Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Bark louder, little dog.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

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

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Consistently wrong since 2002

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

I really should read my own blog.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

You are here: Home / Politics / Activist Judges! / Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Profiles in Courage

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Profiles in Courage

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Title of the Times article (in case you had any doubt): “GOP Candidates May Benefit From Supreme Court’s Gay Marriage Decision“. Heads Repubs win, tails Dems lose!

Apart from Predictable Politicos Being Predictable, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

Reader Interactions

131Comments

  1. 1.

    PsiFighter37

    Apparently there is news that this super typhoon heading towards Japan could cause large surges at Fukushima and flood the Pacific with trillions(!) of becquerels of radioactive cesium. That sounds really bad, although the estimated surges (26 meters!) sounds way too high – especially since the earthquake that caused the damage had 15-foot tsunamis.

    Other than that – just chilling out on a Tuesday night. I should probably exercise, but still a bit hard to do at the present. Probably work up the courage to do a small bit in 30 minutes or so.

  3. 3.

    PsiFighter37

    @Baud: I think the only election it would have a meaningful impact going forward will be the presidential election…simply don’t think that it’s an issue that is going to move the needle that much on our side.

  6. 6.

    jl

    Speaking of social diseases, interesting that the titans of our failed corporate hack media experiment cannot avoid implicitly editorializing any news by emphasizing what they really (in their heart of hearts) really admire: how to work a con for all its worth.

    Corporate hacks gotta corporate hack.

    I can see why they may be truly offended if you suggest they consciously tilt headlines and space for stories towards the GOP.
    It is just that the two groups are very and precisely aligned in terms of what is admirable in life.

  7. 7.

    Betsy

    “We don’t have to agree with the decision, but as long as we’re not against it we should be okay” ??

    What the hell does that even mean?

    To “not be against something” is to be neutral or in favor of it. To “not agree” is to be neutral or against. I’m still trying to figure out what the hell this quoted person is saying.

    And they want everyone to speak English!

  8. 8.

    max

    Heads Repubs win, tails Dems lose!

    It’s campaign season! …snore…

    Last I heard, the R’s were still trying to get that school prayer decision reversed and that happened before I was born.

    max
    [‘Meantime, we’re supposed to have eclipse and it’s goddamn rainin’. Clear yesterday, probably clear tomorrow. Rain now though because of course it is.’]

  10. 10.

    lamh36

    Just finished watching Finding Your Roots on PBS with Anderson Coooper, Ken Burns and Anna Deveare Smith.

    It really was a great episode.

    For Anderson Cooper, they focused the majority of the show on his paternal side, the Coopers. Who happened to hail form the South (Mississippi via Alabama). You can almost guess what he found, but the circumstances behind one of his relatives deaths made for some damn interesting and surprising television. Cooper found out that he had an ancestor who was a slave owner. He owned 12 slaves. The kicker: the slave owner died, cause of death, he was beat to death by one of his “rebellious” slaves with a farm hoe. Anderson Cooper reaction was classic, at first he just giggled, but it was obvious that it was from delight, it was just from discomfort. Which Anderson Cooper and Henry Louis Gates attributed to the ancestor probably being a horrible owner. Gates later tells you that, not surprisingly, the slave who killed the ancestor was hanged, without a trial.

    Ken Burns story was great as well, not only is Ken Burns a DNA relation to the poet, Robert Burns, but he’s like a cousin 5th removed to none other than Abraham Lincoln. His Southern roots much as Cooper involved Civil War and slave ownership as well.

    Finally Anna Deavere Smith. If you don’t know who she is, google her. You definitely know her face if not her name. Her family’s story, like many stories kinda ended at slavery, and the paper trail only went back as far as the emancipation of slaves where Negros were allowed to be considered as “people” and names. On her another side of her tree, she actually found a free person of color named Basil Biggs. He was her 5th great (?) grandfather. He was a free man of color, who was a vet and married. His story really needs to be read to believe. He essentially helped in a major way to build Gettysburg Cemetery, he was considered the “wealthiest Negro” in Gettysburg and he was a conducter for the Underground railroad!

    I tell ya, Basil Bigg’s life story, would make a great movie or play (hopefully Anna D, who’s a play write is already hard at work.)

    Another great episode of the show. Next episode should be interesting too…Ben Afleck (be interesting to find out how far Afleck’s Boston roots go), Khandi Alexander (currently on Scandal, but was on Treme, CSI:Miami and others) and finally former NAACP Chairman Ben Jealous.

  11. 11.

    Mnemosyne

    Heading over to the new apartment tonight to officially sign the lease and get our keys and garage openers. Scary, but hopefully will be worth it.

