonings let your average rightwing retiree take a direct role in minding other peoples’ marital business.

The problem is that, when you’re an American progressive reading daily accounts of these cretins’ latest legislative victories, you pretty much have to push back, and in the process of pushing back you end up falling for your own version of American exceptionalism, which says that there can’t really be such a thing as a crazy jihadi, that those people are just misunderstood liberals who, if the US let them alone and Israel stopped provoking them, would think pretty much like us…

The truth about the clash of civilizations you hear people discussing is that it’s all the other way: The Mall is invading Islam, the Mall is taking over. There isn’t any Sharia Law in North Carolina, but there damn well are US-style malls in even the most conservative Islamic countries.

In Najran, in the most remote corner of Saudi Arabia, a state so afraid of Western contamination that it doesn’t even issue tourist visas, there is a mall. And, when I lived there, you could watch —literally watch—the conflict between Sharia Law and Mall culture, five times a day…

It was such a huge relief to come out of that sun and into the wide, cool, tinted-glass mall. The sun hurts in Najran, and the landscape has no color but army khaki, burnt sienna, ochre—all the least-favorite crayons in the box. You go in the mall and the logos of all the high-end retailers of Europe and Asia wink at you, and there are even chairs and benches for the tired grandmother to slump in while the kids try their skate-shoes on the marble floors. No one is contesting the space with you, for once. The sweat dries, you feel more benevolent as you relax, no longer fighting other drivers for the right to continue living. You’re almost anonymous, a very rare thing in places like Najran.

Naturally, the whole town comes to the mall whenever it can. And naturally, the state, or the local culture—Saudi Arabia doesn’t attempt to separate those concepts—did its best to hold the alien element of the mall at bay. The most dramatic demonstration of this containment effort came at prayer time…..

As always, you’ve got 47 hours to enjoy the whole thing, unless you decide to subscribe. In which case you get The War Nerd, plus Leigh Cowan talking about science & porn & pornographic science, and Yasha Levine hating on California sprawlmeisters and Cory Booker, and Mark Ames on workplace violence, and a whole bunch more fine entertainment.

Apart from cheering the creeping collapse of global fundamentalism, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

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Previous Post: « In Which I and a Gun Nut Find Ourselves In Total Agreement (a post for all us non-college football folks)
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Reader Interactions

103Comments

  1. 1.

    lamh36

    September 21, 2013 at 7:18 pm

    Kaiser Family Foundation has a Health Reform Quiz up on this website. It’s the 10 big questions about ACA that has been the most talking about and which has the most “misinformation” being pushed about it.

    I’ve been posted the blurbs to my FB page for my peeps to read.

    My plan is to continue to post as much as possible as often as possible.

    Anyway, I got an 8 out of 10 (I plan to wording of the question…I was robbed of a perfect score…lol)

    Here is the quiz: http://kff.org/quiz/health-reform-quiz/

    If you like it, share it.

  2. 2.

    RSA

    September 21, 2013 at 7:23 pm

    That was awesome. I half-wish I could shop at a HyperPanda, though the risk of death due to a forgotten credit card is somewhat off-putting.

  3. 3.

    JPL

    September 21, 2013 at 7:23 pm

    @lamh36: Well nine out of ten for me.

  4. 4.

    lamh36

    September 21, 2013 at 7:32 pm

    @JPL: it’s obvious by the fact that I don’t proofread my post that maybe it wasn’t the wording of the questions, it was my own eyes…lol

    Also, I posted the following on my FB page (and a Natural AA Hair group page I follow on FB). I’m thinking I’ll make it a blog post too.

    ***IF YOU HAVE NEVER READ ANYTHING ELSE I’VE EVER POSTED, READ THIS***
    It is very important that the TRUE information gets out there and the FACTS about the ACA or Affordable Care Act or Obamacare. The law goes into effect on next month and it’s important that people know what implementation meansThere has been alot of false information from opponents of the law and alot of outright lies about the law that for whatever reason much of the mainstream national media refuses to refute or inform the public about the FACTS about the health care law. Now you can chose to get the FACTS from the actual source or you can continue to listen to forwared emails and chain letters, or guesses and supposes on facebook and twitter, or getting “word of mouth” answers that may or may not be true, but by doing that you may miss out on the opportunities and the benefits that the law has.

