Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Everybody saw this coming.

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

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Joe Lieberman disappointingly reemerged to remind us that he’s still alive.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Let there be snark.

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

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

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Not all heroes wear capes.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Wednesday Evening Open Thread: It’s Always Projection

Wednesday Evening Open Thread: It’s Always Projection

by | 205 Comments

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And sex, Weigel — don’t forget the sex! Guess we’re just not being invited to the right parties. Suzy Khimm reports for MSNBC:

What do conservatives think of liberals today?

Here’s the view from the Heritage Foundation: Liberalism creates self-indulgent, licentious hedonists willing to cede every other kind of freedom to an increasingly authoritarian government.

“Give up your economic freedom, give up your political freedom, and you will be rewarded with license,” said Heritage’s David Azerrad, describing the reigning philosophy of the left. “It’s all sex all the time. It’s not just the sex itself—it’s the permission to indulge.”…

At the Tuesday’s event, a curious portrait of modern-day liberalism emerged. Liberalism meant Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Gawker (for wanting to punish climate change deniers), Senate Democrats (for wanting to undo Citizens United), writer Matt Yglesias (for wanting to eliminate summer vacations), the term “mansplaining” (for being a symptom of P.C. extremism), and Rolling Stone magazine (for giving voice to far-left writers in “the most frivolous consumer product in the history of frivolous consumer products,” per Williamson).

But more than anything, the panelists stressed, liberalism is an idea, and a deadly one at that: a Janus-faced monster of moral relativism and authoritarianism…

Given liberals’ fixation with pleasure, “I fear the next great frontier for the left will be trying to lower the age of consent,” said Azerrad, head of Heritage’s center for principles and politics…

(Only for voting rights, Mr. Azerrad!)

***********
And just as Rosh Hashanah starts, too! (Shana Tova, BJ villagers!)

Apart from celebrating, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

Reader Interactions

205Comments

  1. 1.

    shelley

    beralism creates self-indulgent, licentious hedonists willing t

    Damn, I wish!

    Uh, and since when does giving up all your freedoms lead to license?

  2. 2.

    Corner Stone

    “It’s all sex all the time. It’s not just the sex itself—it’s the permission to indulge.”…

    I’m just speechless. At this point the closest I get to hedonism is a fourth strip of bacon on my homemade burger.
    .
    .
    ***sobs gently***

  3. 3.

    beltane

    It would seem that conservatives value only those types of freedoms that having nothing to do with being free.

  4. 4.

    Corner Stone

    Given liberals’ fixation with pleasure, “I fear the next great frontier for the left will be trying to lower the age of consent,” said Azerrad,

    Now that is true projection. I’m only surprised he didn’t throw in the family doberman or something equally as baffling as an example.

  5. 5.

    Violet

    “I fear the next great frontier for the left will be trying to lower the age of consent,”

    I thought they were most worried about people being able to marry farm animals. I just can’t keep up.

  6. 6.

    beltane

    Commenting at this place is about as close as it gets to an orgy in my boring middle-aged, married life.

  7. 7.

    dmsilev

    @Corner Stone: His statement can be understood better if you insert the word ‘gay’ before each instance of ‘sex’, and then remember it’s all about projection and sublimated desires.

  9. 9.

    Violet

    “It’s all sex all the time. It’s not just the sex itself—it’s the permission to indulge.”…

    I guess that explains my the ice cream in my freezer. Such is the life of one who indulges.

  12. 12.

    Corner Stone

    @dmsilev: Hmmm…

    It’s all gay sex all the time. It’s not just the gay sex itself—it’s the permission to indulge in gay sex.

    SonOfABit…
    You ain’t never lied, friend.

  14. 14.

    Corner Stone

    Col. Lawrence Wilkerson is just flat out fucking dropping it like it’s hot on Chris Hayes MSNBC right now.

  15. 15.

    hildebrand

    Took my son up to the University of Chicago over the weekend. He is the first to leave the nest, so his Mom and I are feeling both incredibly excited for this next stage in his life, and incredibly sad because we will miss him. I was pretty well under control until his little sister (12 yrs old), just before all the students walk through the Hull Gate on campus (and into the raucous crowd of students welcoming them), whilst the parents and siblings are shunted off to a reception with plenty of food and wine, hugged him and started to cry – then we all lost it.