  12. 12.

    kindness

    Jesus these people act like the elections don’t start in Iowa. The Repubs have no choice but to throw red meat to the ‘Christians’ and that means talking smack about the gays.

  13. 13.

    Jay C

    Gotta admit that some of these guys think pretty fast on their feet: one of them, at least, has already got the spin going…

    “The GOP is a culturally conservative party and should remain so,” said Alex Castellanos, one of the dozens of GOP political operatives to sign on to an amicus curiae brief against the Defense of Marriage Act last year. “Increasingly, there is less room in the GOP for ‘big-government’ social conservatives, i.e., social conservatives who believe in using the power of the state to tell people whom they can love or marry. Instead, there is growing agreement, in an ever younger and increasingly libertarian Republican party, that the role of the state in prohibiting relationships should be minimized.”

    That’s right, Alex: make it all about “big government” …

    Heh.

  14. 14.

    Tree With Water

    I’m watching the national broadcast of the Giants-Nationals game. I don’t know who they are, but it’s just brutal listening to the broadcasting duo. The color man sounds like Tim McCarver’s half wit nephew. The only upside is their constant stream of inanities are at least good for a laugh.

  15. 15.

    Keith G

    I just finished reading a discussion of California’s “affirmative consent law” pertaining to sexual contact between two college students (at the same college/university).

    Wow…Noble intention, crazy construction. Seems like the type of ineptly constructed regulation that get Democrats laughed at.

  18. 18.

    Thoughtful David

    @Jay C:
    Yup–let’s see how that works. I keep hoping that kind of thinking builds a little more momentum among the Republicans, because it pushes them ever closer to the big split.
    That is, there are still plenty of “big [really?–TD] government social conservatives” out there who want to tell everyone how to live. The libertarian loons can’t really coexist with that for the long term. I really hope one of these days the two groups say they’ve each had enough of the other, and go off and form their own parties. That would be good for America.

  19. 19.

    Anne Laurie

    @Betsy:

    “We don’t have to agree with the decision, but as long as we’re not against it we should be okay” ??

    What the hell does that even mean?

    According to my GOP decoder ring: “When the Teahadis wail about gay marriage, we can just shake our heads and say ‘Activist judges, alas!’ Which is dog whistle for ‘them skirts and Jews’, but it doesn’t give our Democratic opponents any quotes for the ads where they point out we’re retrograde bigots, like our base wants us to be.”

  22. 22.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @Anne Laurie: Do you think Ted Cruz’s denunciation of the decision is a sign he’s not thinking of 2016? Or does he think courting the anti-marriage equality vote helps him? That’s hard for me to believe.

  24. 24.

    raven

    Early tomorrow morning (Wednesday, October 8), a total lunar eclipse will be visible from North America, East Asia, and some other countries that border the Pacific Ocean. This lunar eclipse — which coincides with tonight’s full moon — should also be a blood moon; that is, it will take on a dusky red-orange hue as the eclipse approaches totality.

  26. 26.

    mai naem

    @Baud: I think they have financially. Lots of campaign $$$ from gays. And while it may not be the only issue I think millennials are turned off by anti-gay stuff and are more Democratic which will bear fruit for way beyond the 2012 election.

  27. 27.

    Keith G

    @Iowa Old Lady: He sees the path to the nomination as convincing the hardest of the hard core from Iowa and through the Confederacy to support his run. If that is the case, his anti gay marriage stance is a bonus and not a bug.

  29. 29.

    Anne Laurie

    @Iowa Old Lady: I’m definitely starting to think Ted Cruz is following the Newt Gingrich grift — forever a “candidate”, assuring his marks followers that if they only send just one more check he’ll finally be able to “take back their country” from us secularist liberals.

    Cruz’s announcement (at the Values Voters conference, IIRC) that both of his parents had problems with alcohol abuse was part of this. I assume this was pre-emptive, that one or more of his Value-based fellow Repubs was about to shock’n’awe the godly troops with this info… and that means there’s worse in the Cruz closet, just waiting for an “official” campaign…

  30. 30.

    Keith G

    @mai naem: I despair of the fact the Democrats do not run hard as hell the social issues including health care reform. They are not going to lose votes – those votes are already gone. What they can do is educate and excite and build a brand for the future.

    Edit:
    @efgoldman: That too.

  31. 31.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @jl:
    I think that’s pretty much it, yes. The Village Media aren’t corrupt so much as they’re natural Republicans, rich, polite racists who bullshit all day long and have been told that makes them geniuses.

