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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Wed. Evening Open Thread: Not Sorry

Wed. Evening Open Thread: Not Sorry

by Anne Laurie|  March 12, 20146:07 pm| 177 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Music, Open Threads

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Dave Weigel, at Slate:

Before there was Zach Galifianakis’ Between Two Ferns interview with President Obama, there was the dream of a Between Two Ferns interview with President Obama. Galifianakis and show co-creator/director Scott Aukerman had heard for years that the president was open to doing an episode…

Slate: I don’t know if you’ve seen this, but since the segment ran, Texas Rep. Randy Weber—who is sort of well-known for tweeting angry things—and Bill O’Reilly both criticized it. Weber said that the president should be focusing on Benghazi, not a comedy show. O’Reilly said Lincoln never would have sat down for something like this. Have you seen those criticisms?

Aukerman: Well, to the first point, about how the president has time to do something like that—it’s kind of ridiculous. People can do a lot of different things in the day. If they were that concerned about the president never doing something that wasn’t serious and connected to his job, we’d elect two presidents. It would be a tag-team situation—one president is sleeping, they slap hands, and the other one gets in.

I’m certain the president is not slacking off during the day. This is very important, trying to get the people who watch these videos involved in the Affordable Care Act. He has time to talk to young people about what they were doing.

As to second thing—look, Bill O’Reilly is used to saying kind of stupid things to get attention. There’s not much of a difference between the president appearing on Between Two Ferns and appearing on The O’Reilly Factor. The difference is that we admit we’re a comedy show…

***********
Apart from comedy, deliberate or otherwise, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

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Reader Interactions

177Comments

  1. 1.

    Corner Stone

    March 12, 2014 at 6:14 pm

    Just bought 2 porterhouse steaks on discount for a little over $10 total.
    I’m thinking about either grilling them and then rubbing them over my naked body, or rubbing them over my naked body and then grilling them.
    You’re welcome.

  2. 2.

    ranchandsyrup

    March 12, 2014 at 6:16 pm

    That BillO refuses to play his fox persona on Colbert and elsewhere demonstrates that his show is a sham. Good grift though.

  3. 3.

    Jacel

    March 12, 2014 at 6:18 pm

    So much for contrasting Obama to Lincoln on this aspect of presidenting. Here’s what Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in his journal in October 1863 about Lincoln: “You cannot refine Mr. Lincoln’s taste, extend his horizon, or clear his judgement; he will not walk dignifiedly through the traditional part of the President of America, but will pop out his head at each railroad station and make a little speech, and get into an argument with Squire A. and Judge B. He will write letters to Horace Greeley, and any editor or reporter or saucy party committee that writes to him. But this we must be ready for, and let the clown appear, and hug ourselves that we are well off, if we have got good nature, honest meaning, and fidelity to public interest, with bad manners, — instead of an elegant roué and malignant self-seeker.”

  4. 4.

    Jacks mom

    March 12, 2014 at 6:20 pm

    Is it dangerous to sit so close to all those exploding heads?

  5. 5.

    Amir Khalid

    March 12, 2014 at 6:22 pm

    @Corner Stone:
    If someone else is going to eat them afterward, grill first then rub. If you are going to eat them, rub first then grill.

  6. 6.

    Nethead Jay

    March 12, 2014 at 6:25 pm

    Haha, ice burn on Bill O’lielly in the last paragraph. Nicely done ;D

  7. 7.

    ruemara

    March 12, 2014 at 6:27 pm

    That’s not a bad rejoinder.
    Gun type question. If I have a lot of bullets, how would I know what gun they fit? Are they inscribed with… words?

  8. 8.

    TheMightyTrowel

    March 12, 2014 at 6:27 pm

    More reasons to avoid Ezra Klein’s new site other than just Matty Y… apparently he likes to hire wingnut welfare seeking self-haters.

  9. 9.

    Corner Stone

    March 12, 2014 at 6:29 pm

    @ruemara: If you have actual brass cased ammo then you will see a caliber stamped on the bottom. Something like .357 or 9MM, etc. They may have some initials also, like .44 S&W

  10. 10.

    Amir Khalid

    March 12, 2014 at 6:29 pm

    @ruemara:
    Why do you have bullets, if you don’t have the gun? Is there a story here? If so, do share.

  11. 11.

    RSR

    March 12, 2014 at 6:29 pm

    Boom

  12. 12.

    MomSense

    March 12, 2014 at 6:31 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    See now I would think the opposite would be preferable.

    I was watching Paul Ryan’s statements today and started to say that I didn’t understand why when my son told me there is no use in trying to understand. The Republicans are going to dog whistle non stop until the midterms to drive their turn out. It is going to be an ugly year.

  13. 13.

    Pogonip

    March 12, 2014 at 6:32 pm

    @ruemara: Ask an American. Among us we have at least two hundred million firearms.

    Sorry, couldn’t resist. See if there is small print on the non-pointy end of the round. Often there is.

  14. 14.

    Schlemizel

    March 12, 2014 at 6:33 pm

    @Jacel:

    Thus was it ever. Truman once wrote a letter to the editor calling their music critic an SOB (mom used to laugh that she had to ask dad what that meant & was shocked!) for panning Margret’s singing. Few Presidents play the golden idol, most realize they are human

  15. 15.

    Bobby Thomson

    March 12, 2014 at 6:34 pm

    @TheMightyTrowel: so far I haven’t seen a reason to visit that site. I don’t think that counts as avoidance.

  16. 16.

    Baud

    March 12, 2014 at 6:34 pm

    @MomSense:

    The Republicans are going to dog whistle non stop until the midterms to drive their turn out.

    One thing I have to respect Republicans for. If our side tried to do the same to them, they would turn out in droves to punish us.

  17. 17.

    Pogonip

    March 12, 2014 at 6:35 pm

    Add: what Cornerstone said. The non-pointy end is the bottom. I have seen el cheapo ammo with no crib notes, but not for many a moon.

    Also, I would like to know what happened to Baby Doll the Plott hound?

  18. 18.

    Gaaridan

    March 12, 2014 at 6:36 pm

    Can we all just agree that the thing that really ticks off the villagers about the whole “Between Two Ferns” thing is that BTF is actually less of an awkward joke than a daily press briefing at the White House or the DOD, or an episode of any of the Sunday shows. All of this talk about damaging the presidency is really about exposing at how vapid and pointless most standard MSM political coverage is.

  19. 19.

    Amir Khalid

    March 12, 2014 at 6:37 pm

    @MomSense:
    I suppose it would depend on how CS felt about the other person who was going to eat the steaks.

  20. 20.

    jl

    March 12, 2014 at 6:38 pm

    This grave GalifianakisGate crisis has lead me to start a thorough investigation of presidential weakness, malfeasance, and undignity. While I’m waiting for the 5 buck used copy of some funny presidentin’ anecdote book to arrive, I am researching.

    I found out that George Washington was a fire scene groupie who chased fire engines, or wgions, or whatever they were back then. U.S. Grant was given a citation of riding his horse too fast one morning through DC, Garfield did parlor tricks, writing in in Latin and Greek, some other nothingburger late 19th century president liked to join minstrel shows put on at the WH. The Secret Service had to intervene a couple of times when Mrs. Harding found out where in the WH Mr. Harding was doing his latest pickup.

    I am scandalized.

    Edit: Supposedly Grant got his horse speeding citation while he was president. One would think he would have wrapped that baby up in one of his scandals.

  21. 21.