    That said, it is a great school and we are thrilled that he found a place that seems to fit him so completely.

  16. 16.

    Corner Stone

    @beltane:

    Commenting at this place is about as close as it gets to an orgy in my boring middle-aged, married life.

    I..uhhh…I mean…

    Botsplainer, is this place anything like an orgy?

  18. 18.

    Karen in GA

    …It’s all sex all the time…

    Yep, projection.

    If only the cheerleaders in high school could have thrown these guys a pity fuck or two, the world would be a much better place now.

  22. 22.

    MomSense

    Had to work late tonight and I just came home to find my dog in rough shape. The boys are camped out with him on the floor. He won’t move, stopped eating, will barely touch his water and his breathing is really labored. Damn. We are still processing/grieving/worrying about our cat that has been gone for two weeks. He just turned 15.

    One of the seven great dogs in the world.

    ETA: quote from Dean Spanley

  24. 24.

    Corner Stone

    @Karen in GA:

    If only the cheerleaders in high school could have thrown these guys a pity fuck or two, the world would be a much better place now.

    It wasn’t difficult to reach a sexual relationship with another person in high school, IMO.

  27. 27.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @Karen in GA: Why do you hate high school cheerleaders?

    @Corner Stone:

    Botsplainer, is this place anything like an orgy?

    People have been known to say that they were not wearing pants. FTR, I am wearing pants.

  28. 28.

    JustRuss

    Apparently NetRoots Nation is a lot more fun than I’ve been led to believe. Secret’s out, I’m reserving my spot today!

  33. 33.

    PIGL

    @Karen in GA: I’m pretty sure there’s reasons why that never happened. That much pity will never be tendered by a human heart. Some things may not be pronounced.

  36. 36.

    Woodrowfan

    FWIW, when the age of consent was lowered in the late 19th/early 20th centuries it was a Progressive reform and the opposition generally came from conservatives….

  37. 37.

    Deecarda

    Damn, I guess I need to get more liberal so I can enjoy some licentious sex. And by the way, I never received my check from George Soros.

  39. 39.

    Corner Stone

    @Belafon:

    Part of the nerd stereotype is sexual frustration.

    Wait a second…I thought Revenge of The Nerds informed us that nerds spent all their time thinking about sex. And somehow became awesome at awkwardly rapish cunnilingus.
    I mean, that was essentially non-consensual sex, right?

  40. 40.

    Suffern ACE

    I do have to wonder what career David Weigel switched to after the news. I’ll go with stunt double or maybe hobo.

  49. 49.

    nancydarling

    Let’s take up a collection and buy David Azzerad a Fleshlight. (Thanks to AnneLaurie, I can’t get that image out of my mind!)

    And where can I find me some of this hedonistic sex?

  51. 51.

    Comrade Dread

    I know I support a more robust safety net, deep DoD budget cuts, universal health care, rebuilding our infrastructure, reducing income equality, addressing racism and sexism, and fully funding public education from Pre-K through college not out of the belief that such things would help the country and are consistent with the teachings of Jesus in the gospel, but because I want more sex and nothing gets women hotter than an in-depth discussion of socio-economics and its impact on the American poor and middle classes.

    “I fear the next great frontier for the left will be trying to lower the age of consent,”

    No, I’m pretty sure that would be the next great frontier for the conservative Catholic bishops, retroactively so all the priests they shuffled around so they could keep raping children won’t keep coming back to bite them in the wallet.

  52. 52.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @MomSense: My thoughts are with you. Just over seven years since I came home and found my old lab the same way. I still think of him pretty much every day.

  56. 56.

    Biscuits

    @hildebrand:
    Been there, done that! When my oldest moved out I could not believe how proud, sad, and empty I felt, simultaneously. I cried for the whole day. Now that he’s been gone for two years, I am amazed at the man he’s become. All growed up and responsible and decent. Hang in there, it gets easier.