  33. 33.

    dmsilev

    @Iowa Old Lady: In the Republican primary, being frothingly anti-gay might actually be a plus. Can’t imagine it being much of an asset in the general, though; support for gay marriage is already well over a majority of the country and is growing by a few percentage points per year.

  34. 34.

    lamh36

    Hmm, the symphony folks were more…stiff upper lip. Amazing how much looser some people become when in the mist of a large group and posssible alcohol consumption.

    Cardinals Fans Get Ugly In Clash With Ferguson Protesters

    …We start off with a bang. At about the 22-second mark, an old white Cardinals fan begins telling the protesters—all of whom appear to be black—that they need to get jobs. He looks right in the camera, proudly, and says, “That’s right! If they’d be working, we wouldn’t have this problem!”

    At the 2:40 mark, they start saying much worse things. The “Let’s go Cardinals!” chant has turned into a “Let’s go Darren!” chant. Cool…

    At about 10:25 a small blonde lady starts yelling at the protesters: “We’re the ones who gave all y’all the freedoms that you have!”
    At about 12:14 an older female Cardinals fan begins telling the man holding the camera, who claims he is a former Marine, that she doesn’t believe he is a veteran. The conversation does not go well for her.

    At 16:43, a female Cardinals fan begins chanting “Africa! Africa! Africa!” at the protesters.
    At 17:10, a Cardinals fans tells the protesters that they need to remove their hats and pull up their pants…

  35. 35.

    Baud

    @Keith G:

    I despair of the fact the Democrats do not run hard as hell the social issues including health care reform.

    Most of the Dem ads I’ve seen replayed on the national media involve social issues, particularly abortion and reproductive choice issues.

  36. 36.

    Botsplainer

    @Baud:

    I’m still waiting for Democrats to reap the benefits for their support of gay marriage.

    Ain’t gonna happen. Glibertarian gay white males will blunt any benefit in favor of tax cuts.

  37. 37.

    Steeplejack

    Jeez, I hate these in-game interviews. Pointless shmoozing that adds nothing to the game.

  38. 38.

    Ruckus

    @Keith G:
    It looks like most of our politicians are short term thinkers(if they bother thinking at all), just like almost all our corporate/financial betters. The future they think about is the next election.

  39. 39.

    Keith G

    @Baud: Well good. I hope those are the facts on the ground and it continues to be the case, even in places where it seems counterintuitive.

  41. 41.

    Baud

    (Reuters) – With the U.S. gay marriage battle looking increasingly like a lost cause for conservative opponents, a last battleground may be their quest to allow people to refuse services to gay men and women on religious grounds.

    Some conservative groups have seized on what they consider religious freedom cases, ranging from a Washington state florist to bakers in Colorado and Oregon who are fighting civil rights lawsuits after refusing to provide goods and services to gay couples.

    “You’ll have more instances where religious liberty will potentially come into conflict with this new redefined way of understanding marriage,” said Jim Campbell of the Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal group established to defend religious freedom.

  43. 43.

    lol chikinburd

    @lamh36: “Best Fans In Baseball”™; and, thanks to Don Mattingly’s managerial skills, we’ll be seeing more of these people who deserve no more joy from any source for the rest of their lives.

    When we do see them again, we need to remember that the handful of loudmouthed drunken idiots who well racial abuse aren’t the true representatives of the fan base and/or metropolitan area in question. The true representatives are the many, many others who stand there, say and do nothing, and let all the racial abuse happen, out of either cowardice or tacit approval.

  44. 44.

    Baud

    Striking down bans on same-sex marriage in two states, and setting the stage for the same outcome in three others, a federal appeals court in San Francisco on Tuesday nullified laws in Idaho and Nevada. The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is expected to control pending challenges to bans in Alaska, Arizona, and Montana.

    With developments since Monday’s refusal by the Supreme Court to get involved in the constitutional controversy at this point, it now seems clear that the same-sex marriage campaign has succeeded — or very soon will — in thirty-five of the fifty states, plus Washington, D.C. That is the combined result of federal and state court rulings, actions of voters in passing ballot measures, passage of new laws by state legislatures, and the Supreme Court’s refusal to second-guess the near-unanimity of federal court rulings in favor of gay and lesbian marriage.

  47. 47.

    Keith G

    @Botsplainer: Glibertarian gay white males exist and always have. An old friend of mine showed me his Republican Eagle gold contributor pin. At the time (30 yrs ago), he was a downtown lawyer who loved driving around in his 1984 Mercedes-Benz 380SL 2 DR Convertible picking up rough trade. I am sure you know his type.

    Fortunately, that is not the majority of that group or even a critical mass.

  48. 48.

