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You are here: Home / Music / Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Don’t Be A Moran!

Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Don’t Be A Moran!

by Anne Laurie|  July 16, 20146:08 pm| 120 Comments

This post is in: Music, Open Threads, Assholes

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Shout-out for all our grammar trolls!

Another tidbit of good news, from Dave Weigel:

When a headline informs readers that a “former South Carolina Republican Party” official has made a shocking statement, the answer is always Todd Kincannon. Briefly the executive director of the state party, a designation that is more than enough for HuffPost or Salon hate-reading, Kincannon keeps a hyperactive Twitter schedule… If a liberal site (or a cluster of liberal Twitterers) explodes with outrage, he did his job. “Politainment is the wave of the future,” said Kincannon during one Twitter carnival.

“Said,” past tense. After having one account shut down, and after launching a new one this year, Kincannon built up a fan base of more than 50,000 followers with jokes about having Bowe Bergdahl assassinated (the next attorney general would likely be “a friend” who could pull it off) and with gut-busters like “Why do third world countries let athletes do anything besides mine blood diamonds? Your children are starving and my wife needs earrings!” Then he went silent. In a widely circulated letter to people who’d ordered his new e-book, Kincannon explained that Christmas would not come this year. “In early June, just as I was preparing to send out my book,” he said, “I received an unexpected notice from the South Carolina Office of Disciplinary Counsel that the investigation was going to continue because of comments I made on Twitter regarding a left wing political activist named Col. Morris Davis, a frequent guest on MSNBC.”…

Because I’m a devout Cynic, I’m thinking this translates “Kincannon’s trolling just isn’t getting him enough notice to make it worth the trouble of mining those sub-Stormfront hate sites for his funnies any more, so he’s hoping to go out in a blaze of possibly-profitable public martyrdom”, but that’s just me.

***********
Apart from low humor, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

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Previous Post: « Hard to make plans when it’s impossible to see past your next shift
Next Post: GOP Still Showing Their… Acumen »

Reader Interactions

120Comments

  1. 1.

    Yurpean

    July 16, 2014 at 6:14 pm

    Oh dear – Scott Brown goes running to the toilet to avoid questions on Hobby Lobby:
    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/16/scott-brown-republican-senate-campaign-hobby-lobby-women

  2. 2.

    Villago Delenda Est

    July 16, 2014 at 6:18 pm

    If Kincannon fell off the face of the Earth, that would be a good thing.

  3. 3.

    BGinCHI

    July 16, 2014 at 6:18 pm

    @Yurpean: But he does his best thinking there!

    Until his brains fall out.

  4. 4.

    BGinCHI

    July 16, 2014 at 6:20 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: I admit it. At the beginning of paragraph 2 I was pulling for something bad happening to some of his organs.

  5. 5.

    Villago Delenda Est

    July 16, 2014 at 6:20 pm

    @Yurpean: Brown is your typical GOP coward.

  6. 6.

    MomSense

    July 16, 2014 at 6:20 pm

    That Weird Al song was fantastic!!

  7. 7.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    July 16, 2014 at 6:22 pm

    Kincannon is an attorney; someone very well could have filed a grievance against him with the SC Bar.

  8. 8.

    mdblanche

    July 16, 2014 at 6:23 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: If Kincannon fell into the river, it would be a misfortune. If someone were to rescue him, it would be a calamity.

  9. 9.

    lurker dean

    July 16, 2014 at 6:26 pm

    so sad, even TBOTP couldn’t spin this:

  10. 10.

    Villago Delenda Est

    July 16, 2014 at 6:27 pm

    @MomSense: Agreed!

  11. 11.

    lurker dean

    July 16, 2014 at 6:27 pm

    so sad..

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/07/16/what-happened-when-palestinian-children-were-killed-in-front-of-a-hotel-full-of-journalists/

  12. 12.

    Cervantes

    July 16, 2014 at 6:29 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Not with the Bar in this case but with the state’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel.

  13. 13.

    mdblanche

    July 16, 2014 at 6:31 pm

    @Yurpean: He’s still smarter than his would-be colleague.

  14. 14.

    chelsea530

    July 16, 2014 at 6:31 pm

    Daughter sent this to me earlier. Love it. Good for Weird Al.

    It always amuses me that people who push for English being “the” language are woefully ignorant of its rules.

    Learning another language does help with that.

  15. 15.

    lurker dean

    July 16, 2014 at 6:33 pm

    @lurker dean:

    geez, wp is really f-ing with me today:

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/07/16/what-happened-when-palestinian-children-were-killed-in-front-of-a-hotel-full-of-journalists/

    apologies if this was posted before, didn’t see it..

