Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

You cannot shame the shameless.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Everybody saw this coming.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

One way or another, he’s a liar.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Saturday Night Open Thread

Saturday Night Open Thread

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I realized today that the honeymoon is over between me and Steve. When Tunch was killed, for weeks afterward I felt guilty about all the times I had told him to shut up or pushed him off the bed when he paced for twenty minutes, etc., so when I got Steve, I embraced all his idiosyncratic behavior.

Until the last couple of days when I have caught myself yelling vulgarities at him because he never, ever shuts up.

Watching the Pens, myself. For those of you who live in a cave and have not seen it, the Hobbit is on HBO. And then I guess there is Johnny DOUCHEBAG Football against Ole Miss at 8:30.

Reader Interactions

189Comments

  5. 5.

    ixnay

    Advice from your friendly online veterinarian: check out Temple Grandin’s stuff. She has more insight about how to modify your cat’s behavior than I can even begin to address. That said, my spouse rattles on at me endlessly also, and there comes a time when selective deafness simply needs to kick in. Sometimes I simply announce, “You know, I’m not listening, right?”

  7. 7.

    lamh36

    So I watched The Matrix Reloaded (i.e. #2). I could watch the first Matrix film anytime and still be engrossed into the story and be fine. I am watching the final Matrix film…geez was the 2 finals films always such a convoluted mess? The next 2 movies in the trilogy though, I swear outside of the fight scenes (and they are still bleh compared to the first film) the next 2 films are REALLY boring!

  8. 8.

    raven

    Sounds like the asshole sitting next to me at the Georgia game. I’m 63 fucking years old and have been into football all my life. This dude started out ok but quickly became totally obnoxious telling me the most obvious shit every play. I was with my buddy and at the half he said “man you are doing great keeping your cool with that douche”. Ack!

  11. 11.

    R-Jud

    @ixnay:

    Sometimes I simply announce, “You know I’m not listening, right?”

    Oh, man. I was really tempted to do this tonight, when Mr. Jud was describing his workout in lavish, exhaustive detail.

  12. 12.

    RareSanity

    @raven:

    First it was the Falcons, then the Braves, now UGA…

    And people wonder why the fans here are so “meh” when it comes to their teams.

  14. 14.

    Amir Khalid

    Tsk, tsk. What kind of monster in human form shouts obscenities at a poor defenceless widdle kitteh? Anyway, maybe he was cussing right back at you.

  15. 15.

    RareSanity

    @lamh36:

    I felt the same way about The Matrix Trilogy, until I started reading essays people wrote about the deep symbolism involved with the movies, and the story that was being told by the trilogy in its totality.

    It’s some pretty deep shit…

    But yeah, if you’re watching 2 and 3 hoping to see a great sci-fi action flick…you’re gonna have a bad time.

  19. 19.

    ixnay

    @R-Jud:
    For me, usually has to do with exhaustive descriptions of the rehabilitation of either the MGB or the ancient tractor. While I am quite able to understand that stuff, I simply don’t have the time. Someone else’s workout? Please. I put one foot in front of the other, most days. That’s a high point.

  20. 20.

    srv

    John, you are not listening. Your animal is trying to tell you something. I would suggest “A Language Older Than Words” by Derrick Jensen.

    If you don’t want to listen, put him on his own webcam and let him talk to us.

  22. 22.

    Mike E

    @lamh36: When Quentin Tarantino was making Kill Bill, he worried about the next Matrix movie stealing his thunder; after viewing that 2nd one he practically skipped out of the theater, he was so underwhelmed by the effort.

  26. 26.

    RareSanity

    @John Cole:

    The problem is that your enjoyment of Reloaded and Revolutions, was heavily dependent on you having seen The Animatrix, and known about The Matrix Online PC game.

    Most of the story and character development for the last two movies, was set up in those non-mainstream vehicles.

    Like I said, I completely understand someone saying they didn’t like 2 and 3, they seemed kind of “empty” to the casual viewer. However, for the “hardcore” Matrix fans (or geeks, whichever you prefer), they were awesome because they where the culminations of an extremely complex story that played out, not just in the three movies.