    Baud

    March 12, 2014 at 6:38 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    If you were on food stamps, you could have afforded lobster.

  22. 22.

    scav

    March 12, 2014 at 6:40 pm

    oh dearie dearie, certain professionals of a certain age are not adapting well to not being the only ones pandered to as critical gateways to important audiences. Fading Belles sitting on the sides as the Ball dances onwards into the night.

  23. 23.

    jl

    March 12, 2014 at 6:43 pm

    @Schlemizel: Oh yeah, I forgot that one. Truman threatened the punch the guy out in the letter, or did he not?

  24. 24.

    Mike in NC

    March 12, 2014 at 6:46 pm

    Bill O’Reilly is used to saying kind of stupid things to get attention.

    Somewhere I found a paperback book called “Sweet Jesus, I Hate Bill O’Reilly” by Joe Amann and Tom Breuer. One of these days I’ll get to it.

  25. 25.

    ultraviolet thunder

    March 12, 2014 at 6:47 pm

    Apart from comedy, deliberate or otherwise, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

    Looking forward to leaving CT tomorrow morning to fly back to MI. It snowed 8″ there today but they promise to have that cleared away before I return.

    I lucked out this winter. Of 5 major snow storms I’ve been out of town for 4 of them.

  26. 26.

    jl

    March 12, 2014 at 6:49 pm

    Then there are the Taft Bathtub incidents.

    Not sure why the workmen in this pic were not executed.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/elycefeliz/6700745149/

    And then there is this, from the link above:

    TAFT CAUSES HOTEL DELUGE; Tidal Wave from His Bathtub Floods Bankers in Dining Room.
    Special to The New York Times
    June 19, 1915,
    CAPE MAY, N.J., June 18. — Ex-President Taft, who came here yesterday as the guest of the Pennsylvania Bankers’ Association, took a bath in his apartments in the Hotel Cape May. He failed properly to consider the size of the average seashore hotel bathtub, however, with the result that when he got into the tub the water overflowed and trickled down upon the heads of the guests in the dining room

  27. 27.

    kc

    March 12, 2014 at 6:55 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    I’m thinking about either grilling them and then rubbing them over my naked body, or rubbing them over my naked body and then grilling them.

    Why don’t you grill them ON your naked body? You’re hot enough, baby.

  28. 28.

    Betty Cracker

    March 12, 2014 at 6:57 pm

    I was riding down I-75 the other day through Ocala, and there was a pedestrian walkway across the interstate with a bunch of teaturds camped out on it with their stupid patriot drag, Gadsden flags and signs about Benghazi. I asked my husband to sound the horn, then I gave them the double-bird salute when I was sure they wouldn’t have enough time to shoot at us. I bet those fuckers didn’t expect that from a Ford pickup. Ha!

  29. 29.

    ? Martin

    March 12, 2014 at 6:57 pm

    If they were that concerned about the president never doing something that wasn’t serious and connected to his job, we’d elect two presidents. It would be a tag-team situation—one president is sleeping, they slap hands, and the other one gets in.

    Or we could have 535 people elected to a body called ‘the legislature’ that could do a lot of this stuff as well. You know, if they bothered to come to work.

    Total legislative days 159

  30. 30.

    MomSense

    March 12, 2014 at 6:58 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    I suppose it would depend on how CS felt about the other person who was going to eat the steaks.

    Yes, yes it would.

    @Baud:

    We tend to aim our outrage and disappointment at each other instead of at the other side.

  31. 31.

    ultraviolet thunder

    March 12, 2014 at 6:59 pm

    It’s comforting to see Bill O’ acting ridiculous enough that it’s unnecessary to ridicule him. Really looking forward to the day when he’s just banging his cane on the floor and hollering at inanimate objects.

  32. 32.

    Anoniminous

    March 12, 2014 at 6:59 pm

    @Pogonip:

    Unless they are wadcutters and there is no pointy-end.

  33. 33.

    doug r

    March 12, 2014 at 7:01 pm

    The Farting Carver. (via William Herndon): “Well there was a party once, not far from here, which was composed of ladies and gentlemen. A fine table was set and the people were greatly enjoying themselves. Among the crowd was one of those men who had audacity — was quick-witted, cheeky and self-possessed — never off his guard on any occasion. After the men and women had enjoyed themselves by dancing, promenading, flirting, etc., they were told that the table was set. The man of audacity — quick-witted, self-possessed and equal to all occasions — was put at the head of the table to carve the turkeys, chickens and pigs. The men and women surrounded the table, and the audacious man being chosen carver whetted his great carving knife with the steel and got down to business & commenced carving the turkey, but he expended too much force & let a fart — a loud fart so that all the people heard it distinctly. As a matter of course it shocked all terribly. A deep silence reigned. However the audacious man was cool and entirely self-possessed; he was curiously and keenly watched by those who knew him well, they suspecting that he would recover in the end and acquit himself with glory. The man, with a kind of sublime audacity, pulled off his coat, rolled up his sleeves, put his coat deliberately on a chair, spat on his hands, took his position at the head of the table, picked up the carving knife and whetted it again, never cracking a smile nor moving a muscle of his face. It now became a wonder in the minds of all the men and women how the fellow was to get out of his dilemma. He squared himself and said loudly & distinctly: “Now, by God, I’ll see if I can’t cut up this turkey without farting.”
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/post/8-of-abraham-lincolns-worst-joke-stories/2012/11/30/a3f3f828-3b3c-11e2-9258-ac7c78d5c680_blog.html

  34. 34.

    Trollhattan

    March 12, 2014 at 7:03 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    After my buddy’s FIL died, he and his spouse were tasked with cleaning out all the old man’s crap. The p0rn stash wasn’t too hard to dispense with but the ammo was a real problem. Eventually they called the sheriff’s office, who dispatched a deputy to haul it off, only when he saw it said, “I’m not going to be able to take all THAT.”

    Multiply that FIL by about, erm… fifty-million True Believers and another hundred-million dabblers, and you can begin to appreciate the scale of our addiction/affliction.

  35. 35.

    Schlemizel

    March 12, 2014 at 7:05 pm

    @jl:

    Yes, yes he did. Gotta love a guy who protects his kids!

  36. 36.

    Anoniminous

    March 12, 2014 at 7:05 pm

    @Baud:

    Same as it ever was.

    And they will keep doing it until we start throwing elbows and shoving back.

  37. 37.

    Trollhattan

    March 12, 2014 at 7:05 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    You know you made your mama proud at that moment. :-)

  38. 38.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 12, 2014 at 7:06 pm

    @ruemara: Take the gun and the bullets to a gun shop. Trying to figure out which are right for which over the internet is a fools game. If you are wrong, losing part of a hand is a good result.

  39. 39.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 12, 2014 at 7:06 pm

    The difference is that we admit we’re a comedy show…

    Well, I have to disagree with Aukerman on this point.

    Between Two Ferns is a comedy show, but The O’Reilly Factor is a clown show.

  40. 40.

    stickler

    March 12, 2014 at 7:07 pm

    @Schlemizel: That letter from Truman to Hume is amazing. An excerpt:

    Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens you’ll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below!

    Hume (the critic) sold the letter for $3500 in 1951. Can we imagine how the right wing would screech if Obama wrote a letter like this? Oh, I guess we probably can, since the right wing hated Truman and almost certainly screeched to high heaven in 1950. Good times.

    Heh, and what would they say if Obama were playing the piano, with Lauren Bacall perched on top? Oh, the humanity!