  16. 16.

    Hungry Joe

    July 16, 2014 at 6:34 pm

    Still celebrating San Diego City Council’s passing a minimum wage ordinance — phasing up to $11.50/hr. in Jan. 2017, with COL indexing to begin in Jan. 2019. AND five mandated paid sick days a year. It was Cognitive Dissonance Hour Doubleplus, listening to hotel flacks and restaurant owners arguing against both a wage increase and mandated sick days, while insisting that they “love” their staffs.

    One of the first speakers in favor was local hero Bill Walton. He went over his allotted time, after which Council president Todd Gloria announced that if there were no other NBA superstars scheduled to speak, everyone else would be cut off when their time was up. Walton, who had returned to his seat — and who stayed for the entire three-hour meeting, and hung around to join the celebration afterward — rose and said, “I beg forgiveness.” Brought down the house. Class act. He absolutely did not have to be there, yet there he was.

  17. 17.

    burnspbesq

    July 16, 2014 at 6:34 pm

    @Cervantes:

    I assume that Omnes was using “the Bar” as shorthand.

    Whatever the organization is called, if they can punch your ticket you take mail from them seriously.

  18. 18.

    Villago Delenda Est

    July 16, 2014 at 6:36 pm

    @chelsea530

    : Learning another language does help with that.

    Well, it helps with being educated overall.

    Which is why these morans despise any attempt to encourage people to learn a second language…particularly the language of the brown hordes to the south.

  19. 19.

    burnspbesq

    July 16, 2014 at 6:36 pm

    @Hungry Joe:

    Bill’s a whack-job, but he’s really smart (Stanford Law) and his heart is in the right place.

  20. 20.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    July 16, 2014 at 6:37 pm

    @Cervantes: Fair enough. I was too casual with my terminology.

  21. 21.

    MomSense

    July 16, 2014 at 6:38 pm

    Kid just got a new stratocaster and there is much smiling and rejoicing.

  22. 22.

    Villago Delenda Est

    July 16, 2014 at 6:39 pm

    @lurker dean: No problem, LD. It was posted before, but well worth reposting in another thread, so we can see for ourselves the righteous Israeli reaction…killing kids on a beach.

    “But they were about to launch a beach ball into an Israeli neighborhood!”

  23. 23.

    gogol's wife

    July 16, 2014 at 6:39 pm

    @MomSense:

    It was very witty. I didn’t agree with every one of the “crimes” (“I could care less” is an idiom), but I think I should show it to my students.

  24. 24.

    gogol's wife

    July 16, 2014 at 6:41 pm

    @MomSense:

    And I watched the “Tacky” song that Anne Laurie posted but didn’t really get it because I didn’t know the original. Then today in physical therapy they were playing the original, and I cracked up because I was picturing Jack Black.

  25. 25.

    JoyfulA

    July 16, 2014 at 6:41 pm

    @burnspbesq: And the SC Bar is tough! They throw out a lot more lawyers annually than the much bigger state of PA. Here’s hoping Todd’s next. I doubt he has much of a practice anyway.

  26. 26.

    SatanicPanic

    July 16, 2014 at 6:42 pm

    @Hungry Joe: That’s great news!

  27. 27.

    Cervantes

    July 16, 2014 at 6:42 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): No problem, but what I actually meant to do was to confirm the underlying suggestion you made, which is that one or more complaints were, indeed, filed against Kincannon.

  28. 28.

    Cervantes

    July 16, 2014 at 6:43 pm

    @gogol’s wife: Anything can get to be an idiom if we let it fester long enough.

  29. 29.

    Cervantes

    July 16, 2014 at 6:44 pm

    @MomSense: Excellent.

  30. 30.

    Randy P

    July 16, 2014 at 6:45 pm

    @Hungry Joe: California gives me hope for the rest of the country, that even after a Supreme Court that gave us Bush the Lesser and Hobby Lobby, the pendulum can swing the other way. Eventually.

    I may even live to see it.

  31. 31.

    Baud

    July 16, 2014 at 6:45 pm

    @Cervantes:

    Indeed, I think “moran” is now standard English.

  32. 32.

    MomSense

    July 16, 2014 at 6:46 pm

    @gogol’s wife:

    The best part about tacky was the dancing. And bonus points to Weird Al for using “Morans”.