    So please anyone who bothers to read this, please go tohttp://www.barackobama.com/health-care/ and KNOW THE FACTS ABOUT ACA, so you can make informed decisions about your health and the health of your families!!

    Trying to inform minds in my little burb one read at a time…lol

  5. 5.

    marshall

    September 21, 2013 at 7:34 pm

    I am afraid that today the jihad struck back.

  6. 6.

    Elizabelle

    September 21, 2013 at 7:34 pm

    Odd and bad timing for this article on a day when at least 39 are dead at a shopping mall in Nairobi.

  7. 7.

    R-Jud

    September 21, 2013 at 7:37 pm

    @lamh36: I also got 9/10; thanks for that. Wingnutty relatives on FB have been unusually active lately.

  8. 8.

    Splitting Image

    September 21, 2013 at 7:37 pm

    I don’t think jihadis are necessarily a myth, but I do think that the teabaggers are completely incapable of telling them from other Muslims. Basically, they want to have simple ways of telling who America’s Enemies are, like women wearing the niqab or men growing their beards long.

    In fact, and this applies to American conservatives as well, there is a big difference between being conservative, even very conservative, and being crazy. A lot of the teabaggers act crazy because they think it is the same thing as being conservative, and the same people tend to assume that any Muslim who strikes them as conservative must also be crazy.

  9. 9.

    kindness

    September 21, 2013 at 7:48 pm

    Man, we need more pitchforks, torches & guillotines.

  10. 10.

    Mike in NC

    September 21, 2013 at 7:50 pm

    Now if only the local travel agency that’s always listing trips to Branson, MO could trying signing up the stupid teabaggers to check out Najran.

    Ideally by offering one-way tickets.

  11. 11.

    Captain Comrade

    September 21, 2013 at 7:50 pm

    Who do you plan to kill, kindness?

  12. 12.

    lamh36

    September 21, 2013 at 7:56 pm

    Soo, guess what day it is???

    “Do you remember?…Ba-di-ya!!!!”

    Earth Wind and Fire – September

  13. 13.

    schrodinger's cat

    September 21, 2013 at 8:00 pm

    I don’t have much personal experience with Islamic fundies but the only other fundies that I have had some experience with, besides the ones that lub bebbeh Jeebus, are Hindu fundies in India. And let me tell you that they are as bad or worse than the evangelical kind. Their persecution complex and victim mentality is through the roof.

  14. 14.

    NobodySpecial

    September 21, 2013 at 8:03 pm

    You know what irritates me the most about that article?

    That fact that it’s behind a pay wall and I get subjected to Chuck Cabbagebeater for free by my local paper.

  15. 15.

    raven

    September 21, 2013 at 8:08 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: Worse than Auburn fans?

  16. 16.

    scav

    September 21, 2013 at 8:09 pm

    @lamh36: Yoikes, I got 9/10 and I’ve not been obsessively reasearching the topic. How out of it are people?­!

  17. 17.

    raven

    September 21, 2013 at 8:09 pm

    @marshall: I assume Anne was aware of that

  18. 18.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    September 21, 2013 at 8:13 pm

    @lamh36: 10/10. :-)

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  19. 19.

    raven

    September 21, 2013 at 8:15 pm

    My bride went to a “white party” out in the country sporting her new white go-go boots. She called for the directions from her FB and when I read them the hostess said “because of the rain and mud I’m asking everyone to take off their shoes before they come in”!

  20. 20.

    Chris

    September 21, 2013 at 8:17 pm

    @Splitting Image:

    I don’t think jihadis are a myth either. I think jihadis having the power to write their religion into the legal code anywhere in the United States, let alone the kind of places that pass “anti Sharia Law” legislation, is a myth, hence the opposition. Like communists fifty years ago, jihadis are an enemy that has no presence within U.S. borders apart from foreign agents and a few crazies. (The actual “lone wolves.”)

    Basically, they want to have simple ways of telling who America’s Enemies are, like women wearing the niqab or men growing their beards long.