  58. 58.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @BillinGlendaleCA: In my Father’s cheese shop are many wheels: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a wedge for you.

    ETA: Bucky 14:2 KJV

    ETAA: It’s Cheddar.

    /Hermione Granger voice

  59. 59.

    raven

    We just came from visiting our friend whose wife died last night. She’s been in a battle with brain cancer for three years and it finally got the best of her. Hug thems that’s near you.

  62. 62.

    Corner Stone

    @Botsplainer: All the dirty shit you post here and combining bacon and ground beef is what gets your metaphorical goat?
    I guess to each his own and all that but damn.

  65. 65.

    Corner Stone

    Speaking of goat. I will gnaw the fuck out of some goat.
    Hmmm…that sounds more Kaus-esque than I intended.

  69. 69.

    PurpleGirl

    @raven: Sorry for your friend. That’s a hard fight (but then all cancer is a hard fight). A very close college pal (called her my weird twin since we shared our birthday) fought breast cancer for several years but it spread to her lungs and brain and it was the brain that finally did her in.

  72. 72.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Speaking of WI, internet headlines I’m not clicking on suggest Willard and the Lady Ann are campaigning for Little Scottie. In a state Obama won by seven points (Yeah, yeah, I know, mid-term electorate. Still seems like an odd choice).

  74. 74.

    Botsplainer

    @efgoldman:

    If one is to put pork product to burger, let it be a ratio of 1:3 chorizo.

    Cheese should be cheddar, smoked Gouda, provolone or Gorgonzola.

    Onion should be red, mustard stone ground. Pickle, dill. Mayo, Hellman’s.

    Lettuce should be romaine.

  76. 76.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @Baud: If he is the guy I am thinking of, it was actually my brother who did it. Jim, Foolish Literalist shouldn’t have pushed me because when I took a step back and fell over the boxes stacked behind me, the kid just pounced on him like a hockey goon.

  77. 77.

    Botsplainer

    @Corner Stone:

    It just doesn’t work for me. Tried over and over again. I mean, I can eat half a package of bacon or a half pound burger and love the hell out of them, but together? Bleh

  82. 82.

    jl

    OK, great, if the reactionaries want to go that route, I guess we’ll see how that works for them

    Donner Party Conservatism: ruthless struggle for survival in the frozen icy wastes of a cruel and vengeful human society, ‘men eating men’ (OK, no jokes people, this is serious) as Jefferson said about the ruthless crony capitalism of pre-revolutionary France.

    Ant-Donner Party Liberalism: (Edit: safe and considerate) sex, booze, legal Mary Jane, health insurance and student loans at reasonable rates, consumer protection laws and regs to keep Wall Street wolves from cleaning out our bank accounts.

    If they carry through on this, we should send them some money. Let’s get that ad campaign started in time for the midterms.

  85. 85.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @Baud: True story. Some meathead tried to pick a fight with me in a bar. The rest happened as described. I was a regular at the bar; my brother and I got to stay – the other guy was told to take a permanent hike or the cops would be called. My younger brother has an instinctive loyalty thing.

  86. 86.

    Schlemazel

    @Botsplainer:
    I love goat. Best we ever had was in some little mom & pop place on the Texas border. It had been barbequed over mesquite and it was moist & chard and tender & delicious. Great food.

  93. 93.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    I finished the revisions to the novel. Now it’s on the shelf until after the funds are raised. I’m going to spend a couple of days just reading, interrupted for any work on the promotional materials and maybe to update my resume.

  95. 95.

    Cacti

    H.L. Mencken’s definition of Puritanism is interchangeable with the philosophy of the American right wing:

    “The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”

    For conservatives, life is to be endured, not enjoyed, and those enjoying themselves too much need to be punished in this life and thrown into a lake of fire for eternity.

  100. 100.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @Schlemazel: There is at least one decent dive bar in any town in Wisconsin. And as long as we are on the Upper Midwest thing, I something that looked like the Christian fish on a car today, but inside the fish were the letters lutefisk.