  33. 33.

    jacy

    July 16, 2014 at 6:48 pm

    Heading soon to the last rehearsal for my boys in the community theatre production of Big River. The older is Tom Sawyer and the younger is Joe Harper — so they both have lots of lines and the older has a couple of solo songs. Makes me cry every time I watch it and I don’t know if its the source material or the fact that I can’t believe I birthed two children who are so at home in front of a crowd.

  34. 34.

    kc

    July 16, 2014 at 6:52 pm

    @JoyfulA:

    I doubt he has much of a practice anyway.

    You wouldn’t think so, but he alleges in his federal court complaint that his solo practice has already made $1 million in 2014.

  35. 35.

    Amir Khalid

    July 16, 2014 at 6:52 pm

    Weird Al’s latest parody video is out: If I’m not mistaken, he spends the latter half of the video playing Bob in Portland.

  36. 36.

    Schlemizel

    July 16, 2014 at 6:53 pm

    I thought today’s release of “Foil” was the best so far. “Tacky” was just OK and “Word Crimes” was decent for his work.

  37. 37.

    coin operated

    July 16, 2014 at 6:53 pm

    Don’t often comment on twitter wars, but Kincannon had to be one of the more noxious ones out there. I, for one, am happy to see that someone or something is capable of reeling this clown in a bit.

  38. 38.

    Hungry Joe

    July 16, 2014 at 6:54 pm

    @burnspbesq: I wouldn’t call Bill Walton a whack job; he’s just a little … out there. (Folk wisdom has it that attending more than 600 Grateful Dead concerts can have that effect.) He also, by his own admission, downed way too many painkillers over the years as a way of dealing with his various near-crippling injuries.

    Anyway, he spent his entire Monday evening downtown, at a City Council meeting, to show support for low-wage workers. To me, that’s a local hero.

  39. 39.

    ranchandsyrup

    July 16, 2014 at 6:55 pm

    @Hungry Joe: I kind of can’t believe it happened. :)

  40. 40.

    Schlemizel

    July 16, 2014 at 6:56 pm

    @Baud:
    I agree but am a purist about “moran” it really pertains to a certain kind of jingoist, political, stupid & not just any moron qualifies.

  41. 41.

    Villago Delenda Est

    July 16, 2014 at 6:57 pm

    @Hungry Joe: He’s a local hero in Portland, too. Walton led the Blazers to an NBA championship.

  42. 42.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    July 16, 2014 at 6:58 pm

    @burnspbesq: We had a local attorney here who had an audit of his trust account (having gone through it it is a bit like being on death row just waiting for the gas chamber), they told him to do a reconciliation about two months after the audit. He refused to do it. They wrote him and told him to do it again. He refused to do it. They wrote to him again and he completely ignored the letter. He was eventually disbarred, not because he had done anything wrong but because he was too damn lazy to submit a reconciliation of his trust account. It was so bloody stupid. He is now working for a furniture store and working part time for a local attorney as a high priced paralegal. There was never any evidence that there was anything wrong with his trust account, but he simply refused to do a comprehensive reconciliation with the bar.

    The last time I was audited I was a penny out and I felt like Bruno De Mali was about to walk me off to the gallows. You don’t fuck with State Bars.

  43. 43.

    mdblanche

    July 16, 2014 at 7:01 pm

    I was watching this totally non-political video when a few seconds in it cut to a commercial… calling for President Obama’s impeachment. The Weeping Cheeto isn’t fooling anybody but himself if he thinks his lawsuit stunt is going to appease his orcish base. All he’s doing is whetting their appetite for the real thing.

  44. 44.

    Bob

    July 16, 2014 at 7:02 pm

    Here is a much better take on usage and grammar – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovi7uQbtKas

  45. 45.

    Just One More Canuck

    July 16, 2014 at 7:11 pm

    @jacy: after the other shit you mentioned before, you sure deserved a moment like that

  46. 46.

    Villago Delenda Est

    July 16, 2014 at 7:16 pm

    @mdblanche: Counsel for the Orcs on line two for you. Something about defamation.

  47. 47.

    Karen in GA

    July 16, 2014 at 7:18 pm

    You live with a dog, you think you know him. But no.

  48. 48.

    Christopher Mathews

    July 16, 2014 at 7:19 pm

    ” … a left wing political activist named Col. Morris Davis …”

    Would that be the former chief prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay? Sort of an odd occupation for a lefty … but I suppose if you stand far enough to the right, everyone looks like a left winger.

  49. 49.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    July 16, 2014 at 7:20 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: Using orcish gives mdblanche just enough room to maneuver.

  50. 50.