  41. 41.

    raven

    March 12, 2014 at 7:08 pm

    @ruemara: Like this.

  42. 42.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 12, 2014 at 7:08 pm

    @ultraviolet thunder:

    Really looking forward to the day when he’s just banging his cane on the floor and hollering at inanimate objects.

    You mean following in the footsteps of Clint Eastwood at the RNC?

  43. 43.

    Baud

    March 12, 2014 at 7:09 pm

    @Anoniminous:

    Yeah, you know that character went to work for Republican Alan Alda in the last season, right?

  44. 44.

    lamh36

    March 12, 2014 at 7:10 pm

    Ok, since this is an open thread…so I found that Amazon Prime has all 5 seasons of the 90s X-Men cartoon. I’m a bit of an Marvel/X-Men fan girl (I say a bit, but I mean alot, one of my most prized possessions is a glossy Marvel encyclopedia). So anyway, here I sit with my nephew watching back to back episodes and.I.am.loving.it!

    We’re on the “Days of Future Past” episodes. Me and my lil nephew are sitting there trying to figure out how much the movie will differ from the tv series which tried to adhere as close to comics as possible, and off the bat you can see one big difference between the movie and the series.

    Anyway, I won’t bore ya’ll anymore with my comic geekness…lol

    ETA: Also too, the President in the tv series was a woman…talk about forward thinking.

  45. 45.

    raven

    March 12, 2014 at 7:10 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly: Lose part of a hand how?

  46. 46.

    Gex

    March 12, 2014 at 7:12 pm

    @lamh36: Thanks for sharing that! I have Prime and this sounds great!

  47. 47.

    Baud

    March 12, 2014 at 7:12 pm

    @stickler:

    Truman was a thug!

  48. 48.

    Pogonip

    March 12, 2014 at 7:18 pm

    @Anoniminous: Ha! You know, I thought about that after I posted my answer. Was going to add on a wadcutter remark and then I thought better of it. If Ruemara asks “What’s a wadcutter?” then we can all jump in.

  49. 49.

    Pogonip

    March 12, 2014 at 7:20 pm

    @doug r: I bet that guy was one of John Cole’s ancestors.

  50. 50.

    raven

    March 12, 2014 at 7:21 pm

    @Pogonip: What if it’s a beehive?

  51. 51.

    Roger Moore

    March 12, 2014 at 7:22 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    I’m thinking about either grilling them and then rubbing them over my naked body, or rubbing them over my naked body and then grilling them.

    I think you should eat them raw. Whether you rub them all over your body first is up to you.

  52. 52.

    Elmo

    March 12, 2014 at 7:23 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    Okay yes, but DO NOT make the mistake of thinking that elementary school decimal lessons apply: .380 IS NOT THE SAME as .38, no matter what your math teacher said.

    I’m fine, thanks, and nobody was hurt. Why do you ask? Why are you looking at me like that?

  53. 53.

    Pogonip

    March 12, 2014 at 7:24 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly: I thought he only had the bullets, no gun. My bad. Ruemara, Ozark Hillbilly is absolutely right. Safety first!

    And for God’s sake be careful when shaving your cat.

  54. 54.

    PsiFighter37

    March 12, 2014 at 7:24 pm

    Was there any additional news on the missing plane today? I’m still pretty surprised that no one seems to have a goddamn clue where it went or what happened.

  55. 55.

    Roger Moore

    March 12, 2014 at 7:25 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    I suppose it would depend on how CS felt about the other person who was going to eat the steaks.

    That might also control what part of his body he chose to rub them on.

  56. 56.

    Elmo

    March 12, 2014 at 7:26 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    When I made the mistake of thinking .380 was the same as .38 – because math – my then-boyfriend looked at me, very pale, and said:

    “Why aren’t you dead?”

  57. 57.

    raven

    March 12, 2014 at 7:26 pm

    @PsiFighter37: The Chinese released what they think are satellite images of debris in an area close to the original flight path.

  58. 58.

    mainmata

    March 12, 2014 at 7:28 pm

    @Corner Stone: Jog first then rub them on your sweaty body then grill them. That way, they’ll have the right amount of salt prior to grilling.

  59. 59.

    raven

    March 12, 2014 at 7:28 pm

    @Pogonip: He has “rounds” but he never said anything about a “weapon”.

  60. 60.

    Mnemosyne

    March 12, 2014 at 7:29 pm

    @Pogonip:
    @raven:

    FYI, Ruemara is a “she.”

  61. 61.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 12, 2014 at 7:29 pm

    @raven: Wrong ammunition fits in gun. Too powerful for gun. Blows gun up.

    For example, you can shoot .38 Specials in a .357 Mag. (same caliber, believe it or not) A lot of guys do so for practice as the .38 is slightly cheaper and recoils quite a bit less. The only difference between the 2 is length of cartridge. Conversely, it is possible for a .357 to fit in a .38. I have never seen a .357 that did not stick out the front of the cylinder on a .38, thereby making it inoperable, but then I have hardly seen every .38 ever manufactured. If a .357 mag did fit, it would easily and instantaneously disassemble a .38. I am certain there are other instances of a cartridge seeming to fit but not really.

    There is also the possibility of handloaded ammunition being too hot for an older gun. I had to have several pieces of shell casing removed from a hand after one such incident.

    Either way, I am way behind on my gun porn reading and far from an expert on anything other than my .30-06, my .357, my 12 ga, or my .22. Hence, the cowards way out: Talk to a real expert.

  62. 62.

    Gex

    March 12, 2014 at 7:30 pm

    I personally love that the Refuse to Enroll movement is advertising on billboards to try to get young people not to enroll. And Obama used Funny or Die. They aren’t mad about this being undignified. They are mad that it is effective.

    From my experiences driving cross country, the most common billboards are for sex toys, fireworks, and fetuses with hiccups/heartbeats/etc. I’m not sure what made them think billboards would work, other than Clear Channel already owned most of them so they were available.

  63. 63.

    raven

    March 12, 2014 at 7:32 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly: Got it, I didn’t think she said anything about a weapon, just identifying the ammo. I didn’t catch the part where she was thinking about just jamming the shit in any piece and see what happened. No one not in the NRA is stupid enough to do that.

  64. 64.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 12, 2014 at 7:32 pm

    @Pogonip: I am assuming ruemara has both. Maybe I am wrong. I am also paranoid.

  65. 65.

    raven

    March 12, 2014 at 7:32 pm

    @Mnemosyne: thx

  66. 66.

    Baud

    March 12, 2014 at 7:33 pm

    @Gex:

    From my experiences driving cross country, the most common billboards are for sex toys, fireworks, and fetuses with hiccups/heartbeats/etc.

    Where the hell do you drive? Route 666?

  67. 67.

    Pogonip

    March 12, 2014 at 7:34 pm

    @Mnemosyne: Oops. Me too. Hard to tell over the Intertubes. We have only John’s word for it that Steve is a dude.

  68. 68.

    Gex

    March 12, 2014 at 7:34 pm

    @Baud: Drove from Minneapolis to Rochester, NY a bunch. And from Minneapolis to Austin, TX a bunch. And from Minneapolis to LA a bunch. There are tons of adult superstore warehouses out in hick country and there are billboards leading up to them from miles away.

  69. 69.

    the Conster

    March 12, 2014 at 7:36 pm

    The missing plane has officially freaked me the right the fuck out. How is it possible that a plane full of people can just disappear? No black box signals? Nothing? Really??!! W.T.F.

  70. 70.