    There’s a bunch of reason for the association of “Muslim” with “jihadi.” One is simply throwing it out as liberal bait – they know if they do it, we have to respond, at which point they go on a whole tangent of “why do you care about terrorists more than your own people? You’re traitors!” Another is that their ideology demands an underlying cultural explanation for that behavior that can reinforce their “our tribe is better than everyone else’s” narrative – so you can never admit that the jihadis are simply the functional equivalent of Christian warlords running around Africa with Pat Robertson’s money. (Or even our own abortion bombers right here at home).

    The simplest reason, though? It’s that their base is too fucking stupid/ignorant to be able to define the enemy in any terms narrower than “Muslim.” These guys can’t grasp any distinction even as broad as “Sunni/Shi’a,” let alone more complicated words like “Salafi.” They, to the teabagger base, truly to all look alike.

  21. 21.

    Roger Moore

    September 21, 2013 at 8:17 pm

    @lamh36:

    Woo-hoo! !0 out of 10.

  22. 22.

    WereBear

    September 21, 2013 at 8:19 pm

    @lamh36: I was listening to that CD this morning :)

    The song is one of my favorites.

  23. 23.

    weaselone

    September 21, 2013 at 8:22 pm

    I don’t think Jihadis are a myth. I just don’t think they’re hiding in my toaster.

  24. 24.

    MomSense

    September 21, 2013 at 8:23 pm

    @marshall:

    My friend lives there but thankfully wasn’t at the mall when this happened. I was very worried until I heard from her.

  25. 25.

    lamh36

    September 21, 2013 at 8:24 pm

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: @Roger Moore:

    Damnit! Now I know I was robbed…lol.

    I’ve gotta take my time reading these darn online quizzes…lol

  26. 26.

    Mike G

    September 21, 2013 at 8:29 pm

    @Chris:

    It’s that their base is too fucking stupid/ignorant to be able to define the enemy in any terms narrower than “Muslim.”

    We’re talking about people who have little or no experience with other cultures, mostly by arrogance and deliberate choice, the willfully-culturally-ignorant.

    It’s a real problem in parochial parts of the US; in other western countries there is plenty of foreign culture (frequently American culture) in the mass media, whereas here everything is through the lens of national solipsism, even without getting into the cynical turbo-jingoism of Faux News and rabies radio.

    Bigots are usually not very discriminating in their discrimination.

  27. 27.

    Roger Moore

    September 21, 2013 at 8:32 pm

    @Splitting Image:

    I don’t think jihadis are necessarily a myth, but I do think that the teabaggers are completely incapable of telling them from other Muslims.

    This. Jihadis aren’t a myth, but jihadis who are going to impose Shariah Law in Oklahoma are.

    @Chris:

    I don’t think you can ignore the extent to which Christian Fundamentalists have a persecution complex. Jesus said that it’s righteous to be persecuted for believing in him*, so there are a lot of fundamentalists who desperately want to be persecuted to prove how righteous they are. When they aren’t actually persecuted because they’re the ones doing the persecuting, they’re left making up imaginary persecution to make themselves feel righteous. Jihadists who are just about to impose Shariah law in middle America are part of the general persecution complex.

    *e.g. Matthew 5:11-12:

    11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

  28. 28.

    khead

    September 21, 2013 at 8:33 pm

    Weird. I hadn’t stopped by BJ for a while – I was too busy checking point spreads – yet I just posted the Kaiser Quiz to my FB page. 8 of 10.

  29. 29.

    Roger Moore

    September 21, 2013 at 8:34 pm

    @weaselone:

    I don’t think Jihadis are a myth. I just don’t think they’re hiding in my toaster.

    So Quinoa Qrunch burger isn’t part of the jihadist conspiracy?

  30. 30.

    schrodinger's cat

    September 21, 2013 at 8:43 pm

    @raven: What are Auburn fans like?

  31. 31.

    khead

    September 21, 2013 at 8:43 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    Solid.

    More solid than those burgers, at least.

  32. 32.

    Redshirt

    September 21, 2013 at 8:45 pm

    @Chris: Technically, there were active Communists working within the US border at pretty much all times during the Cold War. But not to the extent McCarthy and pals would have anyone believe. And we know from 9/11 at least that there have been Jihadis living in America planning terrorist deeds. But no where near the amount a Wingnut would believe.

  33. 33.

    raven

    September 21, 2013 at 8:52 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: Their persecution complex and victim mentality is through the roof.