    Trollhattan

    July 16, 2014 at 7:27 pm

    @Hungry Joe:
    That’s great!

    May have gone unnoticed that California’s went to $9.00 July 1 as part 1 of a two-step increase to $10.00 in another 18 months.

    Baby steps.

  51. 51.

    The Pale Scot

    July 16, 2014 at 7:27 pm

    A 79-year-old retired minister in Texas killed himself via self-immolation in an effort to protest what he described as lingering racism in his childhood home — his final effort in a career marked by social activism, the Dallas Morning News reported.

    Moore had intended his act to be a grand but selfless gesture in the manner of Buddhist monks who have done the same before him.

    … He expected that his self-immolation would make national news and hoped his message of social justice would be broadcast along with his funeral.

    Moore had intended his act to be a grand but selfless gesture in the manner of Buddhist monks who have done the same before him. But his final act drew little notice. A report in the Grand Saline Sun described him as an elderly man who seemed troubled. An article in the Tyler Morning Telegraph asked if he was a “madman or a martyr.”

    So there are 3 24 hour news networks but not a minute can be spared?

  52. 52.

    mdblanche

    July 16, 2014 at 7:28 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: In his later years JRR Tolkien regretted never depicting any good orcs, leaving the impression it was possible to have an entire race of evil beings. Clearly he never met the Republican base.

  53. 53.

    Trollhattan

    July 16, 2014 at 7:29 pm

    @Christopher Mathews:
    The cognitive dissonance gets thick when wingers lash out at professional soldiers, or murder cops for being cops. No telling whether this will make any difference among the true believers.

  54. 54.

    Hal

    July 16, 2014 at 7:35 pm

    Read my first solid sci-fi novel in years; Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice, and loved it. The basic story is about a former hive mind style AI that controls a massive war ship and hundreds of “ancillary” bodies. Essentially formerly free people who are basically recycled into bodies for the ship to utilize. Many of the view points in the book are from both the ship in orbit and what it sees and hears through it’s many bodies. I was disappointed I was done, but it turns out there are two more books coming. Now I have to figure out what to read next. Basic breakdown from Leckie’s site below:

    On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.

    Breq is both more than she seems and less than she was. Years ago, she was Justice of Toren–a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of corpse soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.

    An act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with only one fragile human body. And only one purpose–to revenge herself on Anaander Mianaai, many-bodied, near-immortal Lord of the Radch.

  55. 55.

    Pogonip

    July 16, 2014 at 7:36 pm

    Has anyone heard the recording of the guy trying to disconnect his cable?

    COMCAST SLAVE: just tell me why you don’t want a zillion channels and Internet at the speed of light. Wouldn’t you like to keep that?

    MR. BARTLEBY: I would prefer not to.

    Repeat ad infinitum. At first it’s funny, but as the call goes on you hear the desperation in the slave’s voice–and he probably is darn near a slave. Very few people do “customer service” if there’s an alternative.

  56. 56.

    The Pale Scot

    July 16, 2014 at 7:43 pm

    @The Pale Scot: Opsss, I thought I block quoted all of that but the last sentence.

  57. 57.

    Pogonip

    July 16, 2014 at 7:46 pm

    @Hal: Saw on another site a few days ago that this book was a loser. Must be one of those love-it-or-hate-it things.

    If you like hive minds, try “The Bees,” by Somebody Paul, which I enjoyed even though there is a huge glaring mistake–oddly so, since the author did seem to know something about bees. If you can get past an egg-laying worker laying a female egg, it’s pretty good.

    If I remember right, there are some ant species where workers can lay female eggs, but Apis mellifera, your common honeybee, can only produce females from fertilized eggs, which leaves egg-laying workers cranking out largely useless males. That’s why beekeepers, and for that matter the bees themselves, get very upset when too many workers start laying–they’ll drone you right out of business.( Any hive will have a few workers laying eggs, which the bees will destroy themselves, but sometimes, even with a good healthy queen, egg-laying among workers spreads like a deadly virus.)

  58. 58.

    WaterGirl

    July 16, 2014 at 7:47 pm

    @Hal: I now have the perfect birthday gift for my friend who loves science fiction. Thank you!

    @Pogonip: Hmm.

    What to do, what to do…

  59. 59.

    dmsilev

    July 16, 2014 at 7:52 pm

    @Pogonip: The irony of that particular call is that the person trying to cancel their cable service is …an AOL executive.

  60. 60.