  101. 101.

    beltane

    @Cacti: They do feel it is acceptable to derive pleasure from greed and avarice but that’s about it. The thought of non-wealthy people experiencing pleasure from anything at all is too much for their miserable little souls to tolerate.

  102. 102.

    danielx

    If anyone can PUH-LEEZE let me know where all this continuous liberal fucking – total bacchanalia! – is happening, I’d be very apprreciative.

    @Corner Stone:

    It wasn’t difficult to reach a sexual relationship with another person in high school, IMO.

    Unless you were a complete doucherocket*, as so many Heritage Foundation people appear to be. I knew people who were jerks in high school who have improved with age, the converse appears to be true with these folks.

    These people seem to be afflicted by Mencken’s definition of Puritanism: the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy – or i this case, getting some in ways not approved by the Heritage Foundation, which wouldn’t appear to require a lot of heavy breathing – er, heavy lifting, lifting!

    *Or had the misfortune to attend a Jesuit prep school before it went co-ed. Took some effort to meet girls, let alone form relationships.

  105. 105.

    beltane

    @aimai: I am under the impression that the age of consent for statutory rape purposes was much lower than it is today while the age at which one became an adult under the law was usually 21 instead of 18.

  106. 106.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @danielx:

    If anyone can PUH-LEEZE let me know where all this continuous liberal fucking – total bacchanalia! – is happening, I’d be very apprreciative.

    I’d point you towards Provincetown, but it’s after Labor Day. Try the French Quarter.

  108. 108.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @Schlemazel: In Door County, they don’t tell folks from out of state where the good dive bars are. It’s a form of self preservation.

  109. 109.

    danielx

    @JustRuss:

    You never know, from what I’ve heard CPAC is a vast sea of young cons away from home and getting their freak on in a serious way. Just what constitutes getting your freak on for a young conservative is a topic upon which I would rather not speculate; the mental images would make me afraid to go to sleep at night.

  111. 111.

    Corner Stone

    @danielx:

    If anyone can PUH-LEEZE let me know where all this continuous liberal fucking – total bacchanalia! – is happening, I’d be very apprreciative

    Sorry. I had to leave at some point. It got to be too much like eating applewood smoked bacon on my burgers with fresh muzz slices.
    Can someone point me to the goat roast?

  112. 112.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @danielx: Just the mention of it will make me drink until I can’t see. Damn you, I have things to do tomorrow.

  116. 116.

    Jay C

    “Give up your economic freedom, give up your political freedom, and you will be rewarded with license,” said Heritage’s David Azerrad, describing the reigning philosophy of the left. “It’s all sex all the time. It’s not just the sex itself—it’s the permission to indulge.”…

    Projection? This example makes IMAX seem like a keyhole-peep!

    About the only rejoinder to this idiocy is the obvious one: “Don’t they WISH….?”

  118. 118.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @MomSense: I’m so, so, sorry. Which is no help, I recognize, but I do feel for your family and the dear doggie.

  119. 119.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    There’s volleyball on the TV here. Can anyone tell me the significance of one player on each team wearing a different colored jersey? Is it just the team captain or is there some difference in how they play?

  124. 124.

    Deecarda

    @Schlemazel: I owned a dive bar in NE PA years ago & a patron once told me the greatness of my dive bar was due to the curtains. I had always thought the secret to our success was the basement storeroom where the lingering haze of every joint burned over the years could still produce a contact buzz.

  126. 126.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    And the Gophers escape vs. Ohio State.

    Man, the Big 10 and the Pac 12 dominate the women’s volleyball rankings.

  127. 127.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @raven: Sorry to hear about your friends. You’d mentioned that perhaps it was getting toward that time. I hope at least she was comfortable at the end.

    I’m told my friend who recently died from brain cancer was in tremendous pain the final week. WTF? Isn’t there chemistry to address that? But he had a good year and a half before it all fell apart. He won a grand prix in May, and then died in early August.

  128. 128.

    trollhattan

    Given liberals’ fixation with pleasure, “I fear the next great frontier for the left will be trying to lower the age of consent,” said Azerrad, head of Heritage’s center for principles and politics…

    Yeah, I’m not seeing it.

