.
Mark Kelly, in the Washington Post:
Last weekend, my wife, Gabby, and I went to see the movie “Gravity” at our neighborhood theater in Tucson. I’m a retired astronaut who has been to space four times, so I’m usually a bit skeptical of films that take place in space. For me, watching movies about space is like a congresswoman watching “House of Cards.” It’s entertaining, but it’s obviously not the real thing.
Director Alfonso Cuarón does come remarkably close with “Gravity.” I’ve spent a total of 55 days in space so I know what to look for, and Cuarón really was able to capture what it looks like inside and outside of a spacecraft…
raven
Protestors demonstrate outside Paul Broun’s Athens office
Randy P
One of my pet peeves is how big-budget Hollywood movies don’t bother paying a couple of bucks for a science advisor, can’t be bothered to get the science right. Gravity was no exception, I was grumbling about violating the laws of physics throughout much of it and afterward.
But it’s still a damned good movie and I love both these stars, George Clooney and Sandra Bullock.
JPL
@raven: Thank you for posting that. The damage the repubs are bringing to the
country is unmeasured. Hopefully, the local tv stations cover that but GA playing Missouri seems to be more important at this time.
OzarkHillbilly
Some people are stupid:
“Consider a contiguous 5-State secession TX-LA-MO-MI-OK. What are the pros? What are the cons?”
Best part is he probably spent thousands to get people to laugh at him.
Poopyman
@OzarkHillbilly: I dunno. I suspect there are more than a few Michigan Militia types that might want to subscribe to the guy’s newsletter.
OzarkHillbilly
@Poopyman: You missed the “contiguous” part. Last I checked MI is somewhere north of IN.
IowaOldLady
@OzarkHillbilly: But MI is Michigan. I suspect the fool wanted MS.
Mike E
@OzarkHillbilly: Mebbe MS instead of MI?
OzarkHillbilly
@IowaOldLady: The point… exactly. Ahhh…. a joke is wasted if you have to explain it!!!! ;-)
Mike E
@OzarkHillbilly: That joke was asking’ for it!
WereBear
I regard secessionists on the reasoning level of a five year old running away from home.
Sure, leave the most powerful nation on earth… when you are running a deficit that federal money staunches. When federal employment leaving would create yet another ding on your economy. Say goodbye to the prices on the food you don’t grow there… the goods that get trucked in… the roads that those trucks run on.
If Under the Dome hadn’t deteriorated into rotten writing, it might have explored these issues. But logic has zero effect on the cray cray. They can be hip deep in a sewer and shriek it smells like roses.
If you could admit a mistake, they wouldn’t be wingnuts.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
What does he have against AR?
TS
I feel like I’ve been watching “House of Cards” for real over the past few months – not entertaining, but it is the real thing.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: NM?
Poopyman
@OzarkHillbilly: A mere detail. I’m sure he was thinking, strategically!, that Michigan would give his little kingdom the manufacturing oomf needed to provide some income.
Or something.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
He wants Texas, Louisiana, Missouri, and possibly Mississippi to secede, but not Arkansas. I was wondering why.
Linda Featheringill
The guy with the billboard:
He is a dummy OR it’s a really good joke.
If I had money to burn, what would I like to put up on a billboard? Hmmmm . . .
ericblair
Canuckistanis got to grow up with Quebec separatism. This was serious business, got a pubic hair away from winning a referendum, and these jokers had no understanding of what it would mean and no plan. The idea was that they were going to separate, but use the same Canadian dollar, have representation in the Canadian parliament (!) and the Bank of Canada, immediately participate in NAFTA, have dual citizenship with Canada, and a list of other similar pony-esque demands. Like the US South, Quebec also received more federal funding than they took in in taxes, but you had bozos on the street convinced that the day after separation that federal tax deduction line on their paychecks would disappear.
The separatists are still in charge up there, and have recently shit in their hats by going completely nativist, trying to ban religious garments in the public service and various other sops to bigots.
Oh yeah, and when the English bits of Quebec told the government that they were going to separate from Quebec if Quebec separated from Canada, the separatists went apeshit. You can’t do that, you ungrateful unpatriotic fucks!
WereBear
@Linda Featheringill: My billboard would say…
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: DUH!!! Now here I am getting AR and AZ mixed up.(yum yum love that egg on my face)
Actually, some of my AR friends and I have discussed seceding from AR and MO and calling it “Ozarkistan.” Only problem is we’d be bringing our own Taliban with us.
raven
@JPL: Yea, and the problem with that is?
JPL
@WereBear: I like your sign better. As long as they take MS, I could care less if the clowns create their fantasy world. One of the comments mentioned that the sign was fixed to reflect MS.
JPL
@raven: You going to the game?
OzarkHillbilly
@Linda Featheringill: On the way into St Lou there is a billboard with: “$17 trillion and counting. Whose deficit is it now?”
I always want to put up one right after that that is just a simple graph showing when and under which presidents the deficit went up and when it went down. Probably a waste of time tho, it would require wing nuts to think in more than one dimension.
WereBear
Just watching the President’s weekly address. He points out the actual costs of a default… increased interest rates.
He calls it: the Republican Default TAX
Love it.