  34. 34.

    SIA

    September 21, 2013 at 8:55 pm

    @lamh36: I got 9 out of 10, and tweeted it (can’t believe I just wrote that).

  35. 35.

    BD of MN

    September 21, 2013 at 8:59 pm

    @lamh36: 10 out of 10 for me, and I posted it to my fb with the message “If you’re anti-Obamacare, I bet you get more than half of these wrong…” It’ll be interesting to see if any of my winger friends and family take the bait…

  36. 36.

    different-church-lady

    September 21, 2013 at 9:01 pm

    Look, I know it’s not addressing the central point of the article, but as of late I’d say the idea that the progressive twittersphere is any less divorced from reality than the conservanut version is no longer operable.

  37. 37.

    beer time somewhere

    September 21, 2013 at 9:02 pm

    Wahoo, got 9 of 10.
    Oh yeah, I’m a Canuckistani.
    If I can figure it out why can’t the Goopers?
    Shit, talk about fucked up.

  38. 38.

    khead

    September 21, 2013 at 9:09 pm

    @different-church-lady:

    When was that thought operable?

  39. 39.

    katie5

    September 21, 2013 at 9:11 pm

    Just got my acknowledgement from MARC on behalf of Tunch. Bittersweet memory.

  40. 40.

    max

    September 21, 2013 at 9:13 pm

    The problem is that, when you’re an American progressive reading daily accounts of these cretins’ latest legislative victories, you pretty much have to push back, and in the process of pushing back you end up falling for your own version of American exceptionalism, which says that there can’t really be such a thing as a crazy jihadi, that those people are just misunderstood liberals

    {boggles} Besides the fact that Twitter Is Stupid, I have never operated on the theory that jihadis don’t exist or are liberals. I’ve always thought of them as much a less spoiled version of crazy Baptists. This is why I don’t have an issue with drones.

    if the US let them alone and Israel stopped provoking them, would think pretty much like us…

    If the US stopped buying trouble by trying to fix things for Israel, we’d suffer a lot less damage from jihadis. It’s actually a hell of a lot easier and cheaper to stop them over here than to try and fight them on their own turf, and there’d be a lot fewer of them to stop in the first fucking place.

    It’s not a surprise—not at all—that a fraction of the young males from there joined up for jihad. The real surprise is that there are so few of them.

    Containment WORKS. Rollback doesn’t.

    max
    [‘Not a bad column otherwise.’]

  41. 41.

    Chris

    September 21, 2013 at 9:14 pm

    @Redshirt:

    Right. That’s what I mean. Were there Communists in America? Yes, but not in any way that mattered. They were either KGB agents, or the occasional oddball ideologues – and these ideologues were never in a position to be a meaningful political force like the Communist Parties in, say, France or Italy (and even those guys were never in a position to take over the system). Same thing with jihadis now.

    Another useful commonality between the two is that the broader left-wing community in America (back when there actually was one) was happy to participate in tracking down actual Reds. Liberals like Walter Reuther and Hubert Humphrey supported the purge of communists from politics in the fifties (if anything they went too far); unions like the AFL-CIO actually cooperated with the CIA’s anticommunist activities in Europe, providing cover for field officers, etc. The left wing in America was by and large loyal to the country and not sympathetic to communism. Everything we’ve seen since 9/11 indicates the same thing about the Muslim American community – I remember reading that the FBI was trying to infiltrate moles into the radical Muslim groups here in the States, except the Muslim community already self-polices so well that their moles were getting reported to the authorities as soon as they did anything suspicious.

  42. 42.

    sharl

    September 21, 2013 at 9:14 pm

    @different-church-lady: Isn’t that kinda like saying that christians don’t accept the basic reality of evolution or global warming as fact? Sure, some christians don’t – e.g., the biblical fundies such as Southern Baptists – but many christians have no problem with the scientific reality of either of those things.

    In the same way, the “progressive” twittersphere has quite a bit of variety to it, and it’s painting with a broad brush to say they all believe one thing or the other. It’s easy to nutpick from that bunch to win an argument (pro- or anti-leftie), but until a Diversity in Nutpicking Act becomes Law of the Land, it will be best to not go with any one person’s representation of the Left, with or without freshly picked tweets.