  28. 28.

    dogwood

    OK, I just got an email from the DSCC telling me that Booker is only leading Lonegan 47-44. Please tell me that poll is an outlier and they’re just trolling for cash.

  29. 29.

    lamh36

    @RareSanity: Yeah, on paper, the story really is interesting and pretty interesting, but the final on film product…meh, especially the final 2 films.

    Too much emphasis on effects,not enough on IDK, explanation of what the heck was going on for those who did not read the back information.

    Also too, it’s been what 10 years since the first Matrix, and it took that long to even half understand what the heck was going on. At the time they came out, I was like cool fight sequence, but WTH is going on?

  33. 33.

    Mike in NC

    More GOP damage control:

    RALEIGH, N.C. — Gov. Pat McCrory has decided against spending up to $230,000 in taxpayer funds remodeling bathrooms in his private living quarters at North Carolina’s Executive Mansion. McCrory spokesman Kim Genardo issued a statement Saturday saying the scope of the work would now be scaled back to “very limited amount of funds” used to repair potential code violations, remediate mold, and fix broken faucets. The Associated Press reported Friday on plans to remodel six bathrooms in the Republican governor’s private living area at the historic downtown Raleigh manor. A written estimate showed more than $100,000 of planned work to the master bathroom, including new marble, woodwork, bath fixtures, and a ventilated water closet. McCrory had faced criticism for planning bathroom upgrades amid demands for belt tightening from public schools and social programs.

    Lapdog of Art Pope’s apologists insist it was state property and therefore all was A-OK in blowing a shitload of money to upgrade Pat’s throne.

  35. 35.

    R-Jud

    @ixnay: We both lift weights. However, if I come home and he asks “How was your workout?” I usually just give a one-word answer. I only go in to more detail if I do something unusually good or bad. I try to listen and be attentive, because I know he just wants to share with me, but I really start to zone out when he begins talking about “glute bridges”.

  36. 36.

    beltane

    @Mike in NC: $100,000 on a ventilated water closet? Sorry, Gov. McCrory, but all the money in the world can’t hide the fact that your shit stinks to high heaven.

  38. 38.

    IowaOldLady

    NASCAR appears to be on my TV. Apparently someone just drove around the track with a jack still attached to the car. Mr IOL appreciates this muchly.

  41. 41.

    lamh36

    So apparently the dickheads on twitter have taken the story about EBT cards not working and now have a twitter hashtag created to basically debase and insult people who have to use food stamps/EBT system.

    It really never ceases to amaze me how easy it is for people to be complete assholes..

  44. 44.

    hildebrand

    I think that Matrix movies outwitted themselves. The second and third movies (especially the third) simply didn’t know where to go after the inventiveness of the first. Reloaded had some brilliant set-pieces (the fight at the Merovingian’s place was one of the best, and frankly, any movie with Monica Bellucci is a good thing), but they definitely lost the thread. Revolutions was just utter crap – it felt as if they really had no idea how to get themselves out of the narrative they had set in motion.

  45. 45.

    West of the Rockies

    I’ll confess to getting annoyed with my cats as well. The Siamese never shuts up and the new tabby kitten runs across my path over and over and through my moving feet; I’m gonna end up tripping, I’m sure….

  46. 46.

    RareSanity

    @lamh36:

    I hear you…

    When The Matrix came out, I was just out of college, so I was single, had a little money in my pocket, and a lot of free time…so I really got caught up in the movie and what it was saying. Like I said in a previous comment, me and one of my best friends were of the same mind, so we saw the direct-to-video movie The Animatrix, and played the MMORPG, The Matrix Online.

    A good deal of the story behind Morpheus becoming Morpheus, the history between him and Niobe, and him and Commander Locke gets explained in greater detail, among a lot of other ancillary background. They also had some stuff about the Oracle, and some of the other characters that just seemed to show up out of nowhere in the last 2 movies. The Animatrix and the game basically set the stage for the final two movies…which is why there was so much time between 1 and 2, but such a short time between 2 and 3.