  129. 129.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @Deecarda: There is no way to define what makes a good dive bar. Each one has its own chemical composition. OTOH, a combination of The Clash, Hank Williams, and Sam & Dave on the jukebox is a good sign in a city.

  130. 130.

    hildebrand

    @Biscuits: My thanks. I know he is going to do exceptionally well – he is a terrific kid, empathetic, respectful, has great study habits, and is about as delightfully engaging a human being as any soon-to-be-physicist could possibly be. I will miss him constantly tinkering in the garage with various projects (he likes engineering, too, thus we often had very interesting things going on out there), and all of the other little things that your kids do that make them so delightful to have around.

    Sending them off to college really is a weird admixture of joy and loss. Haven’t cried this much since my Mom died, and he just went off to college. I mean honestly, he will be back at Christmas break – human beings a wonderfully strange.

  134. 134.

    Culture of Truth

    Well I’m a liberal and I don’t follow any of those people. Although I met RFK once and many years later his boat almost pitched my kayak in the water.

  135. 135.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @hildebrand: My mom generally cries at funerals and weddings. I am her elder child. She cried every time I left for college. Dropping me off. Going back after T-giving my freshman year. And so on. Until graduation. The years later, after I served in the army, she did the same thing every time I left for law school. I could be that amazing, or it could a thing parents do.

  139. 139.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Yup, always projection. These fuckwits are completely obessed with the sex lives others have that they do not.

    This Azerrad twit needs, very badly, to be staked in the nude to a fire ant hill and liberally covered in honey.

  143. 143.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @Deecarda: That works. The best dive bar (totally subjective) I was ever in was in Davos (yeah, the Davos). I went there to ski, and in the evening found myself in a club where the the cheapest drink was US Bud for $8 (this was 1991). My buddy and I had one Bud each and left. We stumbled across a bar that was playing Radar Love and walked in. It was the bar where the ski bums who worked the lifts, etc. drank, and it was seriously fun.

  144. 144.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @danielx: The DC hookers hate those events, because it brings out the strange kinksters.

    They’d rather deal with liberals who are looking for conventional sex with a different partner than the diapers and leather mask crowd.

  146. 146.

    jl

    @Villago Delenda Est: Well, from the CPAC point of view that is not really sex, that is ‘boys being boys’, c’mom dude, harmless frat party stuff. What sex? Anybody gets hurt or bent of shape, that not bad dirty sex, that is the chick’s fault. What sex?

  147. 147.

    Deecarda

    @danielx: Luckily they didn’t come knockin too often, when. The inevitable fights at the pool table were usually solved with the trusty Louisville slugger.

  148. 148.

    aimai

    @beltane: I just read a long piece about it–the age of consent (in the sense of statutory rape) was as low as 10 for centuries but not much older for lawful marriage (of females) for the same period. In the late 1800’s in a progressive rebuke to child prostitution the age of consent in some places (UK and parts of the US) was raised as high as 18 and then dipped down again with changing attitudes towards teenagers and sexuality to 16. Its bounced around in terms of legal definition. But in general I don’t think its correct to say that “progressives” lowered it as though progressives were in favor of sex for children. Its that ideas about maturity, sexuality, and freedom have been in flux and that progressives attempted (where they could) to decriminalize sexual behavior for girls as ideas about female autonomy and choice became current. Something to think about is that where girls are sexually active but the law still finds them to be minors the punishment meted out to *the girls* for sexual activity can be quite harsh, let alone the punishment meted out to their boyfriends.

  151. 151.

    Jasmine Bleach

    @Schlemazel:

    No I meant the land of Ed Gein, Scott Walker, bad beer (Miller, Schiltz and Old Milwaukee), commercially produced cheddar cheese and several other sins against humanity.

    Funny. I thought Old Milwaukee was never actually produced in Wisconsin. I though it was Miller, Schlitz, and Pabst Blue Ribbon.

    But I could be completely wrong. Off to check Wiki . . .

  156. 156.

    Jasmine Bleach

    Yeah, Wiki wasn’t all that helpful. The big four breweries in Milwaukee were Miller, Schlitz, Pabst, and Blatz.