    Besides, The Left is already on Twitter, though as was the case back when he had an active blog, it’s hard to get him to focus on a topic, political or otherwise; so he’s not a particularly reliable go-to resource.

  43. 43.

    S. Holland

    September 21, 2013 at 9:15 pm

    9 out of 10, but what do I know, I’m just a 70 year old lady who is quite proud of my President and loathes teabaggers

  44. 44.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    September 21, 2013 at 9:16 pm

    This supposed Irish pub I’m at has corned beef and cabbage, but no Magner’s. I sense shenanigans, and not the good kind.

  45. 45.

    Thor Heyerdahl

    September 21, 2013 at 9:18 pm

    @beer time somewhere:

    Oh yeah, I’m a Canuckistani.
    If I can figure it out why can’t the Goopers?

    [wingnut on]Cuz you got socializm health care up thar you homo marryin’ dope smokin’ commie lovers…a friend’s cousin’s roommate’s uncle had to wait three months for elective surgery and he din’t have financial problems aftah…the free market makes sure he gets all the wrong tests and pays the most to god loving inserence companies[wingnut off]

    (full disclosure…proud of Tommy Douglas’ medicare legacy as a fellow Canuck)

  46. 46.

    Kyle

    September 21, 2013 at 9:18 pm

    there can’t really be such a thing as a crazy jihadi, that those people are just misunderstood liberals who, if the US let them alone and Israel stopped provoking them, would think pretty much like us…

    I don’t know anyone who thinks/thought like this. The closest analog to this mindset were the neocon cretins who thought Iraq would turn into a pliant pro-Western client state through US invasion — the magical thinking that Saddam and his inner circle was the only thing holding back Iraq from being the fulfillment of conservatives’ fantasies.

    There will always be some violent religious nutbags in the Middle East, just as there will always be some violent religious nutbags in the US. That doesn’t mean they’re poised to impose burkas on the women of Guymon, Oklahoma. But it’s highly likely that certain ego-driven stupid actions of the US government have done more to fuel jihadism than degrade it.

  47. 47.

    jl

    September 21, 2013 at 9:19 pm

    @Roger Moore: But they R doing it wrong, not following the instructions! They are supposed to rejoice and be glad in experiencing the humbility of being persecuted by mean and selfish worldly people. And then they are supposed to have compassion for the poor lost souls and think of ways to help them. Buddhism gives the same kind of advice.

    Instead they get resentful and angry and scared, and whine, and cook up ways to punish people who don’t believe exactly what they do.

    What we have here is a failure to communicate.

    Well, Jesus also said ‘those who have ears to hear, let them hear’. So, not sure it is the J man’s fault.

  48. 48.

    IowaOldLady

    September 21, 2013 at 9:22 pm

    10/10
    The one I hesitated over was whether there’d be a new government run plan on the exchanges competing with private ones. It was the “new” that clued me in finally.

  49. 49.

    burnspbesq

    September 21, 2013 at 9:23 pm

    old and cranky enough to show up for every midterm election when the rest of us have better things to do.

    What sort of moron writes crap like this?

    Listen up, jackass, and listen carefully: you NEVER have ANYTHING better to do than to show up for midterm elections.

    Sheesh.

  50. 50.

    Anne Laurie

    September 21, 2013 at 9:35 pm

    @khead: No, you misunderstand the premise. “Different Church Lady” is an authoritarian whose mission is to remind us that, were it not for the “progressives” (emoprogs, firebaggers, Snowald groupies), we could line up behind a True Leader and march in glorious lockstep to #WinTheFuture, just like the Repubs do. No DFHs for DCL!

  51. 51.

    MomSense

    September 21, 2013 at 9:41 pm

    @Anne Laurie:

    “Different Church Lady” is an authoritarian

    An authoritarian?? That is just silly.

  52. 52.

    Anne Laurie

    September 21, 2013 at 9:47 pm

    @MomSense: All I ever see of DCL’s comments are deploring the “unrealistic” unruly left-of-centrists for not getting with the program, because we’re just shirking our responsiblity. That reads “authoritarian” to me. Democratic/DLC authoritarian, possibly, but it is what it is.

