Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

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

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

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

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

You can’t love your country only when you win.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

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Reader Interactions

115Comments

  1. 1.

    Fuzzy

    Why can’t the NBA get as upset about 250 black girls being sold and kidnapped as they do about some rich guy making comments about black guys coming to NBA games?

  2. 2.

    Belafon

    @Fuzzy:

    Why can’t the NBA America get as upset about 250 black girls being sold and kidnapped as they do about some rich guy making comments about black guys coming to NBA games?

    Does that answer your question?

  3. 3.

    soonergrunt (mobile)

    Upgrading the wireless access at my workplace, so I’m working 8:30 AM to 10:30 PM each day over the next couple of weeks. Hello, overtime!

  4. 4.

    Elizabelle

    NYMagazine: Can CBS Afford to take Lara Logan Back?

    I vote no. Leave her to Fox News or Newsmax. Water (or other fluid) and its own level, etc.

    She and Sharyl Atkisson can pen a tell all about the libtard media, which will hit bookshelves and Costco tables on its way back to remainders vendors and wood pulp.

  5. 5.

    Roger Moore

    @Fuzzy:

    Why can’t the NBA get as upset about 250 black girls being sold and kidnapped as they do about some rich guy making comments about black guys coming to NBA games?

    Not everybody has to deal with every issue. Those kidnapped girls may be a bigger deal in a cosmic sense, but they aren’t the NBA’s business the same way that an NBA owner getting caught making racist comments is.

  6. 6.

    Hill Dweller

    ‘Merica is overflowing with stupid people. The Republicans, despite pursuing scorched-earth policies for the last 5+ years and being as intellectually bankrupt as ever, are poised to make huge gains in November. Why? It can’t be based on policy nor competence.

    Bring on the meteor.

  7. 7.

    Comrade Jake

    Had some fun with DougJ on the Twitter machine this AM over this story:

    John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, political journalists known for their detailed, gossip-filled books on the past two presidential campaigns, will join Bloomberg in the coming days to start a new site that will focus on American politics and policy.

    The new project, Bloomberg Politics, is part of a broader strategy put in place by Justin B. Smith, who was appointed chief executive of Bloomberg Media Group last summer after serving as president of Atlantic Media.

    Mr. Heilemann and Mr. Halperin, who are the authors of the best sellers “Game Change” and “Double Down,” are the “epitome of the type of quality journalistic talent that moves seamlessly between different kinds of platforms,” Mr. Smith said in an interview.

    Why are media types so eager to fluff Halperin? I get that it’s self-serving in this case, but gosh that dude is such a tool. I don’t get it.

    Speaking of tools, anyone else notice that Jake Tapper was sitting right next to Christie at the WHCD?

  8. 8.

    schrodinger's cat

    Preparing for my India trip, taking care of last minute details. I leave this Thursday. I am going to India after a little more than a decade and I plan to blog from there if I can get the logistics to work. I will mostly be in Bombay/Mumbai, eating mangoes, meeting friends and family and visiting my old haunts especially restaurants and hole in the wall places (if they still exist), not on the usual tourist track.

  9. 9.

    scav

    @Roger Moore: Well, I suppose if the UN bluehats come here to monitor all the BB games and board meetings, then we can send some really rich white executives to piously exhort Boko Haram in person. I’m not sure which half of this is funnier.

  10. 10.

    Elizabelle

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Please put up some pics when you blog (non-kitteh, even).

    How exciting. Will be interested to hear your thoughts on what has changed and how.

    Happy jet trails!

  11. 11.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    ‘Merica is overflowing with stupid people.

    @Hill Dweller: Part of our ethnic heritage. We took all the fuckups, religious fanatics and misfits. That the end result is looking a lot more like Mad Max and a lot less like Star Trek is an inevitable consequence.

  12. 12.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Elizabelle: According to husband kitteh, who went last year, the part of the town I am most familiar with, South Bombay, has not changed much at all but the city has spread its tentacles far wider into the country side.