    Gin & Tonic

    @PsiFighter37: I think that might be a reference to your comment up top about working up the courage to exercise. But I think getting married is definitely more traumatic.

  49. 49.

    Mike in NC

    @Baud: Per USA Today some of the religious right will try to gather support for an anti-same sex marriage amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This will have exactly zero chance of going anyplace, anytime, wingnuts.

  50. 50.

    Karen in GA

    Well, Iggy’s in his crate getting over his heartworm treatment. He barks and gets agitated if left alone — not for long, granted, but he can’t get agitated at all for 30 days after the treatment. Which means I’m not leaving him alone, because I’m not taking the risk.

    So for all of October I’m working from home and spending almost all my time in this room with him, with brief breaks while my husband sits with him in the evenings.

    I should go good and mad by the end of October. But we’re on day 5 and Iggy’s still here; it’ll all be worth it to be able to say he’s still here after day 30.

    Send food and news of the outside world when you can.

  52. 52.

    Howard Beale IV

    @efgoldman: Seems to the NRA’s argument just got ‘shot down’ with this incident. (giggles)

    Or, to be more specific-he who draws first-wins. He was an idiot to be displaying his hardware in the first place, so while I can feel sad that he got robbed, in this case, like they like to tar women with when they dress provocative-he fucking deserved it.

  55. 55.

    PsiFighter37

    @Gin & Tonic: Eh, more that I’ve just gotten a bit fat and definitely lazier over the honeymoon. Having an apartment that also isn’t in optimal shape to be working out in doesn’t help either.

  56. 56.

    lamh36

    I can’t already hear the ole foggies here at BJ covering their ears and telling them young kids to stop it with that hippity hop music…lol.

    Read about this collabo between Lil Jon and Rock the Vote.

    Rock The Vote Present: #TURNOUTFORWHAT

    Of course I can also see people clicking on it and using it to give reason NOT to turnout, but I’ll assume the people who watch the video are the MTV demo who will actually watch the video and then hastag?

  57. 57.

    Jasmine Bleach

    Kind of cool about the same sex marriage thing. Seven states suddenly had it made legal over the past two days, and seven more are on the verge of making it legal in coming days and months!

    I only say “kind of” cool because really, the Supremes should just decide and make it nationwide. Without that, it’s going to be a rather long road to get decisions in those “traditional marriage” states.

  58. 58.

    Tenar Darell

    @Tree With Water: Did you see this film clip of the Senators vs. the Giants Series win from 1924? (Silver nitrate film, amazing condition, miracle it survived). Just title cards then.

  60. 60.

    Cervantes

    After the ninth circuit decision on Tuesday, same-sex marriage is now legal, or potentially on the road to being so, in 35 states and the District of Columbia.

    Writing for a unanimous panel, Judge Stephen Reinhardt sharply criticized the defendants in a 34-page opinion that called state bans on same-sex marriage “cruel” and “repugnant”.

    “Plaintiffs are ordinary Idahoans and Nevadans,” said Reindhardt. “One teaches deaf children. Another is a warehouse manager. A third is an historian. Most are parents. Like all human beings, their lives are given greater meaning by their intimate, loving committed relationships with their partners and children.”

    “Classifying some families, and especially their children, as of lesser value should be repugnant to all those in this nation who profess to believe in ‘family values,’” Reindhardt wrote.

    As for the argument that same-sex marriage could negatively affect heterosexual marriages, Reindhardt said: “We seriously doubt that allowing committed same-sex couples to settle down in legally recognized marriages will drive opposite-sex couples to sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll.”

  61. 61.

    Gin & Tonic

    @PsiFighter37: Yeah, well, if I read correctly the other night, you have a 2BR in NYC, so you’re filthy rich — just have your personal trainer come over.

  62. 62.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Jasmine Bleach:

    I only say “kind of” cool because really, the Supremes should just decide and make it nationwide. Without that, it’s going to be a rather long road to get decisions in those “traditional marriage” states.

    A tweet posted on Sully’s blog pretty much encapsulates what SCOTUS’s position is :

    “Rarely has a court spoke so loudly by saying nothing.”

  63. 63.

    Karen in GA

    @Cervantes:

    As for the argument that same-sex marriage could negatively affect heterosexual marriages, Reindhardt said: “We seriously doubt that allowing committed same-sex couples to settle down in legally recognized marriages will drive opposite-sex couples to sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll.”

    So it will negatively affect heterosexual marriages, then?

  64. 64.

    suzanne

    Mr. Suzanne and I drove to Tucson (and back) last night to see Social Distortion play. It was awesome and I had a great time. Mike Ness looks old but still performs with great passion. However, WE are also old and only got four hours of sleep last night, so we are tired as shit.