  53. 53.

    danielx

    September 21, 2013 at 9:48 pm

    Saturday night and gloating over today’s score, a twelve inch Lodge cast iron skillet purchased at a garage sale for…fifty cents. Have to clean it and reseason it, but…details, details.

    On another note, key to the smoking cessation process – keep repeating to yourself: other human beings are not trying to piss you off and frustrate you by existing, nor are cats or inanimate objects. It’s all in your head….

  54. 54.

    chopper

    September 21, 2013 at 9:53 pm

    @Anne Laurie:

    You got a wacko definition of “authoritarian”.

  55. 55.

    MomSense

    September 21, 2013 at 9:54 pm

    @Anne Laurie:

    I think the word authoritarian is being thrown around now in a very casual manner. Authoritarianism is serious and the usual firebagger v obot nonsense hardly goes to that extreme. Authoritarian regimes behave in an extra legal fashion, not accountable to constitutional limitations, repress freedom of thought and speech, etc.

  56. 56.

    Liquid

    September 21, 2013 at 9:57 pm

    Someone must have thought of this but — The most unrealistic part of GTA V is that you can’t check your phone in the movie theater. — Tweet that shit!

  57. 57.

    JPL

    September 21, 2013 at 10:01 pm

    @Anne Laurie: I don’t feel that way but in the word of your former Senator..bqhatevwr…

  58. 58.

    Belafon

    September 21, 2013 at 10:03 pm

    @burnspbesq: I would suggest you go back and find the post where DougJ admits he didn’t show up for an election in NY. Just because people should be voting doesn’t mean they are.

  59. 59.

    raven

    September 21, 2013 at 10:08 pm

    @danielx: Heat them, put peanut oil in then add salt and scour with paper towels.

  60. 60.

    Yatsuno

    September 21, 2013 at 10:09 pm

    @lamh36: 9/10, but only because I messed up on the clicks.

  61. 61.

    scav

    September 21, 2013 at 10:11 pm

    American gun use is out of control. Shouldn’t the world intervene?

    The figures from Congressional Research Service, plus recent statistics from icasualties.org, tell us that from the first casualties in the battle of Lexington to recent operations in Afghanistan, the toll is 1,171,177. By contrast, the number killed by firearms, including suicides, since 1968, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the FBI, is 1,384,171.

    Opinion piece, but that’s a statistic to stop one in our tracks.

  62. 62.

    geg6

    September 21, 2013 at 10:12 pm

    @lamh36:

    That was my class song! Love it! It always makes me wanna dance.

  63. 63.

    JPL

    September 21, 2013 at 10:13 pm

    @raven: It’s a good idea to put it in the oven at 250 for about an hour, too.
    How’s the pup?

  64. 64.

    raven

    September 21, 2013 at 10:17 pm

    @JPL: Not great. He yelps when he moves suddenly and I don’t like the tone. This is not the first time, he’s nine and loves to chase the ball so I’ve tried to limit how much he does. He’s also clingy and he’s usually not like that with me. If the ol lady would get her butt home from all her frickin parties he and I would both be happier!

  65. 65.

    burnspbesq

    September 21, 2013 at 10:17 pm

    @Belafon:

    @burnspbesq: I would suggest you go back and find the post where DougJ admits he didn’t show up for an election in NY. Just because people should be voting doesn’t mean they are.

    DougJ is an idiot? Quel surprise.

  66. 66.

    khead

    September 21, 2013 at 10:18 pm

    @Anne Laurie:

    I’d just like an answer to my question. If my FB feed is any indication, someone had better come up with some seriously stupid shit from progressives if they want to make the claim I questioned. Twitter. Facebook. Internet. This galaxy. Don’t care.

    khead +

  67. 67.

    different-church-lady

    September 21, 2013 at 10:18 pm

    @khead: I dunno… two, three years ago?

    @Anne Laurie: I rest my case.

  68. 68.

    khead

    September 21, 2013 at 10:19 pm

    @different-church-lady:

    Well, that narrows it down.

  69. 69.

    JPL

    September 21, 2013 at 10:20 pm

    @raven: You can deal with it but the pup needs extra love.

  70. 70.

    burnspbesq

    September 21, 2013 at 10:20 pm

    Pirates’ magic number to clinch a playoff berth is down to three.