    ETA: There will be photos!

  13. 13.

    D58826

    @Roger Moore: Then lets ask the question a bit differently – Why can’t the cable show/talk radio/etc that has been screaming g about Sterling for the past two weeks give equal time to the missing girls? Or maybe devote the same amount of time they devoted to ‘foxy knoxy’ or the girl that disappeared in Aruba a few years back.

  14. 14.

    ? Martin

    People wonder why I pick on Alabama.

    In comments earlier this year only now coming to light, the chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court asserted that the First Amendment only applies to Christianity since neither Buddha nor Mohammed created man.

    The repeated election of Roy Moore to the state supreme court is the best available evidence that Alabama should be sold to China.

  18. 18.

    Ben Cisco

    @D58826: Because 1) They’re black, 2) they’ve been kidnapped by fundamentalists, which puts them on the same side as the GOP and their enablers, and 3) did I mention they’re black?

  20. 20.

    chopper

    just found out we’re moving to atlanta. now to find a rental in a place with a decent public school before august. ugh.

  21. 21.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    The nonprofit American Book Review posted a list of the 100 best first lines from novels. Here are numbers 1-4:
    1. Call me Ishmael. – Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851)

    2. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. – Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)

    3. A screaming comes across the sky. – Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow (1973)

    4. Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. – Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967; trans. Gregory Rabassa)

    I’m inordinately pleased with myself because I’ve read all 100 novels (Unreconstructed Lit. major). You can find the rest of the list here.

  22. 22.

    Roger Moore

    @? Martin:

    The repeated election of Roy Moore to the state supreme court is the best available evidence that Alabama should be sold to China.

    I think placing it into Federal receivership would be a better plan.

  23. 23.

    D58826

    @Ben Cisco: figured that their being black really didn’t need to be said. Cable only gets upset at missing white girls (preferably blond). (sigh)

  25. 25.

    dr. luba

    @schrodinger’s cat: Unless you’re going to be living in a hut on a beach in Goa, internet access in India is generally quite good, much changed in the last decade. WiFi is common in private residences and hotels.

    My only reason for not blogging regularly in India is laziness and more interesting alternatives, not lack of access, or technological issues.

  27. 27.

    Big R

    I am freaking out. Last Friday, after close of business (of course), opposing counsel dropped a request for a temporary restraining order on my head, and set it for hearing this morning. Meanwhile, I am in Birmingham for family business. I arranged coverage counsel, but my inner control freak has been screaming all morning.

  31. 31.

    Amir Khalid

    @? Martin:

    Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

    This is the First Amendment as cited by Wikipedia. Maybe they forgot the next sentence. You know, the one that says, “This Amendment shall be applicable only to Christians.”

  34. 34.

    catclub

    Just saw a figure from 538 “Is Blame Bush era ending? or is Obama responsible for the economy?” 6 years later, ‘Obama inherited it.’
    is still higher than ‘Obama is responsible’ .

    I find this amazing. Whenever you say that the American people are idiots, they turn around and surprise you.

  37. 37.

    Roger Moore

    @Amir Khalid:

    Maybe they forgot the next sentence. You know, the one that says, “This Amendment shall be applicable only to Christians.”

    They would argue that “religions” other than Christianity are really just cults and thus don’t qualify under the literal wording of the Amendment. When speaking privately with like minded people, they would probably go further and claim that other branches of Christianity don’t count either.

  38. 38.

    satby

    There is a special place in hell for whoever came up with the HP “clickpad” on my laptop. I never realized before how completely uncoordinated my fingers are. #firstworldproblems

  39. 39.

