The other front pagers must have come down with Ebola. I have a pair of fruit bats on the rotisserie that I have to monitor closely, so please talk amongst yourselves.
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The other front pagers must have come down with Ebola. I have a pair of fruit bats on the rotisserie that I have to monitor closely, so please talk amongst yourselves.
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Baud
Can I catch ebola through the Internet?
dmsilev
@Baud: You can certainly catch fear-of-Ebola through the Internet; is that good enough?
Litlebritdifrnt
As I said the other day, 60 people a day are killed by guns in this country, 30K a year. And people are pissing their pants absolutely stupid about 1 guy who died from Ebola. There is absolutely no hope for any sanity, absolutely none. As other people have said you have more of a chance of being struck by lightening than being killed by Ebola. However, you have a pretty good chance of being shot by an ammosexual with a grudge.
Major Major Major Major
This fan thing is absolutely cracking me up today. One of my Republican-ish (in the classical sense I suppose, he’s now a reluctant Dem voter more or less?) friends was trying to attack Crist for “flagrantly violating the rules” on Facebook today and I just was so happy to link him to the page of the paperwork where Crist requested a fan on, like, Monday, in writing, and the organizers obviously agreed or he wouldn’t have had a goddamn fan.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Guns are American. Ebloa is all foreign and stuff.
Devil you know and the devil you don’t, after all.
Tom Levenson
I love fruit bat!
I ate quite a few in a stint in the central Philippines. Didn’t taste like chicken. Did taste good. (High point — out in the rain forest w. some biologist, running low on food. Made ourselves a five-species stew with two previously undescribed bats in the mix. Yummskis. True story.)
JPL
In the early evening, I often sit in my back yard to watch the bats. I have very few mosquitoes because they are doing their job. Recently, my son did say, mom where do they go during the day? hmmm
mai naem mobile
Are you monitoring the fruit bats for the plague? Every year they have bats carrying the plague in the Four Corners area.
Howard Beale IV
Was one of them named Eric?
raven
Ya’ll can make all the jokes you want but these puke motherfuckers are going to use this ebola shit for the next three weeks like their hair is on fire. We know they would undermine their beloved military so they will have no problem promoting the notion that this is all Obama’s fault just like all the other shit they hate about him.
gogol's wife
@raven:
I’m afraid you are soooo right.
Corner Stone
@JPL:
Do you by any chance have a belfry?
srv
I prefer Armadillo to fruit bat. Much easier to find as road kill.
JPL
@raven: It seems like the DNC could attack first by saying this is what happens when you cut necessary funds from the NIH and CDC. They won’t though.
Corner Stone
@Tom Levenson:
I, for one, am calling bullshit on the name Yummski. Sounds like a place that sells candy by the pound at the mall.
Mnemosyne
@Litlebritdifrnt:
If you want to stick with viral diseases, the 2012-2013 flu season killed about 36,000 people. But what we really need to be worried about is Ebola.
? Martin
@Litlebritdifrnt: The problem with ebola is that you can’t shoot it. We only know how to solve problems where the solution involves ordinance of some sort. Past that we just chuck up our arms and hope the Chinese know what to do.
Corner Stone
@JPL:
They won’t because, for all the BS about R’s shooting the hostages if they don’t get what they want, a hell of a lot of D’s were complicit in those cuts.
raven
@JPL: And when they do the pukes can pull their “Obama went along with the cuts”.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Sweet christ– first question for Obama is about “an Ebola Czar!”
I wonder if some brave soul will ask if he voted for himself.
ETA: Tweety says it’s a “great question!”, MSNBC reporter says “that’s the headline”
Mnemosyne
@JPL:
Oh, we’ve already had ostensible liberals right here on this website saying that it’s mean and unfair to blame all of the CDC cuts on the Republicans. Don’t run political commercials talking about CDC cuts by Republicans, because Both Sides Do It.
One of these days, we liberals will stop shooting ourselves in the foot in our foolish efforts to “be fair” to our opponents, but I have no idea when that will be.
Major Major Major Major
@Corner Stone: No, they won’t do it because dems are god-awful campaigners most of the time and the media is wired to take the GOP angle on most controversial ads.
Mike in NC
Today we spotted a large bald eagle flying around the pond out back. Never saw one before except on TV. Majestic-looking creature, but we think it’s the reason all the little ducklings are disappearing one by one.
PurpleGirl
@Tom Levenson: People will tell you that rattlesnake tastes like chicken. I didn’t think so, but it was chewy the way chicken can be sometimes. I found it spicier than chicken and quite good. The other people I had dinner with that evening (in Phoenix for arbitration hearings) had small amounts just to taste it but didn’t want more and I ended up finishing up the appetizer.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I was screaming at the TV — “Tell them it’s called the Surgeon General of the United States and the goddamn fucking Republicans won’t confirm the motherfucker!!!!” But PBO didn’t hear me, I guess.