    The Wachowski brothers really put a lot of time and effort into the story. I think that they thought that the popularity of the first movie would drive more interest in the Animatrix and the online game, but it didn’t. So they ended up with the great majority of people that went to see 2 and 3, sitting there like “WTF is going on here”?

  47. 47.

    Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937

    Maybe he’s telling you how much he loves you. That’s what I try to tell myself when ours will not shut up.

  49. 49.

    Epicurus

    @John Cole:

    The last two Matrix movies were ten pounds of suck in a five pound bag. The first Matrix was awesome, though.

    You got that right. The first was inventive, scary and fun. I went to the third only hoping it would be better than the second. I was sadly mistaken.

  50. 50.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @lamh36:

    was the 2 finals films always such a convoluted mess?

    You appear to be confused. There were no sequels to The Matrix.

    I am watching the stickball.

  52. 52.

    lamh36

    @hildebrand: Agreed. I thought I had read that it was always meant to be a triology, ala Star Wars, but where Star Wars somehow worked, I think the final 2 films got too caught up in the whole lore of the first.

    And I say that as someone who loves some mindless action as much as the next action movie fan (I did enjoy the highway fight scene between Morpheus and the Agent on top of the truck though)

  53. 53.

    burnspbesq

    There is not a single game on tonight that I care even a little bit about. I suppose I could watch a replay of the ass-whuppin that the Duke volleyball team put on the gad-dam Tarholes last night (which I missed because I was watching US- Jamaica), but reading and listening to music seems like a better option.

  54. 54.

    RareSanity

    @MikeJ:

    Your opinion ≠ correct.

    If all you saw were the three movies, you don’t know the whole story…so your opinion is, at best, uninformed.

  56. 56.

    Ruckus

    @lamh36:
    Just in the store and the old white dude behind me started talking about the problem to the cashier. Then he started in about entitlements and started going off about food stamps being a bad thing…
    And that’s when I left to avoid a major scene in the store I shop in most of the time. As I’ve stated here before I live in a rather poor neighborhood and EBT is quite common here. I wonder if he got out with his hide intact. Probably, most of the people I see around here seen to be much nicer than this asshole.

  58. 58.

    MikeJ

    @RareSanity: No, my opinion is unarguably correct. Complex stories are not necessarily better than simple stories. Many movies and books, especially in the fantasy genre, would be greatly improved by getting rid of half the characters and 90% of the backstory.

  59. 59.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @RareSanity:

    If all you saw were the three movies, you don’t know the whole story…so your opinion is, at best, uninformed.

    That’s special geek pleading. Films should work as films.

  66. 66.

    Mike E

    @Mike in NC:

    Lapdog of Art Pope’s apologists insist it was state property and therefore all was A-OK in blowing a shitload of money to upgrade Pat’s trombone.

    I believe this is what you meant.

  67. 67.

    MikeJ

    @pseudonymous in nc:

    That’s special geek pleading. Films should work as films.

    Furthermore, I never actually offered an opinion on the Matrix movies. I just said that complexity doesn’t automatically make a movie better.

  75. 75.

    lamh36

    It’s amazing how much the human/robot thingies remind me of Pacific Rim.

    BTW, Pacific Rim is out ond DVD/Blu Ray. If you have not seen it, you’re def missing out.

    Now that I think about it, Pac Rim def had a good ole fashion sci-fi action flick feel to it.

    Like Hellboy, even though it was some “box office smash”, Guillermo del Toro def knows he way around a good ole fashion sci-fi flick, IMHO. He def one of the best sci-fi directors out there.

  76. 76.

    RareSanity

    @pseudonymous in nc:

    Not really…

    I’m just giving a little additional information. I’ve already said multiple times that I completely understand why people didn’t like movies.

    It’s pretty obvious that there weren’t many people that followed the franchise as closely as me and my friend did. I also can’t argue the fact that the Wachowski brothers probably tried to do too much with the story.

  79. 79.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @Mike in NC:

    amid demands for belt tightening from public schools and social programs.

    And being the only state in the union that cut off WIC because of the Federal shutdown.