    D58826

    @Amir Khalid: from an earlier thread but just as relevant here:
    SCOTUS just took another bite out of separation of church and state. They decided 5-4 that it’s ok for a government body in public session to start with a prayer. The fact that it is always a christen prayer doesn’t imply any disrespect to non-christens. In the words of Justice Kennedy

    Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority, said the prayers are ceremonial and in keeping with the nation’s traditions.
    “The inclusion of a brief, ceremonial prayer as part of a larger exercise in civic recognition suggests that its purpose and effect are to acknowledge religious leaders and the institutions they represent, rather than to exclude or coerce nonbelievers,” Kennedy said.

    Is a ceremonial prayer anything like the non-sectarian prayer that was declared unconstitutional several decades ago. Maybe the prayer should start with a ‘to whom it may concern’ and end with ‘just kidding big guy’ since it is just for show according to the good Mr Kennedy.

  40. 40.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @CONGRATULATIONS!: We took in the religious nuts. Australia took in the murderers, thieves, and prostitutes.

    Australia wins!

    Noisemax provides us with comedy:

    George Will: Constitutional Clause Dooms Obamacare

    This explains why SCOTUS has already overturned Obamacare. Oh, wait. It didn’t.

    Try again, George. You dipshit.

  41. 41.

    schrodinger's cat

    @catclub: I think the media is the bigger problem, they think their function is to entertain and carry water for the 1%. The population at large does not have the time or energy to separate the wheat from the chaff that our political media dishes out day in and day out.

  42. 42.

    Villago Delenda Est

    The fact that it is always a christen prayer doesn’t imply any disrespect to non-christens. In the words of Justice Kennedy

    Actually, it SCREAMS disrespect at all the “false” religions out there that do not bend on knee to Mammon.

    Kennedy is a vile sack of shit. The sooner he’s replaced, the better.

  45. 45.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Roger Moore:

    When speaking privately with like minded people, they would probably go further and claim that other branches of Christianity don’t count either.

    Catholics. Not REAL Christians.

    Mormons. Not REAL Christians.

    Emo Phillips covered the details of how far this can go.

  46. 46.

    Belafon

    @D58826: I was thinking about this. If you are ever thinking of going to a meeting, take a bunch of people with you. When they start the prayer, start singing the national anthem. Tell them this is the only valid worshipping that should be done at a government event.

  47. 47.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @catclub: Amerca’s shitty economy has its genesis in the impulse to make it financial based rather than manufacturing based. Basically, it’s now a three card Monte game. The 1% are running the con.

  50. 50.

    LanceThruster

    Gave my departed cat Keba a ‘Viking Funeral’ this weekend (sans boat and fire). She had a good sendoff at the end of her 24+ year run and will be forever under starry skies in the high desert with me.

    Space Alone

  51. 51.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    Catholics. Not REAL Christians.

    @Villago Delenda Est: I remember when I was a kid and my grandparents – from Alabama – said the same thing about Baptists. This was in the mid-1970s. Their social circle, a pretty high-end high and mighty one, considered Baptists barely one step above snake handlers.

    My, how things have changed.

  52. 52.

    Mnemosyne

    @Fuzzy:

    Why can’t the NBA CNN get as upset about 250 black girls being sold and kidnapped as they do about some rich guy making comments about black guys coming to NBA games?

    Fix’d. There are more girls who were kidnapped than there were people on board Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, and yet the missing flight got wall-to-wall coverage and the kidnapped girls are getting bupkis.

    Also, the NBA has a vested interest in Sterling’s comments since he owns an NBA team and NBA players work for him. If my boss said shit like that, I’d be upset about it, too.

  53. 53.

    dww44

    @Hill Dweller: Well, for one thing, because of supposedly unbiased and objective political pieces like the one I heard yesterday afternoon on NPR/ATC Weekend. It featured Arun Roth providing lead ins to Mara Liasson on the subect of “Obama’s Ratings Need to GO UP to Improve Democrats Ability to hold on to Senate”. The entire 5 minute or so piece was all negativity about recent polls for Democrats and how the Democrats core constituencies don’t turn out in the midterms. Not demonstrably untrue, but clearly an agenda was being pushed. So I weighed into the NPR Ombudsman and to the show itself about their need to be more unbiased and to go find themselves someone other than Liasson as their “national Political correspondent”.