    Baud

    March 12, 2014 at 7:36 pm

    @Gex:

    I need to go on a road trip.

  71. 71.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 12, 2014 at 7:37 pm

    @raven: I long ago learned to never underestimate the possibility for stupid. My life is a testament to how stupid people can get and still live.

  72. 72.

    Baud

    March 12, 2014 at 7:37 pm

    @the Conster:

    How is it possible that a plane full of people can just disappear? No black box signals? Nothing?

    Ocean.

  73. 73.

    Pogonip

    March 12, 2014 at 7:38 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly: Ow. Boy, that sure beats my story of the casing that went down my cleavage on my very first trip to the range.

  74. 74.

    Gex

    March 12, 2014 at 7:40 pm

    @Baud: Or you could just use the Internet. Seems odd to me that real America seems to prefer to buy their porn and sex toys from a retail clerk.

  75. 75.

    Baud

    March 12, 2014 at 7:40 pm

    @Pogonip:

    No. No, it doesn’t.

  76. 76.

    Roger Moore

    March 12, 2014 at 7:42 pm

    @Gex:

    There are tons of adult superstore warehouses out in hick country and there are billboards leading up to them from miles away.

    So they’re actually ads for sex toy stores, not for sex toys themselves. I’ve definitely seen a lot of ads for the first, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one for the second.

  77. 77.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 12, 2014 at 7:43 pm

    @Baud: I have to agree.

  78. 78.

    Baud

    March 12, 2014 at 7:43 pm

    @Gex:

    Maybe real America is willing to take a stand against Amazon’s sweatshop working conditions. Didn’t think of that, didja, liberal?

  79. 79.

    geg6

    March 12, 2014 at 7:44 pm

    The temperature has gone from above 60F yesterday to tonight’s projected 8F. My lovely man spent the afternoon making chicken noodle soup. A grilled cheese sammie made with smoked cheddar and apple slices and a nice inexpensive Reisling with the soup will warm me up nicely, I think. Will watch my guilty pleasure, Survivor, and go to bed early after a little bit of blueberry pudding cake and ice cream. Tomorrow I have a ninety minute interview with a PhD candidate for his research on advising.i’m very interested in his topic, so it will be interesting to see what his thesis is and, later, how it all comes out.

  80. 80.

    Calouste

    March 12, 2014 at 7:45 pm

    @Baud:

    Thing is, it flew over the continental shelf, not the ocean. You should be able to find the black box signals in 100-200 feet of water. The Air France plane took 2 years to find because it was more than a mile under water, but the Gulf of Thailand, which the route of the plane was over, is 250 feet deep at the most.

  81. 81.

    MikeJ

    March 12, 2014 at 7:46 pm

    How do you tell what calibre ammo is? Ask your platoon sergeant, he should be able to tell you. If you don;’t have a platoon sergeant, you probably don’t have any actual need for ammo.

  82. 82.

    the Conster

    March 12, 2014 at 7:47 pm

    @Baud:

    So many things on a plane float, especially bodies, by now. I need to know what happened. I’ll believe anything at this point, including that it’s “Lost”.

  83. 83.

    BruceFromOhio

    March 12, 2014 at 7:47 pm

    Lake effect snow, sub-zero wind chill, and drinking heavily.

    Pretty much like most nights so far this winter.

    @Corner Stone: This is simultaneously revolting and enviable, a unique experience in of itself.

  84. 84.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 12, 2014 at 7:48 pm

    @Baud:

    Where the hell do you drive? Route 666?

    Get your kinks on route 666!

  85. 85.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 12, 2014 at 7:49 pm

    @MikeJ:

    This.

    BTW. Don’t ask the Platoon Leader. He’s just some kid right out of the Academy or College.

  86. 86.

    Mnemosyne

    March 12, 2014 at 7:49 pm

    @Calouste:

    I can’t find the article, but my husband read one that essentially explained it like this: I need you to help me find my car. I left it somewhere between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, though I may have gone north towards San Francisco. Or south towards Arizona. I’m not sure which.

    Also, I may have parked it underground.

    IOW, it’s a very large area that needs to be searched, and that takes time, even with the technology that we have available.

  87. 87.

    Baud

    March 12, 2014 at 7:52 pm

    @the Conster:

    Maybe the Chinese satellite picture will pan out?

  88. 88.

    ruemara

    March 12, 2014 at 7:52 pm

    @Mnemosyne: or not. They are experts at bullets, they could be right about this too.

  89. 89.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 12, 2014 at 7:52 pm

    @Gex:

    They aren’t mad about this being undignified. They are mad that it is effective.

    This is really what is pissing off Villager vermin like Czilla. The fuckin’ near sheriff is bypassing them to actually reach all those young people, because he’s not going to reach them via the White House Press Corpse, for sure.

    Their irrelevancy scares them to death…particularly the younger ones like Czilla who thought they were set for life in the cradle of Villager welfare.

  90. 90.

    Roger Moore

    March 12, 2014 at 7:53 pm

    @Gex:

    Seems odd to me that real America seems to prefer to buy their porn and sex toys from a retail clerk.

    I assume sex toys are a no refund thing like underwear, so there are some potential advantages to being able to size it up in person before buying. And it’s likely that many of those places have been in business since before internet shopping and just haven’t been driven out of business yet.

  91. 91.

    jeffreyw

    March 12, 2014 at 7:53 pm

    @ruemara: Post a closeup pic of the cartridges, esp. the base, and I bet we can figure out what they are.

  92. 92.

    Baud

    March 12, 2014 at 7:54 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    Worst fitting rooms ever.

  93. 93.

    MaryRC

    March 12, 2014 at 7:56 pm

    @Schlemizel: Truman didn’t actually call that music critic an SOB, although he wasn’t averse to using the phrase to describe others. Here is what he wrote to the critic:

    I’ve just read your lousy review of Margaret’s concert. I’ve come to the conclusion that you are an “eight ulcer man on four ulcer pay.”

    It seems to me that you are a frustrated old man who wishes he could have been successful. When you write such poppy-cock as was in the back section of the paper you work for it shows conclusively that you’re off the beam and at least four of your ulcers are at work.

    Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens you’ll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below!

    Pegler, a gutter snipe, is a gentleman alongside you. I hope you’ll accept that statement as a worse insult than a reflection on your ancestry.

    So much for the dignity of the office! He was a pugnacious little guy.

  94. 94.

    kc

    March 12, 2014 at 7:57 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    That. Is. AWESOME!

  95. 95.

    mclaren

    March 12, 2014 at 8:00 pm

    We’re talking about fucking Bill O’Reilly here.

    This is the abysmal fool who claimed “…The tide comes in, the tide goes out. Why does it happen? Nobody knows!”

    Isaac Newton explained that one in 1687.

    Does anyone take this halfwit O’Reilly seriously? If so, why?

  96. 96.

    Hal

    March 12, 2014 at 8:00 pm

    @lamh36: Loved that cartoon. They translated the Phoenix saga pretty well, though the ending was obviously different. I guess having a superhero commit suicide by energy canon wasn’t considered kid friendly.

    Max Wittert has pretty hilarious cartoon based on that show. I especially love Storms over the top evocations while putting the star on top of the tree.

    http://maxwittert.tumblr.com/tagged/jean-grey

  97. 97.