    I think the moisturizer I’ve been using is exacerbating my rash, but the one I used to use and I like (by Kiehl’s) has been discontinued. Any recommendations for a good oil-free moisturizer for sensitive skin?

  66. 66.

    Belafon

    @Jasmine Bleach: Just wanted to throw this out about Scalia Scalia (lgf link):

    The separation of church and state doesn’t mean “the government cannot favor religion over non-religion,” Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia argued during a speech at Colorado Christian University on Wednesday

    I’m hoping their choice to punt yesterday means that the SCOTUS is just going to stay out of the way.

  67. 67.

    Baud

    @Cervantes:

    We seriously doubt that allowing committed same-sex couples to settle down in legally recognized marriages will drive opposite-sex couples to sex

    That’s….unfortunate.

  69. 69.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Mike J:

    The 5th, 6th, 11th, or some combination of them will still give them a split to resolve.

    Still takes 5 votes – do they have them – especially with Fat Tony being such a wild card?

  71. 71.

    Ruckus

    @suzanne:
    Aloe?
    I use Alba Very emollient after sun gel, with or without sun. Works amazing. Was using aloe straight from the cactus outside my door but it’s a pain to extract every night.

  72. 72.

    MomSense

    @suzanne:

    I like cetaphil because most other things cause me to break out.

    Paula Begoun of paulaschoice.com is a great resource.

  73. 73.

    Mike J

    @Howard Beale IV: You think they’ll leave equality illegal in 10 states and legal in the free parts of America? There will be more and more cases based on full faith and credit until they finally have to choose one to be Loving v Virginia, or its opposite.

    And it only takes 4 to grant cert.

  74. 74.

    PlanetPundit (used to be Sir Laffs-a-Lot)

    Don’t go harshing on neanderthals!….not one of them ever voted for Sarah Palin OR Ted Cruz.

  75. 75.

    Violet

    @suzanne:

    Mr. Suzanne and I drove to Tucson (and back) last night to see Social Distortion play.

    Social Distortion! I remember seeing them open for someone in the very early 90’s. I don’t remember who they opened for but we were there to see them. They were awesome.

    @raven: The moon is really gorgeous tonight.

  77. 77.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Mike J: I think the fact that they’re staying quiet means they want Congress to come up with a tweaked DOMA that’ll pass Consitutional muster. The fact that the lower courts have shredded DOMA won’t give SCOTUS much room to maneuver to keep any part of it alive.

  78. 78.

    Karen in GA

    @MomSense: Aw, thanks. I have to say, I don’t really mind it too much so far. Got my iPad, TV, Kindle, and guitar, so I’m set. I put Iggy on the bed and hugged him today for the first time in a few days, and he sat calmly next to me and let me pet him for a while. I think we both needed it.

  83. 83.

    SatanicPanic

    @Steeplejack: a minor setback! err, I hope. Actually, I’m fine with the Nationals, the Giants have had their share of WS wins lately

    ETA- as long as STL goes down. Going forward I will refer to them as the Klandinals

  84. 84.

    MomSense

    @suzanne:

    I think just one kind is oil-free but check out Paula Begoun’s discussion of the different types of oils. She even has an ingredients list and provides the research on ingredients found in skin care products.

  85. 85.

    Violet

    @suzanne: Are you still vegetarian? My suggestion might not work if you are, but when I’m consuming bone broth regularly my skin’s texture really improves. Not nearly as dry, looks better, that kind of thing. An outside the box suggestion.

  86. 86.

    Scamp Dog

    @PsiFighter37: A becquerel is a quantity of a material that will produce 1 decay per second. Trillions of decays per second isn’t trivial, but it’s not an immediate health crisis. Distributed throughout the entire Pacific it’s on the order of a few extra decays per square foot. Compared to the bad effects of global warming, which will lead to devastating storms, loss of coastal cities, and assorted ecological problems, it’s not too bad.

  88. 88.

    suzanne

    @Violet: I’m doing birds and fish, but no pigs, cows, or sheep. My skin problems are A) this rash, which is clearing up with some sulfur gel, and B) ludicrous oiliness, like six oil-blotting cloths a day.

    @MomSense: Will do. THX!

  89. 89.

    srv

    Leon Panetta just sucked O’Reillys cock on Fox News. They agreed Obama is not up to the task.

    I can see someone doing that to run in 2016, but to sell a book?

  90. 90.