    I invite you to take a listen and weigh in yourselves if you agree that the piece was a classic example of promoting a certain meme to disadvantage Dems over the GOP. And in an effective not blatant display of partisanship on the part of both of the participants.

    http://www.npr.org/2014/05/04/309562114/obama-needs-to-pick-up-approval-rating-for-senate-democrats-sake

  54. 54.

    Bobby Thomson

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate: Some are legitimately great opening lines. Others are just serviceable, but appear in great novels. Many are god awful run on monstrosities in books that are too precious or dated or flat out bad to be readable. I mean, Bulwer-Lytton is on the list, presumably unironically.

  55. 55.

    Belafon

    @Ben Cisco: We’ll just be trading racists for the misogynists. There are plenty of people who still think that a woman won’t be able to do the job.

    I’m going to warn everyone right now. We need another Democrat as president. We need to have a woman as president. The first woman president will have to be just as careful as the first black president (because we still live in a country why Obama represents all black people, and the first woman president will represent all women), and she will have to fight chauvinism over nearly everything she does. But, because of all of this, there won’t as many things accomplished as there could have been had a white man been elected. But we have to have a woman as president, in part because it means we will be able to get the best possible candidates in the future, not just the best possible white male candidates.

  57. 57.

    D58826

    @Belafon: While I agree with your general point I would disagree about something getting done if it were a white man. The GOP will continue it’s scorched earth policy as long as the president has a D after his name; even if that name is Jesus Christ. The GOP has had a policy of complete obstructionism since Jan. 20, 2009 and has not paid any serious price at the polls. In fact you can say they are better off today then they were after the 2008 election.

  58. 58.

    raven

    @chopper: Pretty MARTA friendly. Decatur is nice and on the line. I guess housing depends on where you are moving from. Things inside the perimeter are pretty pricey compared to Athens but that may not translate for you. Grant Park and the Flat Shoals area are pretty good too.

    Grady saved my ass in 75. I broke my back in a wreck in the ATL and spent 2 months there. Anywhere 50 miles north or south and I would have been cooked.

  59. 59.

    Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader

    Why is Balloon Juice ignoring the Benghazi scandalapalooza?

  60. 60.

    rikyrah

    Cornealious “Mike” Anderson rejoins his family as a free man
    (St. Louis Post Dispatch) – Cornealious “Mike” Anderson, whose sentence for armed robbery was delayed for 13 years by a clerical error, walked out of court a free man just minutes ago.

    Mississippi County Associate Circuit Judge T. Lynn Brown ordered that Anderson be given credit for the time he was “at large” after his conviction in 2000.

    “I believe that continuing to incarcerate you serves no purpose,” Brown said as he handed down his ruling. “It would be a waste of taxpayer dollars. You obviously are a rehabilitated man.”

    http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/webster-groves-man-jailed-for-robbery-years-after-his-conviction/article_441ea598-dcdc-549b-9381-959c97b0b301.html

  61. 61.

    Steve in the ATL

    @chopper: generally speaking, the best public schools are in east Cobb and north Fulton, though there are pockets of good schools in other areas. Downsides of these areas will be rough commute to Grady and rightwing neighbors.

  62. 62.

    Fuzzy

    @raven: I was at the same bombings as you back in Nam and that is the last solution. Just wish the MEDIA paid as much attention to these girls as the hurt feelings of the NBA.

  63. 63.

    Tone In DC

    OT.

    I know that CBS News in general and “60 Minutes” in particular are circling the drain after that Fox News idiot was hired by CBS. This falls under the heading, No Shit.

    I just have to shake my head at this rumor, though. That aforementioned idiot is apparently doubling down on such hiring after the Lara Logan semi-debacle. CBS may soon hire Clarissa Ward to replace Logan, that fact checker extraordinaire.