  85. 85.

    hildebrand

    @lamh36: My kids absolutely loved Pacific Rim. We saw it in IMAX 3D – truly the best way to see and feel a great monster movie. The sound-track was outstanding.

  86. 86.

    Keith P.

    @Dee Loralei: It looks like he dislocated his knee at best while he was running sideways and throwing. Bleacherreport has a slow-mo gif of it, and you can see the knee kind of wobbling right before he dropped.

  93. 93.

    raven

    @RareSanity: Well, let’s see how Mizzou does without their QB. Without Gurley, Marshall, Mitchell, Bennett and Scott-Wesley we’re not the # 7 or any other top 15 team. That’s the way the cookie crumbles they tell me.

  95. 95.

    Linnaeus

    Sad for my Wolverines. Had multiple chances to win, couldn’t do it. Penn State played aggressively, and got it done. Argh.

  97. 97.

    lamh36

    @hildebrand: I dragged my nephew and my cousin to see it, mainly for 2 reasons…I love Guillermo del Toro and of course Idris Elba and I actually found that even beyond those two things, I actually really enjoyed the movie itself. It was a definite homage to classic monster movies and Japanese “Godzilla” type movies.

    I’m beginning to learn that I just have to trust del Toro, when it comes to these things. Now if he’d just go ahead and make the final Hellboy movie, I’ll be happy…

    Get off your lazy duff Del Toro…lol

  99. 99.

    Narcissus

    The Matrix sequels weren’t very good but the art design was great. Those hoverships and the robot sentinels were awesome.

  102. 102.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @raven: Thanks to David Price, eventually, yes. I do wonder what happened to that contingency money while we were being flooded with local news stories about people going hungry.

    Of course, DHHS has been stuffed to the gills with sinecures, so it’s possible it was just incompetence. Maybe.

    (Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. Never attribute to malice….)

  103. 103.

    lamh36

    @Narcissus: agreed, what they lack in the convoluted plot thing, they def made up for it in terms of cinematography and the visual aspect/feel of the film

  109. 109.

    hildebrand

    @lamh36: Yes, indeed, the final Hellboy movie needs to be made.

    Idris Elba is a great actor – I was hoping that he would have been tabbed as the next Doctor Who, but I suppose he will be a bit busy with his movie career. Looking forward to his Mandela film coming out later this year.

  110. 110.

    snetzky

    @lamh36:

    I was disappointed with what I got to see. I took my 12 year old thinking he’d enjoy it, unfortunately he’s a more sensitive soul than I thought he was and didn’t like all the noise and fuss and I ended up having to leave halfway through. I”ll have to try to watch it on pay per view.

  117. 117.

    RareSanity

    Gotta love the coach from Texas A&M…after the first game, he told Johnny Asshole to shut the fuck up and play football, and that’s what he’s been doing ever since.

  118. 118.

    geg6

    @goblue72:

    Yeah, because kids and people who had nothing to do with it should be tarred forever because of shit that had nothing to do with them. The people who were responsible are all still running things and there have been no substantive changes whatsoever. Still Rape State, right? Because no other schools have any sort of rapey or other criminal behavior among them, just Penn State.

  120. 120.

    lamh36

    Final thought on the Matrix trilogy. The first movie was a great start. The next two movies were trying to be too many things at one time, it’s about love, no it’s about survival, no it’s how in the wired world we live in, we are all apart of the cog system, no it’s a rock em sock action flick, no it’s about a futuristic apocolypse.

    It was too much all at once, that was just too much to try to ram into 2 movies clocking in at about 2hours each.

    At the very least, I can def say I’m really glad they went with Keanu Reeves (who I’ve loved since every since he uttered his first “whoa”). I can’t imagine Will Smith in this role at all.

  126. 126.

    lamh36

    @snetzky: Yeah, it’s def a loud one for sure. But the reviews I read prior had it dead to rights about the film. Old school sci-fi robot and Godzilla monster theatre peeps would love it. Younger people who were say raised with thing like Matrix and other sci-fi epic special effects bonanaza movies and video games would prob be more…meh about it.