    Iowa Old Lady

    July 16, 2014 at 7:53 pm

    @Randy P: I hope CA is a harbinger for what’s happening in the rest of the country. For years, I thought CA was ungovernable. Then the Rs managed to drive away enough voters that the Ds got total control, and it turned out the state could be governed just fine. I hope that happens nationally.

  61. 61.

    Karen in GA

    July 16, 2014 at 7:54 pm

    @WaterGirl: I don’t know if zombie-ish stories count as science fiction, but I just read The Girl With All the Gifts. I liked it. A bit of a twist on the usual infected/undead thing.

  62. 62.

    Pogonip

    July 16, 2014 at 7:55 pm

    @dmsilev: No wonder he didn’t lapse into wordless exasperation at the surreal lunacy of the call. He knew what to expect.

  63. 63.

    Mary G

    July 16, 2014 at 7:56 pm

    I think Weird Al is putting out a video a day this week in order to promote the new album. I am looking forward to tomorrow’s.

  64. 64.

    Han

    July 16, 2014 at 7:56 pm

    @jacy: I love that musical. I got to play Tom in a local production a couple decades ago, and I can still sing the music. Even years after, I’d get the occasional request for “Hand for the Hog” at parties. I don’t think I was all that good, but I was enthusiastic…

  65. 65.

    Karen in GA

    July 16, 2014 at 7:58 pm

    @WaterGirl: Or for non-zombie sci-fi, there’s The Gone-Away World.

  66. 66.

    Iowa Old Lady

    July 16, 2014 at 7:58 pm

    American Airlines just managed to maroon my husband in the Dallas-Fort Worth airport overnight. I hate all airlines. They provide about as much service as Greyhound does. They constantly look for ways to make your flight less pleasant. And if you complain, they sick TSA on you.

  67. 67.

    the Conster

    July 16, 2014 at 8:00 pm

    @Karen in GA:

    Hilarious. Well done.

  68. 68.

    nellcote

    July 16, 2014 at 8:00 pm

    special doggys playing fetch

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3q118uhKJM

  69. 69.

    Karen in GA

    July 16, 2014 at 8:03 pm

    @the Conster: Thank you!

  70. 70.

    Mnemosyne

    July 16, 2014 at 8:07 pm

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    Funny how that works — it’s not that the state was ungovernable, it was that the Republicans decided to obstructionist assholes and deliberately grind things to a halt.

    Hopefully the rest of the country will wake up at some point relatively soon. Hopefully.

  71. 71.

    WereBear

    July 16, 2014 at 8:09 pm

    @The Pale Scot: My god.

    There is no further proof needed that they manage the news and don’t let messages they don’t like, out.

    I’m speechless.

  72. 72.

    Hungry Joe

    July 16, 2014 at 8:10 pm

    @Pogonip: Another terrific hive-mind s-f novel: “Serpent’s Reach,” by C.J. Cherryh. Of course, just about everything by Cherryh (can’t speak of her quasi-fantasy stuff, a genre I don’t care for) is first-rate.

  73. 73.

    Hal

    July 16, 2014 at 8:11 pm

    @Pogonip: The reviews are pretty solid. I suppose I can see where it would not be everyone’s cup of tea. There are some sci fi topics I just might not be interested in, but this book I thought was great. It’s also racked up it’s share of awards and nominations.

  74. 74.

    Woodrow/asim Jarvis Hill

    July 16, 2014 at 8:11 pm

    @Hal: I loved Ancillary Justice. To the other comment, I have no idea who disliked it, but it’s won a slew of awards, and rightly so. It’s a break-thru work of science fiction; not just in ideas but in execution.

    Plus, Ann’s blog has been a breath of fresh air — both a fun read, and thoughtful in a number of ways.

  75. 75.

    raven

    July 16, 2014 at 8:15 pm

    If you haven’t seen Muscle Shoals give it a look.

  76. 76.

    Ruviana

    July 16, 2014 at 8:22 pm

    @Karen in GA: So is the cat sleeping on the sofa Jake?

  77. 77.

    Roger Moore

    July 16, 2014 at 8:24 pm

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    For years, I thought CA was ungovernable. Then the Rs managed to drive away enough voters that the Ds got total control, and it turned out the state could be governed just fine.

    We also had a couple of successful ballot initiatives that helped to make the state more governable. The first made it possible to pass a budget with a simple majority rather than a 2/3 majority, which meant the Democrats no longer have to make bad bargains with a few Republicans just to get a budget passed. The other temporarily raised taxes enough to make the state solvent again.

  78. 78.