    Old Milwaukee is a part of Pabst, but Pabst also has breweries in other cities (Detroit, etc.), and for some reason I think I’ve heard that Old Milwaukee was never actually produced in Milwaukee–which always struck me as a bit strange.

    Only Miller remains in Milwaukee.

  157. 157.

    skerry

    Just got a call from the 17 year old. She and 2 friends were at a concert in DC (no school tomorrow). One girl was taken to ER for undisclosed reasons. My kid is too upset to hold a reasonable conversation. Just tried to settle her down so she could make the drive to the hospital. The other friend rode in the ambulance. So my child is driving around DC at 11 pm by herself.

    I am a mess. Thanking FSM that the car has GPS and praying she doesn’t get lost.

    Other kid’s parents are in route.

  158. 158.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @Deecarda: The ski bums weren’t locals; they were seasonals. The point is finding a way of avoiding the places that cater to tourists. Even if you are a tourist, you can be accepted as a visitor if you play your cards right.

  160. 160.

    Mike J

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):

    My buddy and I had one Bud each and left. We stumbled across a bar that was playing Radar Love and walked in. It was the bar where the ski bums who worked the lifts, etc. drank, and it was seriously fun.

    My diviest bar: Soho, London. Back room of a mini-cab stand, the room where the drivers hang out and drink/smoke while waiting on a fare. The very friendly drivers passed me a spliff the size of my arm.

    ( I did not wake up in a Soho doorway, a policeman knew my name.)

  162. 162.

    Ruckus

    @MomSense:
    My cocker Bud, had all the same symptoms, other than labored breathing-it was a little shallower but not real labored and I took him to the vet. He had picked up a liver infection from something he had eaten on our nightly walk. There was no way I could get anything out of his mouth when he decided to eat, so whatever it was….
    Anyway the vet gave him an IV to rehydrate him and some antibiotics for the infection(she said his liver function was down to about 15%) Took a couple of days that he wouldn’t eat, but then he came back and would eat the bland chicken/rice meals that the vet told me to make him. That was supposed to last a week, but by the third day he wanted his regular food and seemed his old self.
    Hope yours is something similar that can be fixed, good luck with him.

  163. 163.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @Mike J: Yeah, London gypsy cabs can end you someplace interesting, I had a friend with whom I went with to Brixton (1984) in a mini-cab because he decided he wanted to find opium. No one died. No one actually bought opium. We got home safely.

  166. 166.

    R. Johnston

    Here’s the view from the Heritage Foundation: Liberalism creates self-indulgent, licentious hedonists willing to cede every other kind of freedom to an increasingly authoritarian government.

    Worst. Case. Of. Projection. Ever.

    Fuck the Heritage Foundation up a nostril with a bulldozer.

  170. 170.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @Deecarda: Believe me; it was for the best. I am a libertine, so if i try to put the brakes on for someone, it was a bit out of control.

  171. 171.

    trollhattan

    @Suffern ACE:
    For that matter, I could see Jerry trying to raise ours while Kansas dropped theirs to 14, because, Sam Brownback, arglebargle……

    Have these assholes (Republicans, but you knew that) noticed the vast drop in the teen pregnancy rate?

  174. 174.

    Suzanne

    If being liberal was all about more fucking, more people would be liberals.

    HEY. THAT SHOULD BE OUR RECRUITMENT TECHNIQUE.

    Liberals get laid. TM!

  175. 175.

    skerry

    @Deecarda: @Karen in GA:
    I am breathing easier. This has been a stressful week. Oldest daughter mugged at knifepoint Sunday night in Baltimore – no physical injuries, emotionally shaken.

    I just spoke with the middle one who lives in NYC/Brooklyn and told her that she is not allowed to have any drama this week. I can’t take it.

    And where is all this liberal sex? I’m in the suburbs and, at this point, unwilling to head into the city. I may start drinking again.

  177. 177.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    Nine days to hockey season and I now have my bus reservation to and from Madison in October.