  128. 128.

    RareSanity

    @raven:

    Oh…right.

    I hope he gets a more high profile job, he is one helluva football coach, Southern Cal would be a nice place for him to land.

    Although, I won’t lie…I’d really like to see him in…wait for it…Athens, GA. :-)

  130. 130.

    Zifnab25

    I’d just like to say that it is 8:50pm right now, and I can continue to confirm that OU still sucks.

  131. 131.

    raven

    @RareSanity: These fucking crackers couldn’t hack it and I wouldn’t wish it on him.

    eta Of course you know more about football in the state than I do. What do you think?

  132. 132.

    snetzky

    @lamh36:

    Crackle has quite a few mid school Godzilla movies available to stream. I’ve already run through a lot of the classics that are on Netflix and Hulu.

  134. 134.

    RareSanity

    @raven:

    Man are you right about that.

    I wonder how much he’d like coaching football in the heart of downtown Atlanta?

    Never happen, I know…but a man can dream can’t he?

  137. 137.

    KG

    @raven: he’ll be in the NFL before he’ll be at USC. Doesn’t make sense to go to USC for any of the “big names.” Boosters, students, and fans have too high of expectations. Three years of reduced scholarships have left their roster depleted, which is why they’ve had a hard time competing the last couple of years. Even with the full number this year, they’ll still be down compared to everyone else for another year or two. At TAMU, he can be competitive and when LSU or Alabama win the division, nobody will complain that much (especially if they’re in position to go to the playoff or another big bowl). At USC, when UCLA or ASU wins the division, they’ll be talking about firing him (the expectation will be playoff or Rose Bowl ever year).

  138. 138.

    Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)

    @Poopyman: In truth, McCrony is such an obvious stooge for Art Pope it ain’t even funny. He’d spread ’em for Beelzebub his own self if it got him a spot on the national stage. Too bad, because thanks to the trainwreck he’s unleashed on us, any pretentions at playing the moderate conservative are DEAD. If he could be removed from office he’d already be gone.

  141. 141.

    RareSanity

    @raven:

    That sonofabitch Damon Evans has probably ruined any chances for black people at UGA for a generation.

    I wanted to kick his ass myself…this shit is personal. You can’t be the first African American to have any kind of significant position at an institution like that, then get caught driving drunk, with a woman that ain’t your wife in the passenger seat, and her panties in your lap.

    Dammit, I’m pissed off about that all over again!

  142. 142.

    KG

    @raven: true, and right now, they’re celebrating everything because they see it as them against the world. In three years, when Penn State is eligible for post season play again, let’s see how their fan base accepts an 8-4 season. Having grown up in Southern California, I’m just saying that the USC gig comes with way too high expectations for the world we live in today. Same thing with UCLA basketball.

  143. 143.

    Wally Ballou

    Anibal Sanchez no-hitting the Red Sox through 5. I’d be a lot more excited about this if the Tigers could get some damn runs on the board themselves.

  144. 144.

    RareSanity

    @KG:

    Doesn’t matter…USC is USC. USC is Hollywood, Will Ferrell, and cheerleaders in tight sweaters.

    It would only take two solid recruiting classes for them to be right back in the fight for national championships.

  145. 145.

    West of the Rockies

    Open-forum tech question (of sorts) here… why do I keep getting ads here for things like Liberty University and gross-ass toenail fungus remedies? I do not recall exploring either topic online. Aren’t there various algorithm systems that help identify potential customers? Why do I get such ads so damn often?

  146. 146.

    lamh36

    Alright and that’s my cue. I’ve watched the final Matrix film and it’s off to bed now. Gotsa work in the morning. Good night BJers

  147. 147.

    dmsilev

    @West of the Rockies: My understanding is that if the ad-bots haven’t managed to scrape up enough information to “deliver a personalized experience”, they fall back to serving up some default ads instead. So, you’re getting the lowest common denominator, so to speak, of advertising.

  149. 149.

    RareSanity

    @West of the Rockies:

    The ads could just be because you viewed a certain article, or went to a certain site, then some database said that people that go there are likely to be interested in those things.