    NotMax

    July 16, 2014 at 8:25 pm

    So mentioning grammatical oopsies (sans haranguing, sans lecturing) or raising questions when such things make the message or a statement less than clear or subject to misinterpretation is now considered trolling?

    Onions don’t have skins that thin.

  79. 79.

    The Other Chuck

    July 16, 2014 at 8:26 pm

    @Pogonip: Whenever you close an account, any kind of account, you just tell them you’ve already switched. They never bother with trying to keep you then.

  80. 80.

    Hungry Joe

    July 16, 2014 at 8:29 pm

    Okay, I just gotta: Here’s a link to Bill Walton’s (five-minute) testimony to the San Diego City Council in favor of a minimum-wage ordinance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WGdkjDhaIU

  81. 81.

    WereBear

    July 16, 2014 at 8:30 pm

    @WaterGirl: This might help:

    Ann Leckie is an American author and editor of science fiction and fantasy. She is known principally for her 2013 debut novel Ancillary Justice, which has won the Nebula Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and tied for the BSFA Award. Wikipedia

  82. 82.

    Cassidy

    July 16, 2014 at 8:32 pm

    Some phenomenal displays of athleticism
    And talent in Fox Sports 1 if you have it.

  83. 83.

    Iowa Old Lady

    July 16, 2014 at 8:32 pm

    @nellcote: That is so sweet! The poor babies in the carts don’t have much chance against the 4-legged ones though.

  84. 84.

    MomSense

    July 16, 2014 at 8:41 pm

    @raven:

    Loved it!!

  85. 85.

    Karen in GA

    July 16, 2014 at 8:59 pm

    @Ruviana: That’s Phoebe, the World’s Most Affectionate Cat.

    But you’re correct about the reasoning behind Elwood’s name. A friend of ours has a cat named Jake. When Elwood showed up at our back door and finally convinced us to let him move in, my husband suggested naming him Jake, until remembering our friend’s cat. So we named him Elwood instead.

  86. 86.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    July 16, 2014 at 9:02 pm

    Chris Hayes just cited Jerry Brown as a Democrat who might be vulnerable to a challenge from the left. I gotta say, I haven’t followed his tenure closely but… seriously? Dianne Feinstein didn’t draw a primary, but Brown might?

  87. 87.

    WereBear

    July 16, 2014 at 9:07 pm

    To those intrigued, Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice is available on Kindle for $1.99. Went for it.

    And I’ve written on the subject:

    The Hive Mind

  88. 88.

    nellcote

    July 16, 2014 at 9:19 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Jerry Brown as a Democrat who might be vulnerable to a challenge from the left.

    There’s always someone farther to the left in CA. Saying he’s vulnerable to them is laughable. No doubt DiFi had one too and you see how that turned out.

  89. 89.

    J R in WV

    July 16, 2014 at 9:31 pm

    @Karen in GA:

    Extra special funny crazy. Thanks!

  90. 90.

    WaterGirl

    July 16, 2014 at 9:37 pm

    @WereBear: Sold!

    May I ask how your medical stuff is going? Feeling any better? Any progress with an official diagnosis?

    Edit: Surely you can at least park your car in your driveway now?

  91. 91.

    Karen in GA

    July 16, 2014 at 9:40 pm

    @J R in WV: No! Thank you!

  92. 92.

    trollhattan

    July 16, 2014 at 9:41 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    Not the tiniest of chances. I can’t imagine an activist-type lefty being elected to statewide office, or the senate for that matter–we’re just not wired for it. The house or the state legislature, perhaps.

    Jerry’s got this thing. (Can’t actually recall if he’s said he’s running, but he’s running, continued good health allowing.)

  93. 93.

    askew

    July 16, 2014 at 9:45 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Isn’t Brown polling really well? That seems a bit naive on Hayes part.

  94. 94.

    WereBear

    July 16, 2014 at 9:54 pm

    @WaterGirl: Surely you can at least park your car in your driveway now?

    Yes! I sure hope my days of throwing cold cuts across a trench, like some absurdist version of Samurai Delicatessen set during WWI, is over.

    My GP ordered so many tests he set a new hospital record for most blood drawn as an outpatient. While I’m waiting for the results, (I have an appointment three weeks hence,) I have embarked on a new treatment regimen.

    It was invented by a neurosurgeon, for the treatment of disordered hormone regulation. (Endocrinologists think the adrenal glands have only three settings: too much, not enough, and normal. If so, it is the only organ in the body with such rigidly defined capabilities.)