    Ruckus

    @suzanne:
    The gel dries up of course but my skin doesn’t feel dry or oily at all.
    My problem is that my skin, in some areas, dries up even though overall it’s somewhat oily. I’ve tried regular lotions(OTC from drug stores/supermarkets) and they all make my skin feel way more oily. Aloe doesn’t do that.
    If I remember you have allergy/skin condition that makes most anything you put on it a problem so I have no idea if aloe will work but it’s the best thing I’ve every tried.
    ETA When the gel dries it just basically feels like it’s gone. Doesn’t feel like I’ve put anything on. And it dries in moments. Yet it seems to work great.

  91. 91.

    stinger

    @suzanne: I have fairly mild rosacea, and I use Aveeno’s “Ultra-Calming” foaming cleanser and daily moisturizer — available around here at Walgreen’s and Target. Oil-free, hypoallergenic, noncomedogenic.

  93. 93.

    Mike J

    @Steeplejack:

    Hey! San Francisco still has to get past the Nationals.

    I can never cheer for DC. All I can think of was the Bushies glee when they discovered the caps with a dubya on it.

  94. 94.

    mclaren

    File this one under “lies, scams, ratfucking, and alternate reality Spock-with-a-beard fairytales”:

    Voters have turned decidedly hostile toward President Obama and his policies. That’s not just my partisan view; it is empirical data. A poll released over the weekend shows that 32 percent of voters are using their midterm election votes to send a message of opposition to the president. That is “the highest ‘no vote’ percentage in the last 16 years” as measured by Gallup. I have never seen a White House or a political party as hollowed out as the Democrats appear to be now.

    By Ed Rogers, of course. The protege of Lee Atwater, the Boogie Man himself. If these guys weren’t spewing lies about Democrats you get the feeling they’d be pounding away on a computer keyboard explaining for a Stormfront website why ebola is a gummint plot designed to destroy the white race.

    The only surprise?

    This rancid mix of horseshit got published by The Washington Post — under the “post-partisan” label, yet.

  95. 95.

    Steeplejack

    @SatanicPanic:

    I don’t like the Cardinals; they seem so bland and corporate. They’re not even satisfying to hate on, like the universally reviled Yankees. And the fans—they look like you could get ejected if your red jacket is two Pantone numbers off from true Cardinal red.

  97. 97.

    Mike in NC

    @srv: Looking forward to Leon’s appearances with Bob Schieffer, Sean Hannity, and Charles Krauthammer this weekend.

  99. 99.

    Violet

    @suzanne: I make my own bone broth from chicken bones. When I cook chicken I just toss the bones in a ziploc bag in the freezer until I have enough then cook up a batch of bone broth. I use it as a soup base or do things like cook rice in it or use it to make a sauce.

    It’s not hard to make bone broth–bones, an acid (vinegar or lemon or lime juice work well) and whatever vegetables and herbs you want and let it simmer. It takes time to get the bones to soften (that’s what the acid is for), but that way you get the collagen and minerals out of the bones and that’s what works wonders on my skin. I can tell a huge difference when I’m using the bone broth regularly. My skin looks so much better. Healthier. Smoother. Softer.

    Current research is showing a very strong gut-skin connection. Here’s a news story about it. And here’s a review paper from a medical journal.

  101. 101.

    Steeplejack

    @Mike J:

    I’m a long-time Braves fan, but the Nats are my “home” team now (Orioles a little bit, too), so I go with them in most match-ups. The W logo can’t be helped.

  102. 102.

    srv

    @Mike in NC: kraut hammer provided the post game commentary and said Leon swallowed well.

    If ISiS captured Leon and made an example, I would not give a fuck.

  104. 104.

    Violet

    @opiejeanne: Hi, yeah, thanks! I posted in the thread below earlier. I’m doing better. Still not great but it has been a really challenging week. It was nice people were thinking of me. Meant a lot.

  105. 105.

    Scamp Dog

    @PsiFighter37, @Scamp Dog: I just looked up the area of the Pacific, and a trillion becquerels work out to 6,000 decays per square kilometer per second, which is under 1 decay per second for every 100 square meters, and there are more than 10 square feet in a square meter. Toss in the fact that the average depth of the Pacific is around 4 kilometers, and you can swim safely…except near Fukushima, where it will be much, much higher, and the whole ocean average is irrelevant.

    So if you’re not near Fukushima, your worries should be about global warming.

  106. 106.

    mclaren

    @Scamp Dog:

    But it’s TRILLIONS of BECQUERELS!

    TRILLIONS AND TRILLIONS OF BECQUERELS!!!