    If you searched for or read anything about Republicans, that could have tripped the Liberty University…the algorithm then probably made an assumption about what your age could be because of being interested in Republicans, and offered up nail fungus treatment.

  150. 150.

    raven

    @KG: My family moved to LA in 1958. Most of them are still there. I have a nice pic of my baby bro with the Wizard at a hs camp.

  153. 153.

    ConcernedCitizen

    I miss Tunch, but I love Steve. I am also wondering (as an introvert) if commenting at balloon-juice it like having a facebook page. Does anyone really give a shit?

  154. 154.

    RareSanity

    @raven:

    I don’t think so.

    He had a lot of leeway because of Vince Dooley vouching for him…which made his fuck up even worse, because it reflected on Dooley as well.

  155. 155.

    TG Chicago

    I’ve been following the twitter feed of illinoispolicy.org even though they’re right-leaning. Amusingly enough, they claim to be “nonpartisan” while saying stuff like “Our approach is to transform liberty principles into marketable policies that become law.” and other standard libertarian boilerplate.

    Just now I learned that they fall into another typical libertarian category: White Power, baby! They follow @WhitePride14_88, a full-on white supremacist (the handle is kind of a clue, including the 88, a reference to the 8th letter. 88 = HH = Heil Hitler. KKKlassy!).

    I don’t think all libertarians are racists, but it sure is weird how many of them are.

  157. 157.

    KG

    @TG Chicago: I used to consider myself a libertarian, in that I typically believed that market based solutions tended to be the best at achieving goals. I’ve moved away from that view a bit, I think there are certain things that require government action – and I believe tyranny can come just as easy from the private sector as it can from government. As an ideology, it’s not nearly as simple as most who profess it seem to think. Since it’s a fringe ideology, there’s not a lot of thought put into it… So people who want to discriminate hear things like “local control” and interpret that to mean “we can bring back Jim Crow”. It’s a problem

  159. 159.

    Mj_Oregon

    John? I wish I had my Buster boy back with me meowing all the time and wanting to live on my lap. My house is way too quiet since he left us in early April. Besides, I agree with many here – the cat is cussing right back at you, as he should. Get him a kitten of his own.

    And as for college football, all I can say is watch out for that QUACK!

  160. 160.

    RareSanity

    @KG:

    I flirted with libertarianism for awhile myself.

    Then I realized that the hole in libertarian thought, is that it completely ignores any possible human suffering while “the market works itself out”. In addition, most of the people that evangelize about libertarianism, seem to have this strange notion that they will never be a part of a group that is being negatively affected by one of these “market corrections”.

    Any ideology that pushes that the problems will only happen to “somebody else” usually means that, if given the chance, they will most likely try to rig the system so that it will be true.

  161. 161.

    max

    @West of the Rockies: Open-forum tech question (of sorts) here… why do I keep getting ads here for things like Liberty University and gross-ass toenail fungus remedies? I do not recall exploring either topic online. Aren’t there various algorithm systems that help identify potential customers? Why do I get such ads so damn often?

    They may be identifying your location, noticing you live in a red area, and then deciding that the safe bet is Fox News-style fare. Happens to me sometimes. Also, if more than one person lives at your IP address, then the alg guys may be trying to watch them before they realize they are serving the wrong ads.

    For example, if I open BJ in Explorer (which is my ‘totally undefended’ browser I only use for special cases), I’m getting an American Crossroads ad urging me to vote early in VA (I got a robocall from them asking me to come out and oppose Obamacare – ha ha. HA.), a VW Beetle ad, a ‘shocking French Video’ ad featuring a brown lady with a big rack, a plus-size clothes for ladies ad, and an ITT ad. Thus, I can see they have no actual goddamn idea who I am and they’re just guessing.

    I endeavour to keep it mysterious for them. (I’m a Mystery Browser!)

    max
    [‘So there’s that.’]

  162. 162.

    Little Boots

    Libertarianism is for high schoolers and nobody else.

    it is the silliest philosophy, maybe next to pure communism.

  163. 163.