    It involves a giant smoothie breakfast, serious hydration, lots of seafood, and some Defcon One level sleep hygiene; sleep mask, f.lux program on the laptop, and the only illumination after sunset is my Himalayan salt lamp. (I won it at a benefit, but I admit I love it irrationally.) I sit outside at lunch (weather permitting) so the sunlight resets my circadian clock.

    So far, three benefits: it makes me take lunch, so I get a stress break; I do feel a little bit better after only a week and a half of this regimen; and I have developed a mad love of sardines in mustard sauce.

  95. 95.

    Gin & Tonic

    July 16, 2014 at 10:00 pm

    I’m wondering whether this is something the world has been waiting for. I suspect the answer is no.

  96. 96.

    WaterGirl

    July 16, 2014 at 10:03 pm

    @WereBear: I think what I like best about what you wrote is that it feels like you have more energy or you are happier or more hopeful. I’m not quite sure how to put words to it, but it feels like a good thing.

    So glad you have your GP to work with, especially after the asshole specialist. Nice to have a partnership where respect runs both ways!

    You made me google Himalayan salt lamp, dog only knows what kinds of spam I will get now. I had no idea there was such a thing.

  97. 97.

    nellcote

    July 16, 2014 at 10:05 pm

    @askew:

    That seems a bit naive on Hayes part.

    just a little dudebro wishful thinking. he probably likes the idea of chopping up the state too.

  98. 98.

    KS in MA

    July 16, 2014 at 10:13 pm

    @Hungry Joe:

    Good speech! Always liked Walton. Now I like him even more.

  99. 99.

    KS in MA

    July 16, 2014 at 10:22 pm

    @askew:

    Maybe Hayes got Jerry confused with Scott.

  100. 100.

    Another Holocene Human

    July 16, 2014 at 10:28 pm

    @Yurpean: Thought I saw on GOS that he referred to himself and Shaheen as the Massachusetts delegation — ouch.

  101. 101.

    Emma

    July 16, 2014 at 10:33 pm

    @Iowa Old Lady: I nearly got marooned myself yesterday. In DFW. By AA. Though I will admit the woman who solved my problem while I was still in San Antonio was wonderful.

  102. 102.

    Another Holocene Human

    July 16, 2014 at 10:40 pm

    @chelsea530: Yeah, right.

    In French, nobody smacks you with a ruler for saying “It’s me.”

    In German, “good” is an adverb AND and adjective.

    I could go on … anyway, English is kind of ridiculous with fake-on rules to distinguish the exact quality and geographic location of one’s high school education. Only in America could one have a proud, free from colonialist rule democracy where you are mocked for a fool for translating the vernacular to written form. Go ahead and fling that rotten fruit at me for telling the truth–I don’t give a shit. As Jesus once said of the pharisee, the grammar cop already has his (or her) reward.

  103. 103.

    Another Holocene Human

    July 16, 2014 at 10:46 pm

    @Schlemizel: I thought we weren’t supposed to call people “spastic”, that it’s a slur on people with CP. Kind of sensitive on that issue, have a couple of friends with CP.

  104. 104.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    July 16, 2014 at 10:49 pm

    @Another Holocene Human:

    In French, nobody smacks you with a ruler for saying “It’s me.”

    Have you ever made a grammatical error in France? The French will correct you in a heartbeat.

    In German, “good” is an adverb AND and adjective.

    Yeah, German isn’t rule bound.

    Only in America could one have a proud, free from colonialist rule democracy where you are mocked for a fool for translating the vernacular to written form.

    Oh, bullshit. Try it in the UK. Try it in France. Try it in Germany. See what happens.

  105. 105.

    Another Holocene Human

    July 16, 2014 at 10:54 pm

    @Iowa Old Lady: I’d say that’s an insult to Greyhound but that would be a total lie, as Greyhound overbooks as well!

    Air travel today basically is a big bus and the patrons are a crazy and cranky, although business travelers are the nastiest to the crew in my experience. People on holiday sometimes cry but they don’t get as angry and obnoxious as quickly. I feel bad for the flight attendants. They are like train conductors, combo ticket collectors, safety crew, and drink purveyors, but with a lot less authority/respect. It’s probably the traditionally female job plus the shitty uniforms. Amtrak conductors are still dressed like they probably could throw you off a train a la DOGMA. (“No ticket.”)

    The nasty jerks are worse to me than delays. Delays are a given, that’s why I plan for them.

  106. 106.

    Emma

    July 16, 2014 at 10:59 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): And don’t even consider Spain. The Real Academia will stop you pdq.

  107. 107.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    July 16, 2014 at 11:03 pm

    @Emma: I would say it is the same in any language.