    PsiFighter37

    March 12, 2014 at 8:01 pm

    A bit of advice I need to ask – my best friend from college got fired 5 months ago. I’ve never really gotten the full story, as far as I know – he made it sounds like he lost an office politics battle, but to get canned over that seems a bit extreme. Since then, he’s spent way too much money on things he really doesn’t need, like high-end clothing, a Surface tablet I’m sure he never uses, $500 playing cards from Burberry (yes, that is not a typo). He’s gotten really out of shape. I can understand the need to unwind – if I got canned, the first thing I would do would be to sleep a good week or so, and then hit the road and travel a little – but he thinks that he can swing it on savings for the rest of the year and start looking for a job in earnest in 2015.

    I feel bad, because knowing him, it had to be a huge setback, from a mental standpoint, of where he saw his career going. But I don’t know if I should really tell him that 5 months of relaxing is more than enough, and that he is wasting his time (and money) by sitting at home all day reading newspapers, drinking, and eating fast food. I fully am down for the cause of needing to unwind, especially since he’s been go-go for the past decade – but there definitely feels like an element of ‘killer instinct’, if you will, that’s just dissipated over the past months. And for someone who seems to be thinking about big-picture things (like getting a wife and family, although he needs to start at the girlfriend first), there’s no way this is helping accelerate that timeline at all. And he comes from a solidly middle-class background, so he’s not a rich trust fund baby who can just afford to light money on fire indefinitely.

    What do y’all think?

  98. 98.

    mclaren

    March 12, 2014 at 8:04 pm

    @ruemara:

    Gun type question. If I have a lot of bullets, how would I know what gun they fit? Are they inscribed with… words?

    Doesn’t matter whether they fit. If the bullets are too large, you can beat ’em with a hammer to make them the right size, and if they’re too small, you can add a bunch of black powder caulked together with superglue to make the bullets large enough.

  99. 99.

    Anoniminous

    March 12, 2014 at 8:05 pm

    @Baud:

    Yup.

    And the actor turned into a Winger in Real Life.

  100. 100.

    Randy P

    March 12, 2014 at 8:08 pm

    As a math guy who has hardly ever even been next to a gun let alone fired one, can somebody please put me out of my misery and explain why .380 is not equal to .38?

    Does it have to do with another dimension like length?

    And why is mistaking three significant digits for two potentially fatal?

  101. 101.

    Baud

    March 12, 2014 at 8:09 pm

    @Anoniminous:

    I didn’t know that.

  102. 102.

    Anoniminous

    March 12, 2014 at 8:09 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    See that with .223 and 5.56 NATO. Can shoot the former in rifles chambered for the latter but not vice versa.

  103. 103.

    drkrick

    March 12, 2014 at 8:11 pm

    Truman was quite the character. Some ladies for public morality group appealed to his wife Bess to get him to stop using the word manure. She told them they had no idea how hard it had been to convince him to use the word manure.

  104. 104.

    IowaOldLady

    March 12, 2014 at 8:16 pm

    @PsiFighter37: This is a tough situation. My son went through the same thing with a friend of his who got laid off.

    Your buddy’s inertia might be a sign of depression. It also might be related to whatever got him fired in the first place. He probably would be better off, both mentally and practically, if he could get moving and look for a job or volunteer someplace or take a class or do something structured. You can encourage him.

    But also, I just remind you that if he really has problems, you can’t solve them. Be supportive. Be encouraging. That’s all you can do.

  105. 105.

    magurakurin

    March 12, 2014 at 8:19 pm

    @MikeJ:

    this

    take those bullets, put them in a sack and toss them into the deepest lake, river, ocean you can find. fuck guns and bullets.

  106. 106.

    Anoniminous

    March 12, 2014 at 8:19 pm

    @Randy P:

    Caliber is the diameter of the round so a .380 is equal to a .38. The cartridges (casing plus round) are different. Thus the different name.

    ETA: a .38 won’t fit in a .380 handgun. A .380 will not properly head space in a .38 handgun and you risk having the thing blow your hand off.

  107. 107.

    Suffern ACE

    March 12, 2014 at 8:21 pm

    @PsiFighter37: if he sees you as a friend, he’s probably not going to take kindly to an intervention on career matters as he would if he sees you as a friend or mentor. You probably can have one, maybe two conversations with him, but I would probably have one. If he wants to leave the rat race for awhile, it’s his call. While the job market is still not what it used to be, I’ve seen lots of things over my career where I thought “well, his career is over” and then the career isn’t over any longer.

    The thing I’d worry about for him is preparing for the interviews when the time comes for him to reenter the market. The work vocabulary can slip away. He may come off as not in tune with changes since he left. If you wanted to be helpful, be there to coach when it’s time to come back.

  108. 108.

    Roger Moore

    March 12, 2014 at 8:24 pm

    @Randy P:

    Does it have to do with another dimension like length?

    Yes. The bullet and casing diameters are very close, but .38 special is much longer, holds more powder, and fires a heavier bullet. FWIW, the .38 is actually the size of the casing, while the bullet is about 9mm (.357″).

  109. 109.

    Gravenstone

    March 12, 2014 at 8:27 pm

    @lamh36: I’m very disappointed that the coming movie will have use the wrong character as the time traveler. Just because the character is absurdly popular doesn’t make them the right choice.

  110. 110.

    Mike in NC

    March 12, 2014 at 8:32 pm

    Re: missing planes. In December 1945 five Navy torpedo bombers from NAS Fort Lauderdale vanished in the Atlantic without a trace. Most likely because nobody knew exactly where they were flying and the technology of the period was nothing like we have today. The Navy simply had no idea where to begin to search. Those planes and the 14 crewmen aboard were never found. See: Flight 19 and the birth of the Bermuda Triangle legend.

  111. 111.

    PsiFighter37

    March 12, 2014 at 8:36 pm

    @IowaOldLady: I don’t think he has any problems, but it is quite a bit of a departure from the person I knew who was really driven. He got himself canned a little over 3 years ago, but that was over something just incredibly stupid on his part, and he was back at it in a couple weeks’ time looking for a job. It took him 4-5 months, but he got it done. I was his roommate then, and I knew how hard he was working. This time, whenever I stop by, I can tell he’s just checked out for the time being. When he got let go in late October, he really wasn’t as gung-ho about getting back on the wagon. To me, it was understandable – despite being jerks, the firm he was at gave him several months’ severance, which is solid – but after initial contacts with headhunters, he’s made zero effort to really get back on track. I wouldn’t mind if he takes the rest of the year off – sometimes you really do need to just discharge for a little bit, but when I talk to him about career stuff, he’s got very little feeling or inspiration for what he’s going to do next. I’d feel more comfortable if a) he had a concrete plan for what he was going to do after this ‘gap year’, so to speak, and b) if he was doing something more worthwhile with his time than sitting in his apartment here in NYC doing not very much. I would be livid with myself if I spent 5 months on my ass in NYC with literally zero obligations to anyone. He just bought a car (all cash upfront, another decision that I don’t think is all that great), but I hope he takes a very long road trip – 3-4 weeks – just to get his mind cleared and straightened out.

  112. 112.

    Bob In Portland

    March 12, 2014 at 8:37 pm

    Here you go, cold warriors:

    http://www.salon.com/2014/03/12/propaganda_lies_and_the_new_york_times_everything_you_really_need_to_know_about_ukraine/

    This, too:

    http://www.salon.com/2014/03/08/35_countries_the_u_s_has_backed_international_crime_partner/

    Those who remember history are doomed to repeat it because the dumb fucks don’t.

  113. 113.