    And now for the only important sporting event of the day: Galaxy – Sounders.

  71. 71.

    different-church-lady

    September 21, 2013 at 10:20 pm

    @Anne Laurie: I don’t care if far left progs “get with the program”. I only care when they say wacky-ass shit that hurts progress.

    You’re too smart for the binary construct, so why you gotta slum it?

  72. 72.

    different-church-lady

    September 21, 2013 at 10:24 pm

    @MomSense: I don’t enjoy a left-o-sphere where anyone who disagrees with the president is labeled an emo-prog, and everyone who criticizes actual emo-progs is an authoritarian.

    It’s about what people actually say, not which side you take.

    But, you know, boxes have gotta be filled, so I guess my being crammed into one is just part of the lumps.

  73. 73.

    SiubhanDuinne

    September 21, 2013 at 10:26 pm

    @burnspbesq:

    I know nothing of John Dolan, but I took that line as complete snark.

  74. 74.

    some guy

    September 21, 2013 at 10:26 pm

    speaking of jihadi’s, today was another red letter day for our Al Qaeda allies in Syria. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/09/2013920164342453621.html

  75. 75.

    MomSense

    September 21, 2013 at 10:29 pm

    @different-church-lady:

    It’s about what people actually say, not which side you take.

    If that were a box, I wouldn’t mind too much being crammed into it. For the most part though I don’t like the binary constructs much myself.

  76. 76.

    SiubhanDuinne

    September 21, 2013 at 10:36 pm

    Sobering: I just learned that I am only one degree of separation from one of the people killed today at the mall in Nairobi. I didn’t know her personally, but we have a friend/colleague in common.

  77. 77.

    aimai

    September 21, 2013 at 10:40 pm

    The husband of a friend of mine was killed in the Khobar towers blast, years [email protected]SiubhanDuinne:

  78. 78.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    September 21, 2013 at 10:42 pm

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone):

    This supposed Irish pub I’m at has corned beef and cabbage, but no Magner’s. I sense shenanigans, and not the good kind.

    that first part alone should be enough to get you suspicious.

  79. 79.

    Roger Moore

    September 21, 2013 at 10:56 pm

    @danielx:

    On another note, key to the smoking cessation process – keep repeating to yourself: other human beings are not trying to piss you off and frustrate you by existing, nor are cats or inanimate objects. It’s all in your head….

    Some people need to keep repeating those things even when they aren’t trying to stop smoking.

  80. 80.

    MomSense

    September 21, 2013 at 10:56 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Same for me.

  81. 81.

    mai naem

    September 21, 2013 at 11:03 pm

    I’ve been following the Kenyan terrorist attack a little today. There was a tweet from somebody saying that one of the gunmen asked an Asian Hindu hostage who the mother of the prophet was and shot the guy dead because the guy didn’t know the answer. I don’t understand these whackjobs. Jeebus, can we not just fucking just leave each other’s religions alone within reason.

  82. 82.

    Gravenstone

    September 21, 2013 at 11:04 pm

    @beer time somewhere:

    If I can figure it out why can’t the Goopers?

    Because they don’t want to figure it out. It interferes with their victimization complex.

  83. 83.

    Belafon

    September 21, 2013 at 11:05 pm

    @burnspbesq: The point being, you wrote this:

    What sort of moron writes crap like this?

    When we have plenty of evidence that people don’t vote even though they should have. Your holier-than-thouness needs to be checked a bit.

  84. 84.

    Roger Moore

    September 21, 2013 at 11:22 pm

    @Belafon:

    Your holier-than-thouness needs to be checked a bit.

    Look who you’re talking to. That has about as much chance of happening because you say so as Cole does of not injuring himself.

  85. 85.

    The Other Bob

    September 21, 2013 at 11:34 pm

    @lamh36:

    Got 10/10 and posted it to FB.

  86. 86.

    Mike E

    September 21, 2013 at 11:44 pm

    8/10, but I ride a rainbow unicorn/pony.

    Just witnessed my local symphony perform Beethoven’s 9th. Too fast, but they rocked it.

  87. 87.

    kindness

    September 21, 2013 at 11:46 pm

    @Captain Comrade: I’m not killing anyone. Bad karma. But the TeaHaddists have me frying lately.