  64. 64.

    Fuzzy

    @Mnemosyne: That is what I meant, thanks but why don’t these super rich African Americans pay attention to what is happening in Africa.

  65. 65.

    raven

    @Fuzzy: I don’t know what the point is of making some comparison. The Nigerian situation has been on every news cycle I have seen. It’s the lead on the CNN site and was on Huff Post. The kidnappers probably WANT publicity.

  66. 66.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @chopper:

    Lots of Juicers live in Atlanta (by which I mean the metro area, not necessarily within the city limits). I personally can’t help with school advice, but apart from that I’ve lived here for 30 years and would be glad to suggest on specific items. Once you’re here and settled in, let us know so we can do a combination meet-up/welcome party!

  67. 67.

    JPL

    @chopper: Decatur used to have pretty decent schools but because of DeKalb county cutbacks, they are combining elementary schools. As Steve in Atl. said the best schools are in no. fulton or east cobb. The upside of the Sandy Springs area is that it’s in John Lewis’ district. I’d stay with schools that feed into Riverwood high school though.

  69. 69.

    different-church-lady

    @Fuzzy:

    …why don’t these super rich African Americans pay attention to what is happening in Africa.

    You’re trying to dig a hole now, aren’t you?

  74. 74.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate:

    FYWP, I’ll try again.

    It’s not one of the great novels, by a long shot, but my all-time favorite first line is “He was born with the gift of laughter, and a sense that the world was mad.” (Rafael Sabatini, Scaramouche)

  75. 75.

    dww44

    @Villago Delenda Est: As a longtime student of history, this article from Harper’s Magazine in 2009 (linked here at Crooks and Liars) has always rung true about what happened to move the economy from manufacturing to financial based. All about the deregulation of those interest rates and the subsequent dismantling of the wall of separation between commercial and investment banking.

    http://crooksandliars.com/heather/thomas-geoghegan-%E2%80%9Cinfinite-debt-how-unlimite-debt

  76. 76.

    D58826

    How about some good news –
    1. Antarctic Ice Shelf On Brink Of Unstoppable Melt That Could Raise Sea Levels by 10-12 feet For 10,000 Years
    or
    2. World Health Organization declares a POLIO outbreak emergency.

    Maybe the thumpers are right FSM really really really is pissed

  77. 77.

    Belafon

    @D58826: Yes, Republicans will go after any Democrat. But I still get the vibe from the population that there’s something beyond Democrat playing against Obama. See the poll on Ukraine: the population supports the presidents statements on Ukraine, his reluctance to get involved, sanctions on Russia, and yet they say he’s not handling it correctly.

    In other words: They have to work twice as hard to receive the same credit.

  78. 78.

    Bob In Portland

    Apparently, the nice fascists who burned the people alive in the union hall in Odessa are scaring the Jewish community and they’re setting up evacuation plans. And the nice right sector national guard have a bounty on journalists’ heads in the east.

    Your tax dollars at work.

  79. 79.

    Ben Cisco

    @Fuzzy:

    That is what I meant, thanks but why don’t these super rich African Americans pay attention to what is happening in Africa.

    Do yourself a favor, bub – PUT. THE. FUCKING. SHOVEL. DOWN.

  80. 80.

    chopper

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    well first things first :)

    we would prefer to be inside the perimeter. we don’t need the absolute best public school, we’re probably only going to be there a year. i just don’t want the kindergartener to be bored to tears.

    plus, i’d prefer not to be stuck in some sort of suburban hell. i work at home and need to be walking distance to something.

  81. 81.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @LanceThruster:
    Twenty-four years! That’s amazing! May she drink lavishly from the cream of the Milky Way. (And {{{hugs}}} to you, because however long Keba was here, I know it wasn’t long enough.)

  82. 82.

    Ben Cisco

    @Belafon:

    Yes, Republicans will go after any Democrat. But I still get the vibe from the population that there’s something beyond Democrat playing against Obama.