    Woodrowfan

    March 12, 2014 at 8:39 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    I was riding down I-75 the other day through Ocala, and there was a pedestrian walkway across the interstate with a bunch of teaturds camped out on it with their stupid patriot drag, Gadsden flags and signs about Benghazi. I asked my husband to sound the horn, then I gave them the double-bird salute when I was sure they wouldn’t have enough time to shoot at us. I bet those fuckers didn’t expect that from a Ford pickup. Ha!

    I love you. (In an appropriate platonic way of course)

  114. 114.

    IowaOldLady

    March 12, 2014 at 8:41 pm

    @PsiFighter37: He’s lucky to have friends like you. Really. We all need someone who cares even when we intend to ignore them.

  115. 115.

    gogol's wife

    March 12, 2014 at 8:42 pm

    @Bob In Portland:

    Когда вы прилетите в Крым, передайте привет Владимиру Владимировичу.

  116. 116.

    lamh36

    March 12, 2014 at 8:43 pm

    @Gravenstone: true. I liked the character too.

    I guess I get it though since they are trying to sell the movie to people who aren’t big Marvel universe fans

  117. 117.

    balconesfault

    March 12, 2014 at 8:43 pm

    Benghazi? Really?

    Is there a mathematical system capable of quantifying the stupid that it would take to say that?

  118. 118.

    Chris

    March 12, 2014 at 8:46 pm

    @stickler:

    Can we imagine how the right wing would screech if Obama wrote a letter like this? Oh, I guess we probably can, since the right wing hated Truman and almost certainly screeched to high heaven in 1950. Good times.

    Truman was blamed by the right wingers of his day for losing China, for being too chicken to use nukes in Korea, for having an administration infected with Card Carrying Communists, for disrupting our military by forcing social change upon it, and for having surrendered American sovereignty to the United Nations. He was considered a socialist, a weak sister, a traitor, a one-worlder, a ni[DING!]-lover and a backstabber who wouldn’t let our troops win. He’d have recognized the modern Republican Party instantly as a carbon copy of the one he had to deal with and probably sympathized and empathized enormously with Obama for being in the same position as him.

    Which makes it just that much more weirdly disconnected when you here today’s right wingers claim that oh yeah, he was totally their kind of guy.

  119. 119.

    PsiFighter37

    March 12, 2014 at 8:46 pm

    @IowaOldLady: Well, my dilemma is more around if I should tell him he should get his shit together or not. I want to support him, and taking time off surely must be a good de-stressor, but I also think he’s almost given up a little.

  120. 120.

    Suffern ACE

    March 12, 2014 at 8:48 pm

    @balconesfault: Yeah. As far as I can tell, there hasn’t been much of anything going on at Benghazi for 18 months now. What exactly is he supposed to be focused on? Finding the perps, I assume.

    I guess he should respond with “If I wasn’t on BTF, I’d have more time to sic the IRS on my enemies.”

  121. 121.

    Another Botsplainer

    March 12, 2014 at 8:50 pm

    Sock it … to me ?

  122. 122.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 12, 2014 at 8:51 pm

    @gogol’s wife: Nice.

  123. 123.

    Mnemosyne

    March 12, 2014 at 8:59 pm

    @PsiFighter37:

    It really does sound like it may be depression — the symptoms are different for men than they are for women. The impulse buy of the car is the “tell” for me.

    Even if he’s not depressed, it sounds like he’s seriously rethinking if he even wants to continue on this career path and is having a hard time making a decision. At a minimum, he needs some career counseling. Walking away from a career path that you hate is always a valid decision, no matter how much money you’re making.

  124. 124.

    Bob In Portland

    March 12, 2014 at 9:04 pm

    @gogol’s wife:

    In 1965, General Suharto seized effective power from President Sukarno on the pretext of combatting a failed coup and unleashed an orgy of mass murder that killed at least half a million people. U.S. diplomats later admitted providing lists of 5,000 Communist Party members to be killed. Political officer Robert Martens said, “It really was a big help to the army. They probably killed a lot of people, and I probably have a lot of blood on my hands, but that’s not all bad. There’s a time when you have to strike hard at a decisive moment.”

    And now all of you Free Ukraine supporters can share in the misery that will befall Ukraine. You bought it, you own it.

  125. 125.

    Suffern ACE

    March 12, 2014 at 9:04 pm

    @Mnemosyne: Yeah. And probably a bit of denial. It is possible that the friend wants his old job back at his old employer even though they fired him. I know that would be my first reaction-that they can’t get along without me and will be calling any day now. Or he may be looking at that money as something he gained from someplace he doesn’t like and the faster it is gone the better. I’ve seen a lot of types of reactions to job loss over the years.

  126. 126.

    PsiFighter37

    March 12, 2014 at 9:05 pm

    @Mnemosyne: Either case would trouble me, but the latter would be strange – he’s always been gung-go about his career path since I’ve known him.

  127. 127.

    the Conster

    March 12, 2014 at 9:05 pm

    @PsiFighter37:

    The problem unfortunately is that when he gets serious about looking for a new job, he needs to have a story that explains what he was doing during this time. That’s the first thing every interviewer will ask – what happened in the work history gap. If nothing else he needs to get involved in something – anything – that makes sense.

  128. 128.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 12, 2014 at 9:06 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: I’d have just told the guy to go ask the platoon sergeant anyway. Or maybe the1SG if I felt like fucking with him (the asker not the 1SG – I’m not that stupid.).

  129. 129.

    Pogonip

    March 12, 2014 at 9:07 pm

    @PsiFighter37: I think that if the guy can afford $500 playing cards, I want to meet him yesterday. Please tell him I can cook.

  130. 130.

    Suffern ACE

    March 12, 2014 at 9:09 pm

    @Bob In Portland: I didn’t know there were communists around to purge in Ukraine.

    And based on the massive numbers who were actually killed in the early days of the Suharto regime, the Indonesians didn’t need as much help identifying enemies as you might think.

  131. 131.

    PsiFighter37

    March 12, 2014 at 9:10 pm

    @the Conster: I’ve told him that he should really get a feel from recruiters if taking a year off to unwind and clear your head is something that will fly or not. I don’t think it should be a problem, but I can also see how it might be viewed as lack of motivation.

  132. 132.

    Mnemosyne

    March 12, 2014 at 9:14 pm

    @PsiFighter37:

    Sometimes you get your dream job and discover that you hate it. Ask me how I know. :-)

    If you think telling him you think he might be depressed won’t fly, telling him he should see a career counselor (or life coach, something like that) might be a sneaky way to get him some help.

  133. 133.

    RaflW

    March 12, 2014 at 9:14 pm

    “Weber said that the president should be focusing on Benghazi”

    Oh, of course! Because by focusing on Benghazi, that will help out the Ukrainians, right, asswipe? Crissakes, the level of discourse in this country.

  134. 134.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 12, 2014 at 9:16 pm

    @PsiFighter37: A family friend who is in his early 30s got let go from a hedge fund a couple of years ago. He had the funds to take a year off so he did so. When he was ready to start looking again, he ended up telling people that he took the time to make sure that he ended up at the “right” type of fund rather than rushing into something out of desperation and panic. He is with another fund and doing very well for himself now. Anecdote, not data.

  135. 135.

    NotMax

    March 12, 2014 at 9:18 pm

    @Mnemosyne

    Any buzz around the water cooler about this?

    Aside from raucous laughter.

  136. 136.

    David Koch

    March 12, 2014 at 9:20 pm

    @the Conster:

    The missing plane has officially freaked me the right the fuck out. How is it possible that a plane full of people can just disappear? No black box signals? Nothing? Really??!! W.T.F.