    (uncontrollable laughter)

    For comparison, 18 kilograms of seawater contains Avogadro’s number, 6.0221413 exp 23, water molecules. That’s about 18 liters of water. Estimates of the volume of earth’s oceans clock in at around 1.5 billion cubic kilometers. Each cubic km = a billion cubic meters, so that 10 exp 10 becquerels diffused into 1.5 10 exp 18 cubic meters of water. That works out to roughly 1x 10 exp -8 becquerel (1/100,000,000 becquerel) per cubic meter of water. FYI, the amount of natural uranium already dissolved in seawater comes to more than that, at 3.3 parts per billion — there’s a clever project out there to separate uranium from seawater and power nuclear reactors for the next 10,000 years.

    See “Scientists say harvesting uranium from seawater makes more economic sense than they’d thought”, IEEE Spectrum, 14 September 2012.

    This has been another episode of “Why the fuck is the population of America completely innumerate despite 12 years of secondary schooling?”

  107. 107.

    Mike J

    @Steeplejack: When I lived there I went to O’s games, left after only one or two seasons of the Nats even being there. Never got attached to them, and I’m still a member of the Red Sox diaspora.

    I’m now a Mariners supporter, unless they play the Sox, and will cheer for O’s against most teams except the M’s or the Sox. And anybody over the FY.

  109. 109.

    max

    @Mike in NC: Looking forward to Leon’s appearances with Bob Schieffer, Sean Hannity, and Charles Krauthammer this weekend.

    You mean gay group sex, right?

    max
    [‘All this time and I still have no idea what in God’s name Panetta is supposed to be about exactly. A suit stuffed with chocolate pudding would have more personality. And principles.’]

  111. 111.

    Ruckus

    @max:
    And principles.

    Especially principles. I’m thinking an infinite percentage more principles. That’s any chocolate pudding. And I’ve eaten navy chocolate pudding. I’m not proud of it but I have eaten it.

  113. 113.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Ruckus: Well, I had a uncle who ate nothing but pancakes heading east from Australia to Newport. He was on the Bainbridge and they were part of an effort to prove that a nuclear flotilla could circumnavigate the globe without resupplying – apparently it required pancakes. It was 20 years before he could ate pancakes again.

  114. 114.

    Mnemosyne

    @suzanne:

    My skin is sensitive to weird things (freakin’ Cetaphil is too harsh for me) but I’ve been using Ilike Skincare — the Ultra Sensitive Cleansing Milk and the Rosehip Whip Moisturizer. Plus 45 SPF sunscreen from Epicuren every single day. It’s not cheap, but it’s not the most expensive, and it’s worth it to keep my rosacea-prone skin calm.

  115. 115.

    Cervantes

    @Scamp Dog:

    A becquerel is a quantity of a material that will produce 1 decay per second. Trillions of decays per second isn’t trivial, but it’s not an immediate health crisis. Distributed throughout the entire Pacific it’s on the order of a few extra decays per square foot. Compared to the bad effects of global warming, which will lead to devastating storms, loss of coastal cities, and assorted ecological problems, it’s not too bad.

    Using a slightly smaller Pacific Ocean than you are — not all corners are equally likely to receive this radioactivity — and assuming 100 trillions Bq are washed out to sea, I calculate roughly one additional decay per second per square meter of surface; i.e., an order of magnitude less than even your estimate.

  116. 116.

    Chris

    @Jay C:

    Where are these “younger and libertarian” demographics? The ones I knew in college were almost all religious nuts.

  117. 117.

    Ruckus

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    Mine is chicken. Used to love chicken. Grandma made the best fried chicken. Mom did a real decent job and used it in many other spectacular dishes. Loved it, used to cook it myself. But after eating basically raw chicken, Master Chief Johnson’s Deep Fried Diesel Chicken and every other way imaginable to make it uneatable, I now hate it. I was discharged 41 yrs ago.

  118. 118.

    Ruckus

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    Oh yeah that months without resupplying crap. They forgot that the ship may not need to be refueled every other day, but the crew needs daily refueling and unlike machinery doesn’t run well on the same bland, bad diet. Now I know that those pancakes didn’t have butter or syrup on them the entire 2 months, ship I was on for 2 yrs would run out well before that. Or the butter would turn so bad it had to be thrown away. There is one advantage though, the bugs that infest sealed cracker packages or bags of flour are full of protein. The guys that couldn’t stomach those could get pretty hungry.

  119. 119.

    Scamp Dog

    @Cervantes: You missed my second estimate (the one where I looked up the area of the Pacific, instead of the hand wavy “it’s got to be at least 1000 x 1000 km, right?” for the first one. At the start of the physics class I teach, I have students estimate the value of a stack of quarters the height of the Empire State Building without looking anything up, so I now tend to do estimated that way more than I should.

    All of our estimates concluded “not much of a problem, really”. Basic arithmetic and the science & engineering version of common sense can do some good stuff!