    ETA: … or country.

  108. 108.

    Another Holocene Human

    July 16, 2014 at 11:10 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): You’re missing the point. In English we created an artificial rule that pronouns dance around in the nominative case, but this is not in fact the case, hasn’t been true for hundreds of years. Yet a great deal of time is spent in school and after policing vernacular pronoun usage. When was the last time you said “Roger and I” out loud?

    German has rules. Yes, German is both inflected and has a pretty rigid syntax, one which varies just enough from English to give English-speakers headaches. But to Germans it isn’t a bunch of silly rules–the word order is written exactly as they speak! It’s completely transparent, as is the spelling system. Aside from dialectical variants, accents, and contractions, and there are semi-formal ways to write all of these if necessary.

    English has rules of “correctness” that were drawn from the practice of studying Latin in English boarding schools and have little connection to vernacular English in the last 500 years.

    French tends to confine such preening to spelling, preserving word origins in amber to the frustration of millions of French teenagers. English is douchey about spelling, punctuation, AND grammar.

    It’s worse if you take English as a second language. Many programs attempt to teach both “proper” and at the same time somewhat antiquated English which means that along with an accent you’re guaranteed to be completely unintelligible to any English-speakers you may meet. The best ESL people I’ve met learned their English from movies and tv shows. You kind of have to.

  109. 109.

    Another Holocene Human

    July 16, 2014 at 11:12 pm

    @Emma: This is the same country where regional dialects are a focus of political pressure and organizing, so your point–?

  110. 110.

    Lurking Canadian

    July 16, 2014 at 11:22 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):

    Have you ever made a grammatical error in France? The French will correct you in a heartbeat.

    In my experience, they don’t correct you. They just switch to English.

    Except for that one prick in Belgium…

  111. 111.

    Lurking Canadian

    July 16, 2014 at 11:25 pm

    @Mary G: the man is a genius. I thought he would never top “Y-O-D-A”, and then I heard “White and Nerdy”.

  112. 112.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    July 16, 2014 at 11:30 pm

    @Another Holocene Human:

    When was the last time you said “Roger and I” out loud?

    I don’t know anyone named Roger, but that is how I would phrase it. Look, there is colloquial French and academic French. and so on with other languages. English is extraordinarily adaptive. It absorbs words, spellings, and structures from many languages.

    @Another Holocene Human: And regional dialects mean nothing anywhere else? Never heard a Berliner mock a Bavarian for his accent? Or a Viennese mock a Carinthian for hers? Come on.

  113. 113.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    July 16, 2014 at 11:34 pm

    @Lurking Canadian: My experience was the correction and then the switch. I am not going to join into the Belgium jokes. I have done so many that I fear that my next wife will be Belgian and she will find out. I don’t want to start pre-sleeping on the couch.

  114. 114.

    Origuy

    July 17, 2014 at 12:55 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Chris Hayes just cited Jerry Brown as a Democrat who might be vulnerable to a challenge from the left.

    If he said that, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, since California has already had our primary. With the “jungle primary”, the general election is going to be between Brown and Republican Neel Kashkari.

  115. 115.

    Mnemosyne

    July 17, 2014 at 1:40 am

    @Origuy:

    One of my co-workers — almost as strong a Democrat as I am — saw Kashkari’s crazy gun commercial and could not believe that this guy was running for governor. He was not comforted when I pointed out that Kashkari was actually the least insane Republican running.

  116. 116.

    Wally Ballou

    July 17, 2014 at 1:42 am

    It hasn’t been confirmed yet, but there are reports that Johnny Winter has died.

    This is turning into a really shitty month for music fans.

  117. 117.

    Paul in KY

    July 17, 2014 at 9:10 am

    @Hal: Anaander!!!!

    Edit: A n double-a n der spells Anaander (one of his campaign songs, stole it from the Ballards milk people. That’s why he’s such a dick galaxy lord)

  118. 118.

    Bobby Thomson

    July 17, 2014 at 11:00 am

    @gogol’s wife:

    “I could care less” is an idiom

    Only if you’re a moran.

  119. 119.

    Gian

    July 17, 2014 at 12:20 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    Primary already happened and he’s termed out. Or does Chris think brown wants to run for POTUS?

  120. 120.

    Cervantes

    July 18, 2014 at 8:17 am

    @Another Holocene Human:

    When was the last time you said “Roger and I” out loud?

    You and I answer this question differently.

    Which comes as no surprise to you and me, I’m sure.

    (See? It’s not that difficult.)

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