    Alien abduction

  137. 137.

    the Conster

    March 12, 2014 at 9:20 pm

    @PsiFighter37:

    Having recently changed jobs and having had several interviews leading up to it, recruiters really focus on continuity and purpose to your choices. When you tell your story you need them to get it. He’ll be asked over and over about this time. Sadly indulging yourself and clearing your head isn’t what they’re looking for. At all.

  138. 138.

    Mnemosyne

    March 12, 2014 at 9:20 pm

    @NotMax:

    So far, the buzz is, Who gave our secret agenda away? ;-)

  139. 139.

    PsiFighter37

    March 12, 2014 at 9:21 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: That’s good to hear – my buddy’s in a nearly identical boat.

  140. 140.

    Cervantes

    March 12, 2014 at 9:22 pm

    @MaryRC: Korea was on HST’s mind: MacArthur was not doing well; Pyongyang had just fallen; and British Prime Minister Attlee was in town to discuss the use of an atom bomb against the Communists. And then, that evening, Charlie Ross, HST’s high-school friend and Press Secretary, died of a heart attack — right there in the White House. Grieving, HST (and Attlee) attended Margaret’s concert that same night. Hume’s review appeared the next morning. Had it appeared at any other time, HST would never have responded, especially if Ross had been there to stop him.

    Here’s Margaret’s own response to the review:

    Mr. Hume is a very fine critic. He has the right to write as he pleases.

  141. 141.

    ruemara

    March 12, 2014 at 9:22 pm

    @PsiFighter37: I hate to say it, but I’d rather like to slap him. However, you’re his friend. Part of what a friend does is say “Dude, we need to talk.” It pissed me off to no end that all the “friends” in my ex’s life tiptoed quietly out the door and left me with his depressed mess to deal with. And were highly critical of him to me, when he wasn’t around. Real friends will kick your ass if you need it. It’s more than being a companion or there for someone’s entertainment, it’s putting a real emotional connection on the line because you care. Say something. He may not want to listen, he may not really do anything with it, but don’t hold back on showing concern and telling him what you’re seeing. Not saying something can be more damaging than you’d think. Take it from me.

    @mclaren: Never fear. At no point was your idiocy ever in doubt. You don’t have to work that hard.

    9mm Luger. I’ve got a whole stack of these from the last bunch of roommates. Thanks. I really should just turn these in, since I guess craigslist sale is out of the question. Every time I run into the police chief, we’re done chatting and I think, “Ammo, forgot to bring the ammo.” But to say I’m nervous about showing up with ammo to my public place of business is to put things lightly.

  142. 142.

    Pogonip

    March 12, 2014 at 9:24 pm

    @David Koch: I just checked the headlines–aChinese satellite has spotted debris that is about where the missing plane’s ought to be.

    I hold out little hope for survivors but would love to be wrong.

  143. 143.

    ellennelle

    March 12, 2014 at 9:26 pm

    glad ackerman pointed out what a cartoon o’reilly is, but someone should tell weber benghazi IS a comedy show.

    and be sure to CC issa on that.

  144. 144.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 12, 2014 at 9:32 pm

    @Schlemizel:

    That was Paul Hume. Truman did a lot more than call him an SOB — he threatened physical violence:

    Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens you’ll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below!

    Funnily enough, I worked with Paul Hume’s daughter many years later (mid-’80s) for a while.

  145. 145.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 12, 2014 at 9:37 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    I bet those fuckers didn’t expect that from a Ford pickup.

    Nor from someone surnamed Cracker.

  146. 146.

    raven

    March 12, 2014 at 9:39 pm

    Just watched “Nebraska” and liked it a lot.

  147. 147.

    Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)

    March 12, 2014 at 9:41 pm

    As to second thing—look, Bill O’Reilly is used to saying kind of stupid things to get attention. There’s not much of a difference between the president appearing on Between Two Ferns and appearing on The O’Reilly Factor. The difference is that we admit we’re a comedy show…

    Unintentional comedy ZING!

  148. 148.

    raven

    March 12, 2014 at 9:43 pm

    In yet another odd twist to the mysterious story of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, a New Zealand man working on an oil rig in the South China Sea has come forward to say he believes he saw the airplane on fire right around the time it disappeared.

    Read more: http://www.thewire.com/global/2014/03/oil-rig-worker-says-he-saw-malaysia-air-flight-370-go-down/359093/#ixzz2vnqPFOKS

  149. 149.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 12, 2014 at 9:43 pm

    @Elmo:

    Okay yes, but DO NOT make the mistake of thinking that elementary school decimal lessons apply: .380 IS NOT THE SAME as .38, no matter what your math teacher said.

    I just had a nasty flashback to the time in grade school where in arithmetic class we were learning fractions at exactly the same time we were learning time signatures in music class!!

    Took me years to sort that out.

  150. 150.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 12, 2014 at 9:51 pm

    @geg6:

    We are many states apart, but in 24 hours or so we’ve gone from 78° to low 40°s, with even lower overnight temperatures predicted.

    And it is windy here in Atlanta, with gusts around 40mph.

    Such a very strange winter.

  151. 151.

    Cervantes

    March 12, 2014 at 9:51 pm

    @Jacel: Thanks! Quite à propos.

    (Emerson was always a bit of a snob, of course, not that there’s anything wrong with that.)

    By the way, what is your source for the quotation? In the version I know, Emerson says also that Lincoln is wont to “cheapen himself.”

  152. 152.

    Schlemizel

    March 12, 2014 at 9:53 pm

    I did a poor job of writing – it was not in th letter that Truman called Hume an SOB, thanks for that correction. Also thanks for naming the critic, I had long forgotten that. You suppose he was any relation to that SOB Brit Hume? What would Harry call that guy?

    One of my other favorite stories involved HST using the word ‘manure’ and some DC socialite suggesting to Mrs. Truman she should get him to say ‘fertilizer’ instead. Mrs. T is reported to have said “My dear we are just grateful we finally got him to use ‘manure’!”

  153. 153.

    Helen

    March 12, 2014 at 9:56 pm

    @NotMax: The purple Telletubby is GAY? GET OUT! Same shit; different day.

    See also – Burt and Ernie.

  154. 154.

    trollhattan

    March 12, 2014 at 9:58 pm

    @Bob In Portland:

    Those who remember history are doomed to repeat it because the dumb fucks don’t.

    Every morning as you gaze at the reversed image of yourself in the mirror, do remember that that’s the person you’re citing.

  155. 155.

    trollhattan

    March 12, 2014 at 10:00 pm

    @mclaren:

    Loofah comes in, loofah goes out. Can’t explain that!

  156. 156.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 12, 2014 at 10:02 pm

    @Cervantes:

    Very interesting background and context. Thanks!

  157. 157.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 12, 2014 at 10:03 pm

    @trollhattan: No, that’s a falafel.

  158. 158.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 12, 2014 at 10:04 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Obviously, a whole lot of people got in with similar comments before I had a chance to scroll through the entire thread.

    Same as always. Sigh.

  159. 159.

    mclaren

    March 12, 2014 at 10:05 pm

    @Mike in NC:

    Oh, come on, we all know those Navy planes were abducted by UFOs. Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind proved it.

    It couldn’t possibly be anything mundane like, I dunno, the planes got lost and ran out of fuel and crashed in the ocean leaving no visible wreckage.

  160. 160.

    BruceFromOhio

    March 12, 2014 at 10:06 pm

    @ruemara:

    Real friends will kick your ass if you need it.