  121. 121.

    sm*t cl*de

    should also be a blood moon; that is, it will take on a dusky red-orange hue as the eclipse approaches totality.

    Up to a year or two ago, those were simply called a feckin’ LUNAR ECLIPSE.
    Then the crazypants End-of-Times fundamentaliban started ranting en masse about Revelations and suddenly the media at large have adopted their framing.

  122. 122.

    satby

    @Mnemosyne: @suzanne: What worked for me, and I have eczema and rosacea and asthma and various allergies, was eliminating all petrochemical products in my skin care. Which is the reason I started making my own soaps. Same with lotions…eliminate as much as possible petrochemical ingredients and you should see improvement. That includes mineral oil in all its disguises and the detergents that most commercial “bath and body” bars are made of.

  123. 123.

    Cervantes

    @Scamp Dog:

    You missed my second estimate (the one where I looked up the area of the Pacific, instead of the hand wavy “it’s got to be at least 1000 x 1000 km, right?” for the first one.

    Yes, I saw it later.

    Here’s what I did:

    Release: 100e12 Bq
    Area: 100e6 sq. km

    Thus: 1e6 additional decays/s per sq. km
    Which is: 1e6 additional decays/s per 1e6 sq. m
    Which is: 1 additional decay/s per sq. m

    And re:

    Basic arithmetic and the science & engineering version of common sense can do some good stuff!

    Yes, ad hoc back-of-the-envelope calculations can be helpful to begin with, but they really do need sanity-checking, confirming, etc.

  124. 124.

    Cervantes

    @sm*t cl*de: Senator Cruz is forsaken, apoplectic, confused, and hateful. Were it not for that last bit, I’d be enjoying the spectacle.

  125. 125.

    GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)

    @PsiFighter37:

    Just joking about “working up the courage to exercise”

    And remembering the pain of working a sixteen hour shift the day after my vasectomy (something about sitting at the triage desk with my feet up, and a bag of ice in my pants)

  126. 126.

    GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)

    @mclaren:

    Americans have SIX years of secondary education. The first six are primary education, dumb-ass.

  127. 127.

    chopper

    @mclaren:

    For comparison, 18 kilograms of seawater contains Avogadro’s number, 6.0221413 exp 23, water molecules.

    You’re only off by three orders of magnitude, bucky.

    This has been another episode of “Why the fuck is the population of America completely innumerate despite 12 years of secondary schooling?”

    LOL.

  129. 129.

    TriassicSands

    Heads Repubs win, tails Dems lose!

    Although this is a recurring and annoying idea among American media, in this case it’s probably right. Sadly, this is the price we pay for having the ignorant and stupid electorate we have.

  130. 130.

    Robert Sneddon

    @Cervantes: There are about ten trillion bequerels of radioactive potassium-40 in a cubic kilometre of seawater, and there are a lot of cubic kilometres of seawater in the world’s oceans. It’s the most common radioactive isotope in seawater by far with a half-life of a billion years so seawater will still be highly radioactive when the sun enters its red giant phase a couple of half-lifes from now.

    The predicted 26 meter “storm surge” from the recent typhoon was a actually a Chicken Little misreading of a report by TEPCO which has calcuated the Fukushima site might be hit by a 26 meter high tsunami (although the M9.0-plus earthquake that would generate such a wall of water would kill a sizeable chunk of the population of Japan anyway) with news of the typhoon which recently passed along the southern coast of Honshu. The actual storm surge was about 1.1 meters.

  131. 131.

    Cervantes

    @Robert Sneddon:

    There are about ten trillion [Becquerels] of radioactive potassium-40 in a cubic kilometre of seawater, and there are a lot of cubic kilometres of seawater in the world’s oceans. It’s the most common radioactive isotope in seawater by far with a half-life of a billion years so seawater will still be highly radioactive when the sun enters its red giant phase a couple of half-lifes from now.

    Re the 100 trillion Becquerels that the media kept saying might be washed out to sea, there was a comment arguing that they do not constitute a major problem. I agreed, and downplayed the issue even further (by an order of magnitude).

    The predicted 26 meter “storm surge” from the recent typhoon was a actually a Chicken Little misreading of a report by TEPCO which has calcuated the Fukushima site might be hit by a 26 meter high tsunami (although the M9.0-plus earthquake that would generate such a wall of water would kill a sizeable chunk of the population of Japan anyway) with news of the typhoon which recently passed along the southern coast of Honshu. The actual storm surge was about 1.1 meters.

    I’d like to come back in fifty years to see what effect the Fukushima disaster (will have) had on policy decisions.

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