Betty Cracker
@Randy P: Yeah, and where were Bullock’s space diapers?
raven
@JPL: Oh yea. I’ll mosey over in a couple of house, we need that joint rockin early but there’s little chance the student section will fill up by kickoff.
raven
@JPL: Oh yea. I’ll mosey over in a couple of house, we need that joint rockin early but there’s little chance the student section will fill up by kickoff.
Betty Cracker
@raven: Who are the Dawgs playing this week? The Gators are playing LSU. We’ll probably get our butts kicked, but the home crew and I will salvage a good backyard viewing party out of it. I’m making pulled pork, coleslaw, baked beans and collards.
Patrick
@OzarkHillbilly:
Never mind that Bush inherited a surplus which he turned into record deficits. Never mind that revenues dried up due to the severe recession that took place during Republican rule that Obama was forced to inherit.
I remember when spending for the two wars was not even included in the Bush annual budget. The Republicans used budget gimmicks and instead included it as part of supplementals.
Needless to say, this deficit belongs to Bush and the GOP. The have shown that they LOVE to spend other people’s hard-earned money and then have our grand-kids pay for it with interest.
raven
@Betty Cracker: Oh I don’t know, I guess we are playing UNDEFEATED and ranked Mizzzou with out two best running backs and two best wide receivers gone.
I just set the DVR for your game and the Hokies so I’ll bet all set when I get home.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Well, that explains why he didn’t want Arkansas. ;-)
Betty Cracker
@raven: Right, right — Gators are playing them next week. Piece of cake, brother. They’re undefeated. But they haven’t played anyone.
JPL
@Patrick: Don’t forget that Homeland Security, Medicare Part D, No Child Left Behind was never funded. Add to that the wars that you mentioned and the massive tax cuts and yup, Republicans own the debt. What do they want to get out of the mess, they created? Obviously rid the country of the pesky Medical Device Tax.
Patrick
@JPL:
The real sad thing is that there are so many Democrats willing to go along. Don’t they realize that the Republicans would NEVER go along with replacing it with another tax? So, where is the funding going to come from? Amy Klobuchar, what’s your response?
JPL
@Patrick: Yup and now ACA is adding to the debt.
also, too… the same repub that votes for it will campaign against ACA because it’s not fully funded.
Wag
Has anyone looked at what the effect of secession would be on the balance of power in congress? We would lose Landreau (D) LA. Any other Democratic Senotors?
In the House I suspect the net loss of Republicans could flip the House.
raven
@Betty Cracker: Major pucker factor in the Classic City.
raven
Gameday in Seattle at 6am pst!
OzarkHillbilly
@raven:
Don’t worry, it’s Mizzou. Dawgs in a route.
Bill E Pilgrim
It’s funny just to imagine.
“Keep your government hand off my Medicare! Secede!”
“Yay, we seceded! Wait, where’s my Medicare?”
“This is the CBO calling. We’ve investigated, and that government spending — it’s coming from inside your own state! Get out!”
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL:
Eliminate SS, Medicare and Medicaid, because old people just get in the way.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: no e I think
raven
@OzarkHillbilly:
Old & In The Way
Old and in the way, that’s what I heard them say
They used to heed the words he said, but that was yesterday
Gold will turn to gray and youth will fade away
They’ll never care about you, call you old and in the way
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Linda Featheringill:
There’s a sign locally (SE MN) that the teatards bought before the last election “Take our country back” or some such. I laugh every time I drive by.
SiubhanDuinne
@ericblair:
I’ve often thought that the most accurate translation of Je me souviens is “Fergit? Hayull no!!”
lamh36
So im reading on the twitter that Boehner has told House caucus that there is no deal deal with WH and discussion are at an impasse. So it looks like WH and Senate Republicans are the ones who are going to have to move something through.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
Sitting in the Burbank airport waiting for my flight to visit my mom for the weekend. I’m going to see if she wants to see “Gravity,” though I’m not sure what she thinks of that socialist George Clooney.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
Also, too, I posted a DVR alert on my blog, but NOT for a Pre-Code movie. Val Lewton’s 1943 classic I Walked With A Zombie is airing early Friday morning and is well worth watching for the themes Lewton snuck past the censors.
gogol's wife
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
You can’t go wrong when Theresa Harris is involved.
Citizen_X
@OzarkHillbilly:
Morons. They don’t even know what the deficit is, or its value (it’s just about now shrinking to below a trillion). $17 trillion is the amount we owe if all SS commitments had to be paid out NOW, for some bizarre reason.
What it needs is a billboard with graph of the (shrinking) deficit, a pic of Obama smiling, and the words “Thanks for lowering the deficit, Mr. President!” Maybe put it near the police station so the furious teatards trying to deface it would get busted.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: What??? You don’t think they need roads to get there?!?!?!!???
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@gogol’s wife:
Harris is also in the awesome Pre-Code movie “Baby Face” with Barbara Stanwyck.
Bill D.
@Randy P: Back on topic. It’s not just the lack of scientific knowledge, it’s also the poor depiction of the scientific process. “Scientists” are depicted by invoking scienc-y looking stuff while having the actors do stupid things to move the plot along. Hey, if scientists are so stupid then how did they develop the science that enabled all that whiz-bang technology that got you out to the stars? Huh?
A sinner in both ways: Prometheus. Sigh….