    True, and obvious to all but those who don’t want to/can’t admit it. To the extent of reflexively jettisoning verbal chaff/flare at the very mention of the phenomenon.

  83. 83.

    scav

    @different-church-lady: Apparently. and he seems to have the cheerily blithering concept that the entire Clippers national event was managed to the specifications of the simply hordes of wealthy African Americans controlling all media platforms.

  84. 84.

    shelley

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate:
    I’m sure everybody has their favorites, but can’t believe they left out the beginning of Shirley Jackson’s ‘Haunting Of Hill House.’

    “”No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.”

  87. 87.

    Schlemizel

    @CONGRATULATIONS!:
    I blame the damn statue of liberty – should have said “Send us your smart, your energetic, your competent few” Keep the damn teaming masses to yourself!

  88. 88.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @Ben Cisco: Don’t waste your breath, because I think he’s being obtuse on purpose; I think he knows damned well that the ugly truth behind the Sterling controversy is similar to what happened with Paula Dean some time ago. The real problem isn’t what these bigots said but what they did. Yeah, Paula Dean saying “nigger” is bad, but paying her African-American employees less money than her white employees is worse. Donald Sterling saying racist nonsense about people of color is bad, but being a slumlord who blatantly discriminated against his tenants is worse. But O.K., let’s Blame The Victims, right?

  90. 90.

    Belafon

    @Schlemizel: If I understand my history correctly, it’s those that snuck in before we put up the sign that have been causing us problems: Religious fanatics that landed in the North, aristocrat wannabes in the South.

  92. 92.

    Mnemosyne

    @Fuzzy:

    This may come as a shock, but I didn’t pay close attention to the Berlusconi scandal even though I’m Italian-American. I guess I probably should have, since according to you I should pay more attention to what’s going on in the country or continent that my ancestors came from than to my day-to-day job.

  93. 93.

    opiejeanne

    Riding herd on a bunch of landscaper’s guys, he’s not here. They just cut down a dying tree and we had to make the guy with the chainsaw put on safety glasses. D’oh!

  94. 94.

    Schlemizel

    @Belafon:
    Well, there you go being all realistic all over my smart ass attempt at humor – thanks a whole bunch! Maybe we can start a different pissing contest since there are people here today intent on that one thing alone.

    separate issue:
    I grew up as a Protestant in a very Catholic neighborhood and understand first hand how much the various branches of Christianity love and respect each other. Its only a matter of time if the “threat” of atheism were to be removed until these fuckers would be at each others throats like the 16th century all over again.

  95. 95.

    Mnemosyne

    @rikyrah:

    Phew! I have to admit, I was wondering what would end up happening with that poor guy. It seemed really unfair to punish him when the state is the one that screwed up in the first place.

  98. 98.

    scav

    @Mnemosyne: Forget merely Burlesque-oni, you have to be paying laser sharp exclusive focus to all the issues on the entire continent, because the Ashanti, the Igbo, the Fulani, the Yoruba, the Zulu, the Hausa, they all just blur together like the Danes and the Corsicans.

  99. 99.

    Belafon

    @Schlemizel: I’m going to bring up history again and agree with you: It was the Baptists who agreed with Jefferson on the separation of church and state because they knew they would lose any contest between the denominations. It’s this failure to remember even this minimal amount of history by the voters that annoys me.

    As for your first comment, I was just trying to be funny as well.

  100. 100.

    catclub

    @Belafon: Another axis on which there are two kinds of people:
    People who, after being oppressed, decide to oppress others, and those who don’t.

  102. 102.

    Mnemosyne

    @scav:

    Yes, it’s true: since my ancestry is (as far as I know) all European, I should be following events in Europe much more closely than events that directly affect my job. How dare those Clippers players get upset at the actions of their team’s owner when there are bad things happening in Africa!

  103. 103.