  88. 88.

    Angela

    September 21, 2013 at 11:47 pm

    @lamh36: 8 of 10. Posted to FB; awaiting the incoming from rw relatives!

  89. 89.

    Yatsuno

    September 21, 2013 at 11:48 pm

    @kindness: It has edges of Brick Oven goodness, but it just comes up short.

  90. 90.

    eemom

    September 21, 2013 at 11:55 pm

    @Anne Laurie:

    “Different Church Lady” is an authoritarian

    Man, you really are a fucking moron.

    I take back every quasi-qualm I’m ever had about calling out your bullshit before.

  91. 91.

    divF

    September 22, 2013 at 12:09 am

    Re: KFF quiz – 9/10. Got the medicare tax increase question wrong, and I’m glad I was wrong about it.

  92. 92.

    Jewish Steel

    September 22, 2013 at 12:11 am

    @lamh36: 9/10 Hey, hey!

  93. 93.

    Jewish Steel

    September 22, 2013 at 12:23 am

    @divF: Me too!

  94. 94.

    burnspbesq

    September 22, 2013 at 12:59 am

    @Belafon:

    Your holier-than-thouness needs to be checked a bit.

    Not on that issue. Not EVER on that issue. And you’re just as bad as the rest for suggesting it.

  95. 95.

    jheartney

    September 22, 2013 at 1:18 am

    @burnspbesq: The “War Nerd” nym’s writings have always had a certain hyper-cynical tongue-in-cheek quality. In his world, genocidal murderers have a certain honest barbarism, in contrast to other world leaders who, for example, watched passively as the Syrian Alawites massacred 100k with high explosives, but then hit the fainting couches when they killed a couple thousand more with poison gas. I think his general take on voting is that with a little luck it may not do much harm. Not much good, but not much harm.

    Note: these are his expressed opinions, not mine.

  96. 96.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    September 22, 2013 at 2:51 am

    @eemom: The whole (several generations removed from being) Irish act is pretty fucking obnoxious and stupid, too.

  97. 97.

    John Revolta

    September 22, 2013 at 3:10 am

    @mai naem:The point is, they were asking people if they were Muslim and then killing them accordingly. I don’t imagine many people said “no”, so further tests became necessary.

    Hmmmm……….. pardon me while I go look that shit up.

  98. 98.

    different-church-lady

    September 22, 2013 at 4:52 am

    @eemom: See, now the difference between you and me is that I decided to just give her the benefit of sarcasm or satire and move on, even if she wasn’t in fact doing either.

  99. 99.

    Ramalama

    September 22, 2013 at 8:33 am

    I think I’ve seen mention of NSFWCorps but have never gone there until now. Really interesting writing. I’ve now become a subscriber, so thanks for that.

  100. 100.

    Micheline

    September 22, 2013 at 8:44 am

    I got 10 out of 10.

  101. 101.

    NonyNony

    September 22, 2013 at 10:06 am

    @burnspbesq:

    Dude you’re a tax attorney. You live in a giant glass house when it comes to moral authority. You should not be casting stones at anyone – especially people who work for a goddamn living (unlike you) and so can’t get off their crummy jobs (unlike you) to go stand in lines in precincts that have been artificially denied voting machines (unlike your precinct).

    Get off your high horse – it’s impossibly difficult for some people in this country to vote and you’re a rich guy speaking from a position of privilege who makes his living as a parasite on the back of larger parasites. Try recognizing your goddamn privilege sometime and maybe, just maybe you might turn into a better person.

  102. 102.

    GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)

    September 22, 2013 at 10:47 am

    @MomSense:

    Firebaggers and PUMAS are wont to misuse language to make a point.
    The RBC understands this, and lets it go.

  103. 103.

    Donald

    September 22, 2013 at 2:54 pm

    ” actual emo-progs ”

    A person who thinks this is a useful category isn’t “authoritarian”–it’s just a person who wants a convenient dismissive label to use in place of an argument. For a very long time, people in the center left have used labels like this to dismiss people to further to their left.

    The whole firebagger/Obot/emo-prog argument in the comments section of this blog is stupid, at least when I’ve visited. Lots of insults,and not much else. Maybe you all know each other too well and can’t be bothered to say anything worth reading.

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