    This. How many times I’ve been saved by someone being brutally honest, oh, let us count the ways.

  161. 161.

    mclaren

    March 12, 2014 at 10:07 pm

    @Pogonip:

    I hold out little hope for survivors but would love to be wrong.

    Survivors?

    Please. Modern jets have doors that don’t open in flight. If the impact didn’t kill all the passengers, hypothermia from prolonged immersion in the ocean will.

  162. 162.

    Suffern ACE

    March 12, 2014 at 10:13 pm

    @NotMax: “You know I think this cute little movie is going to indoctrinate my 5-year-old to be a lesbian or treat homosexuality or bestiality in a light sort of way.” I wonder if the average parent going to see Frozen is thinking that way.”

    Why would you wonder that? The lesbianism and bestiality are so well hidden, you’d missed them if you’d blink.

  163. 163.

    Cervantes

    March 12, 2014 at 10:16 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: No problem. One thing I forgot to mention is that, at that same time, Joe McCarthy was calling for the President to be impeached (over the losses in Korea).

    And yes, there was an uproar when the letter was published (not by Hume’s Post but by a rival paper). HST’s mental competence was called into question, and he received some truly heart-breaking letters from parents whose boys had been killed in Korea, one even going so far as to tell him that Margaret should have died there as well.

    So much pain.

  164. 164.

    Cervantes

    March 12, 2014 at 10:17 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: No, it’s always good to hear from you.

  165. 165.

    kindness

    March 12, 2014 at 10:20 pm

    @Baud:

    How is it possible that a plane full of people can just disappear? No black box signals? Nothing?

    I’m tellin’ you, Aliens.

    To Serve Man….

  166. 166.

    Pogonip

    March 12, 2014 at 10:38 pm

    @kindness: It’s a cookbook!!!

  167. 167.

    cg

    March 12, 2014 at 10:42 pm

    Trampled by Turtles! Duluth! Thank you.

  168. 168.

    Mike in NC

    March 12, 2014 at 10:45 pm

    @mclaren: Well, I took a woman I worked with to see that movie, and regrettably there were no close encounters of any kind as a result. In fact I believe she still lives with her parents.

  169. 169.

    mclaren

    March 12, 2014 at 11:01 pm

    @balconesfault:

    Is there a mathematical system capable of quantifying the stupid that it would take to say that?

    I believe at this point we’re into the realm of Cantor’s transfinite numbers.

  170. 170.

    mclaren

    March 12, 2014 at 11:09 pm

    @the Conster:

    The missing plane has officially freaked me the right the fuck out. How is it possible that a plane full of people can just disappear? No black box signals? Nothing? Really??!! W.T.F.

    Sea: big. Plane: small.

    This has been another edition of “simple answers to baffling questions.”

    Humans have an amazingly inflated opinion of themselves. In actual fact, if all humans on earth disappeared from the biosphere tomorrow, there would hardly be a ripple among any other species on the planet. If all the honeybees on earth disappeared tomorrow, though–! Chaos!

    Nature is large and we are small. Tons of from-the-human-viewpoint gigantic machines vanish daily, swallowed up by nature without a trace. Giant freighters regularly disappear on the Great Lakes. Freighters like the 13,000-ton SS. Edmund Fitzgerald that broke in two and sank so fast its crew didn’t even have time to send a distress signal, much less abandon ship.

    The disappearance of the 5 million dollar giant drilling rig on Lake Peigneur is another example, except the drilling crew witnessed that one.

  171. 171.

    Suffern ACE

    March 12, 2014 at 11:31 pm

    @NotMax: I also find it more than amusing that she relates the moral decline of Disney to the year 1984, when, you know, those Jews took over. Yep. Once Eisner and Katzenberger took over, the company became a conduit for Satan’s call.

  172. 172.

    Cervantes

    March 13, 2014 at 8:30 am

    @mclaren:

    The disappearance of the 5 million dollar giant drilling rig on Lake Peigneur is another example, except the drilling crew witnessed that one.

    Hadn’t thought about that in decades. Not sure what role “Nature” played. I believe the Texaco rig crashed and sank because Texaco had drilled into the roof of an already weakened salt dome that was actively being mined. Somebody, maybe the Corps of Engineers, made a mistake. At any rate, Texaco ended up paying the salt-mining company something, but nowhere near the claimed amount. The mine-workers had a class-action suit in place as well; I don’t remember how that turned out.

    I do recall that the Feds had been talking about using abandoned salt domes in the area for storage of nuclear waste. The rig incident put paid to that idea PDQ.

    Anyway, your larger point — humility! — is a good one.

  173. 173.

    Jacel

    March 13, 2014 at 12:13 pm

    @Cerevantes

    I transcribed that quote from “The Heart Of Emerson’s Journals” reprinted by Dover Books. Recently I happened to glance through that book and came across those comments on Lincoln, which then seemed apt to look up again and share after the Ferns backlash.

  174. 174.

    Bugboy

    March 13, 2014 at 12:29 pm

    Obama clearly stated his intent to deliver a message about enrolling under ACA. To his critics, of course, that is not a legitimate role of the Presidency, to promote his “signature accomplishment”.

    As Brother Pierce says: These are mole people.

  175. 175.

    Cervantes

    March 13, 2014 at 12:41 pm

    @Jacel: Thanks much!

    Re Emerson as snob, here he is in 1841 (The Conduct of Life):

    Leave this hypocritical prating about the masses. Masses are rude, lame, unmade, pernicious in their demands and influence, and need not to be flattered, but to be schooled. I wish not to concede anything to them, but to tame, drill, divide, and break them up, and draw individuals out of them. The worst of charity is that the lives you are asked to preserve are not worth preserving. Masses! The calamity is the masses! I do not wish any mass at all, but honest men only, lovely, sweet, accomplished women only, and no shovel-handed, narrow-brained, gin-drinking million stockingers or lazzaroni at all. If government knew how, I should like to see it check, not multiply the population. When it reaches its true law of action, every man that is born will be hailed as essential. Away with this hurrah of masses, and let us have the considerate vote of single men spoken on their honor and their conscience.

    And as for his distaste for Lincoln, here’s the version I know (in bold are the parts I don’t recognize from your version, and parts missing therefrom):

    You cannot refine Mr. Lincoln’s taste, extend his horizon, or clear his judgement; he will not walk dignifiedly through the traditional part of the President of America, but will pop out his head at each railroad station and make a little speech, and get into an argument with Squire A., and Judge B. He will write letters to Horace Greeley, and any editor or reporter or saucy party committee that writes to him, and cheapen himself.

    But this we must be ready for, and let the clown appear, and hug ourselves that we are well off, if we have got good nature, honest meaning, and fidelity to public interest, with bad manners, — instead of an elegant roué and malignant self-seeker.

    So … better an honest clod like Lincoln or Obama than a dishonest charmer like … Bush, maybe?

    Anyhow, thanks again.

  176. 176.

    Jacel

    March 13, 2014 at 2:44 pm

    @Jacel: @Cervantes: Sorry, I’ve checked the book again and found I accidentally left out the phrases you noted (“or clear his judgement” “and cheapen himself”) when I typed the passage. Good catch!

  177. 177.

    Cervantes

    March 13, 2014 at 2:59 pm

    @Jacel: Thanks for checking. I meant (but failed) to communicate that my version does not have “or clear his judgment.” Mysterious.

    (It does have the other bit, which (now I understand) you had left out by accident.)

    Anyhow, thanks again!

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