    KG

    @RareSanity: I think it more accepts some human suffering as part of the process. And, really, human suffering will be a part of any world we live in. What bothered me more about much of the ideology is that it assumes everyone has equal access to equal information, as well as the ability to analyze the information. In that regard, it’s utopian in a way that just doesn’t work

  165. 165.

    RareSanity

    @Little Boots:

    I don’t think that it is a coincidence that I flirted with it right out of college, then began laughing at it when I hit 26-27.

    Anyone older than 30 that thinks libertarianism is a good idea, is simply a emotionally immature, selfish teenager mentally.

  169. 169.

    RareSanity

    @KG:

    What bothered me more about much of the ideology is that it assumes everyone has equal access to equal information, as well as the ability to analyze the information. In that regard, it’s utopian in a way that just doesn’t work

    I agree with this. It bothered me too.

    I think it more accepts some human suffering as part of the process. And, really, human suffering will be a part of any world we live in.

    I disagree with this.

    Yes, there will always be human suffering. No, there will never be a way to alleviate all of it.

    The problem actually IS that they “accept” that there will be some, so they can just disregard it. As humans living in a society, we should always strive to minimize human suffering as much as possible. We should not “accept” that there will be some…so fuck it, sucks being them, let’s get back to doing our own thing.

  171. 171.

    Little Boots

    @RareSanity:

    and this is what I like about Obamacare.

    it is a rational response to a complex problem.

    the fact that the republican party goes apeshit about it tells us everything we need to know.

  175. 175.

    RareSanity

    @Little Boots:

    The real fucked up thing is that there is almost no negative aspect to implementing it, other than the 8 million people that are in the hole of coverage.

    It’s giving wider access to health insurance, it seeks to lower the overall costs associated with health care, it puts in place standards by which insurance companies have to follow, and has a positive affect on the overall spending of government.

    What kind of sick fuck do you have to be to vociferously fight against something like that?

    Why aren’t you fighting to fix the doughnut hole that those 8 million people are falling in?

  177. 177.

    Little Boots

    @RareSanity:

    this, this is what pisses me off.

    really.

    no empathy at all. yes, they are right. they do not have to care. ever. and it pisses me off.

  181. 181.

    jl

    Cole? Vulgarities? That is hard for me to believe.

    What is so irritating about a cat meowing and chirping? Never bothered me as much as a dog that won’t stop yapping. And I think of myself as more of a dog person. But on irritating noises, cats are better, IMHO.

    Edit: I think what I meant was that I find it hard to believe Cole would settle for mere vulgarities. But, I forgot about his Southern graciousness and charm.

  182. 182.

    grishaxxx

    @John Cole: As much as I love the Wachowskis (and I do), that panel of wiseguys (e.g., Cornel West) that we discover in Matrix 2 just kill the tension, the mystery, the uncertainty that was so sexy in the original. They may be flesh and blood, but they don’t act like it – high-minded zombies v. our metal overlords – gimme a fucking break. Distinguished smart people can just suck the air out of a story (Cf. Pauline Kael on Sontag and Bellow showing up in Zelig). I don’t think the sequels ever recover from that miscalculation.

  183. 183.

    grishaxxx

    O, and John, when you got Steve, I checked the Wiki on Maine Coons, and it said they are famously vocal. Just took him a while, I guess. But from your description of how he sleeps with you, with those big mitts and all, he clearly adores you (as do we all!). BTW, your pics of him just get better and better – he has the greatest face in creation.

  185. 185.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @RareSanity:

    What kind of sick fuck do you have to be to vociferously fight against something like that?

    The kind of person who believes that health (and ability to pay for it) is proof that you are among the elect, and by extension, that getting sick or being bankrupted to pay for treatment is a just fate.

    The Protestant Health Ethic.

  186. 186.

    Lurker

    @Mj_Oregon:

    One of my felines wants to live on my lap. The other is a disdainful little princess to be handled with kid gloves when she deigns to grace me with her close presence. If I dare move when she’s on my lap, she immmediatedly leaps off and walks away with a look of outrage on her face.

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