  178. 178.

    fleeting expletive

    Late to the thread, but here’s a little update to my best friend’s saga with her horrible boyfriend and the consequences. (Background–my bed friend for more than 60 years, got herself involved with a rounder who lives in VA and is wealthy, has wife and ++girlfriends. Gave her herpes, called cops on her, she spent 3 days in a mental institution, and lord nows what else.

    Her apartment complex wants to evict her. She lives in a nice, sprawling few-story complex common in these parts. Beautiful place, subsidized from an unknown agency. She pays 450 for a really sweet place. (I”ve only been there once, I’m kinda disabled and it took three of us to get me upstairs.
    Management wants to evict her. YOU HAD A MAN stay with you days On End, They have a rule about guests–no more than 9 days. He was there 3 days. So now there’s a complaint, unsubstantiated about noise. She and her 4 day houseguest, a woman from her AA group (3 months?) us staying with her for less than 9 days, and they were talking outside. My friend said they were not loud, in fact, she often had a hard time hearing her.

    So, This asshole has cost her herpes, being an adulteress (that’s not me, that’s a friend whom I don’t much care for), 4 days of her life in an institution, untold dollars from that, the company of her grandchildren, and maybe her home. Gawd, I hope he doesn’t have her social security number.

  182. 182.

    Tree With Water

    Not all Americans mock God, Laurie.

    “If it feels good, do it”. That’s a philosophy that [might well have led]l to American troops giving battle to the Viet Cong in the streets of San Francisco, had not Richard Nixon been elected to the presidency.

  184. 184.

    Suffern ACE

    @Jasmine Bleach: G Heileman Brewery, makers of Special Export , Colt 45 and Old Style were a Lacrosse, WI brewer . I used to get old style and old Milwaukee mixed up. Old Milwaukee was a Schlitz beer and would have been manufactured in Milwaukee before the merger in the 80s that sent Schlitz to Indiana.

  185. 185.

    Suzanne

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Yes, I prefer not to witness random people’s junk, as a rule. I have had enough creepers expose themselves at me that I have seen all the penis + scabies that I ever need.

    But COME ON, if it was all orgasms and chocolate chip cookies, we would have a supermajority in the Senate. SO LET’S MAKE IT ALL ORGASMS AND CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES.

  187. 187.

    Suzanne

    On dive bars: when I lived in Tucson, I lived near a famous dive bar called The Buffet. My ex was talking to an oldster, who said that he witnessed a man get killed in front of that bar. With a 2×4. You have to REALLY want to kill someone to kill them with a 2×4. That takes dedication.

  190. 190.

    Deecarda

    @Suzanne: The worst that ever happened in mine was a guy got part of his ear bit off (pre-Tyson). I didn’t make it across the bar in time to break that fight up.

  192. 192.

    fleeting expletive

    I meant her friend who rejected her for being an “adulteress”. I think it may be her new sobriety and her new anti-depressants preventing her from seeing how awful this guy is and was. I guess sobriety does things to people in the early stages. I don’t think she’ll stay with it, she’s got the gene, and she genuinely has always enjoyed being occasionally fucked up. I have not shared more than weed and alcohol with her, but I think she’s told me about lots of other stuff short of heroin.

    But hey, she had a fucked up childhood. “Your parents, they fuck you up”. Don’t we all. Eh, she’s my friend, even when she’s AD and AA, it’ll be all right.

  193. 193.

    jonas

    @Botsplainer: Exactly — low age of consent laws were so that good patriarchal fathers could marry their daughters off to a cousin before she lost her virginity to some loser from another clan at the high school prom. What’d that Duck Dynasty guy say, something about marryin’ ’em off before they’re 16 so you don’t have to worry, or something?

  195. 195.

    Chris

    But more than anything, the panelists stressed, liberalism is an idea, and a deadly one at that: a Janus-faced monster of moral relativism and authoritarianism…

    What I find fascinating about “moral relativism” is that most of the time I hear the phrase, what they’re complaining about… is a liberal applying the same standards to both sides of what they’ve decided is a “good guys and bad guys” situation. That torture, killing of civilians, etc isn’t better or more excusable when done by U.S. troops than by the Taliban. That Christian or Jewish fundamentalist/nationalist violence doesn’t deserve any less attention or condemnation than the Muslim kind. That being rich and a Job Creator shouldn’t make you exempt from the kind of laws, regulations and taxes that all the rest of us have to put up with. Etc.