    D58826

    @Schlemizel: It was the same in my neighborhood, I was the only protestant kid. There was nothing overt but I was still the odd man out. I went to public school and they went to parochial school so I’m not sure how much was specifically religious and how much different schools. I did learn that these guys lived in fear of the nun and her ruler. I also remember the cultural earthquake when the diocese hired the first lay teacher.

  104. 104.

    nellcote

    @Elizabelle:

    NYMagazine: Can CBS Afford to take Lara Logan Back?

    At the request of CBS, Lexus/Nexus has deleted the transcript to the Logan BENGAZI!!! story so I guess it never happened.

  106. 106.

    Schlemizel

    @D58826:
    It was overt in my neighborhood. I got beaten up a few times on the way home from Sunday school & was told I was bound for Hell by more than a couple of my friends growing up. Vat-II didn’t really change that as far as I could see.

  107. 107.

    Roger Moore

    @catclub:
    I think you’ll find that axis closely aligns with the axis of people with and without empathy. People with empathy think about the feelings of the people who they might oppress and decide not to because they understand the pain of being oppressed themselves. People without empathy decide that it’s finally their turn to do the dishing instead of the taking and simply don’t think about the other guy at all.

  108. 108.

    Elizabelle

    @nellcote:

    Saw that, and the action does not seem ethical. The transcript should stand, with a correction that CBS has disavowed it. On every page, if necessary.

    It is a report that CBS aired, accurate or not.

  109. 109.

    nellcote

    @Elizabelle:

    Saw that, and the action does not seem ethical

    I’m actually quite shocked. My understanding was that Lexus/Nexus was in effect an archive of record. Guess not.

  110. 110.

    Bill Arnold

    The internets have been talking about THE RULES OF THE NEW ARISTOCRACY today. Snippet:

    We are the New Aristocracy because we were born into it. We got our money the old fashioned, Medieval way: our parents gave it to us. We were born into the wealth that we stole from you and your family over the last fifty years. You were not born into anything other than poverty and struggle. You will never be us. You will never have our advantages. And we like it that way.

    We like that you peer through the bars of your cage to all that we have. We like that you think you can have it yourself one day. Because that illusion keeps you on our side. But you will never have those things. We’ve made sure of that. Because what you’re looking at is ours, and we do not share.

  111. 111.

    scav

    @Mnemosyne: Actually, the point was that your actual heritage doesn’t matter. The tendency to lump Africa into a single block, equivalent to a European nation-state was more the issue. The insistence that we have to be obsessively aware of affairs in areas our ancestors left generations ago, when most Americans can barely locate all the states in the US, let alone countries in the world, is additional stupidity. To winkle out a single (well, two) grains of concrete idiocy from the larger brain-slump.

  112. 112.

    Elizabelle

    @nellcote:

    CBS is a publicly traded company, right? Maybe that could be useful.

    I hope they get slapped by whatever “media watchdogs” we have, though.

  113. 113.

    Gin & Tonic

    The brave anti-fascists in Donetsk taking a hostage, blindfolded, today. He’s a municipal firefighter. Because taking firefighters hostage is … well, who the fuck knows?

    And they hate being called “separatists.” Yet they are flying the Russian flag, because, well, who the fuck knows?

  114. 114.

    Roger Moore

    @Gin & Tonic:

    And they hate being called “separatists.” Yet they are flying the Russian flag, because, well, who the fuck knows?

    It’s a sign of cultural affinity, kind of like Southerners flying the Confederate battle flag. Sure, you and I look at it and see it as a sign of rebellion and hatred, but they see it as a way of bragging about their cultural heritage.

  115. 115.

    opiejeanne

    @Villago Delenda Est: The United Methodists aren’t considered Real Christians by these people, nor are any of the other mainline Protestant churches. I’ve had them tell me that to my face.

    Then again, I had a neighbor who thought Catholics weren’t Christians, and she was a Catholic. She just didn’t know or understand the term “Protestant”.

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