    “Moral relativism” to them means equating the actions of a person they’ve decided is “bad” with the same action committed by person they’ve decided is “good.” It’s the exact opposite of “moral relativism” – applying the same standard all around. To them, that’s a crime, because to them, there are no good and bad actions, just good and bad people.

  196. 196.

    Sherparick

    @beltane: Its the freedom of the slave master that they cherish. The freedom to enrich himself on the labor of others and to bend them to his authority. Really, these people want to go back to 1860.

    Also, Kevin Williamson is just “perfect.” In NRO, he refers to the climate marchers as “hippie filth,” which sounds like a pretty angry, intolerant remark to me. And then at this conference he calls the same people a “hate-filled angry crowd, screaming in rage.” Talk about projection.

    The same with the “authoritarianism” (which basically is about laws prohibiting “job creators” from dumping pollution in the common environment, from stealing their workers wages, from not allowing bankers to plunder their customers, and by being asked to pay taxes to ensure all citizens have a basic dignity, medical care, and subsistence from birth to death). But they certainly want all the authority in the world for Government to sustain the drug war, to lock up dissenters, and to wage war through the National Security State, which is so manly (and of course, being allowed to beat one’s wife and children is another “freedom” they would like to see restored).

  198. 198.

    Sherparick

    @Chris: No, as with most things Conservative, the only time they want to use the word “moral” is about sex, and specifically sex lives of women and non-heterorsexuals. What they call “moral relativism” is society’s retreat from social shaming and suffering that it imposed on women who have sex lives outside of marriage and both men and women who engaged in what they still call “deviancy.” Actually, we liberals are the moralists. First, we take “Thou shall not kill,” “thou shall not lie,” “thou shall steal” far more seriously then our Conservative friends. As regard to “sex,” there is nothing morally relative about it. Relationships should be consensual relationships between adults with the power of the partners in the relationship as equal as possible and see the above line about “thou shall not lie.” Ethically that leaves most of us in monogamous relationships which is perhaps why the marriage rate is higher and the divorce rate lower in blue states.

  200. 200.

    different-church-lady

    @Sherparick:

    No, as with most things Conservative, the only time they want to use the word “moral” is about sex, and specifically sex lives of women and non-heterorsexuals. What they call “moral relativism”…

    Actually, no, as with most things conservative they probably have no idea what the hell “moral relativism” actually means and are just flinging around something they think is a naughty word — like a five year old who just figured out “faggot” gets a reaction out of people, without having any clue about its gender connotations. Basically it’s Palin’s “blood libel” gaffe as a way of life.

  201. 201.

    Lurking Canadian

    @Sherparick: yes. What Chris is describing is what they call “false equivalence”, by which they mean determining the morality of an act based on the act, not the actor.

  202. 202.

    Matt

    Given liberals’ fixation with pleasure, “I fear the next great frontier for the left will be trying to lower the age of consent,” said Azerrad, head of Heritage’s center for principles and politics…

    Says a guy who pals around with the Duck Dynasty assholes, known for advocating that grown men should be cruising MIDDLE SCHOOLS for wives…

  204. 204.

    Woodrowfan

    @aimai: age at which they could have sex legally. Which was 10-14 depending on the state. It was raised in part as an anti-prostitution measure, although it also prevented child brides.

  205. 205.

    cminus

    Wait, I thought we were the buzzkill crowd, trying to make everyone eat healthy food, quit smoking, and stop telling offensive jokes, while tut-tutting at the fun-loving South Park Republicans.

    (Also, aren’t we the ones supporting the right of women to claim “rape!” whenever they have second thoughts about sex which no matter what they say was totally consensual, thus forcing red-blooded white American men to suffer the horrific shame of being accused of a crime, which is absolutely the worst thing that could happen to anyone ever? It seems like this is counterproductive to our long-term goals. Please advise.)

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