Wag
@mai naem mobile:
Bats are more prone to carry rabies than plague (at least in eastern Colorado). The plague around here is carried by the prairie dogs.
Mnemosyne
Also, too, for those who didn’t see it, there’s already a Republicans cut CDC funding ad. Here’s Anne Laurie’s post about it with a link to the ad. Right-wingers are all up in arms about it.
Tom Q
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Had the exact same reaction — Barack talks calmly and intelligently for 15 minutes, putting the whole thing in workable context, and the only response is “Have you backed off on (X)?”. And this was MSNBC, the allegedly friendly network.
I know it’s long ago ceased to be news that the media is (are?) crap. But in this situation they’re literally getting in the way of sensible progress.
schrodinger's cat
@PurpleGirl: Doesn’t everything taste like chicken?
schrodinger's cat
@Mnemosyne: That means it is working!
schrodinger's cat
@JPL: They are probably hanging upside down from some tree.
JPL
@Mnemosyne: The republicans are already talking about shutting down the government again. That’s a great idea, just send the CDC home. wow!
PsiFighter37
Less than 3 weeks until Election Day!
I may actually skip voting this year – I moved apartments just before my wedding and honeymoon; by the time I was back, it was past time to change my registration in time to vote for the general election. When I went to vote in the NY primary last month, the poll workers suggested that I just go to my previous location to vote. Not terribly fond of that idea, so I guess I’m going to have to sit it out. At least I live in a very dark-blue district/city/state, so I won’t be contributing to anyone winning or losing, as far as I know. First general election I will not have voted in since I came of voting age 10 years ago…kind of sucks.
Elizabelle
From previous thread: starting now:
Balloon Juice gluttons for punishment: C-Span 1: Iowa Senate debate tonight at 8 p.
Bruce Braley (D) vs. Joni Ernst (Whacko).
I’m interested to see how Ernst comes across.
JPL
@schrodinger’s cat: Well hopefully they are not in my attic.
Actually I put wire up around the eave because you could tell that large mice had been up there before I moved in.
redshirt
Republicans shut down government, blame Obama for lack of response to Captain Trips.
PIGL
@JPL: Would not want to play politics with the issue no sirree Bob.
Elizabelle
Caught a tiny bit of Tweety hyperventilating at end of his show.
Is Ebola the October surprise? It is going to be a “gamechanger” in November, per Chris Matthews.
Uhyeah. Nobody better situated to combat Ebola than Republicans who shut down the government, defund government agencies, war against science (no stem cell research; climate change not happening) …
It’s my hope voters will actually think about this one.
raven
@Elizabelle: good luck
Elizabelle
And: ebola question in Iowa debate.
ETA: The Democrat mentions travel bans; drug development.
Ernst: as a mother, she’s heartbroken to see African families facing this. Our admin has been reactive, rather than proactive.
Temp travel bans, screen travelers, aid to nations, stepping up for cure.
Braley: reminds that Ernst voted to shut down government. Cannot say you support those things when the policies you’re promoting would have made it harder to address these challenges.
Talks about an Iowa firm that’s exploring Ebola vaccine.
Ernst: failed leadership from Obama. Ebola around for months, today was first hearing.
I hate to say it, she’s the more compelling debating style.
CaseyL
Fruit bats? Those adorable flying foxes – you’re eating them? My god, that’s like eating a flying dachshund.
Re Ebola: I’ve been getting some dark enjoyment at the country having a nervous breakdown over a tiny smattering of cases.
I have to admit, though, that news the nurse who flew around the country to plan her wedding was possibly contagious on Friday rather than Monday, thus opening up an entire new cast of possibly-infected characters, has taken me aback a bit.
Howard Beale IV
@Wag: And bat bites are real bears to pick out from other bite types-it’s like getting needle injections.
raven
Oh just fucking great:
chopper
That’s odd, as my fruit bat went missing. His name is Eric. Eric the fruit bat.
Howard Beale IV
@Mike in NC: Bald Eagles are pretty common around MN. Walking around the Missippipi river near where I used to work before we relocated – saw one flying overhead – majestic beast.
PsiFighter37
@Elizabelle: I don’t think I can bring myself to watch these kind of debates. The presidential ones are hard enough, given the pathological tendency of Republicans to lie, but the second-rate brains they have running for Congress is too much to bear. I could stand Grimes-Turtle the other night because Mitch has that voice that’s easy enough to tune out, but I know Joni Ernst is pants-on-fire crazy – and the fact she has been leading every poll for a couple months now is just nuts. What the hell is wrong with Iowans to vote that kind of lunatic into office?
If the GOP takes over control of the Senate (which I sincerely think they may not – it seems like the GOP is getting increasingly nervous about SD, as well as Nunn getting close to 50%+1 outright), it is going to be a very foggy two years, mainly from how drunk I will be to ignore the incredibly dumb shit that Obama will be constantly vetoing.
About the only good thing that will come out of it is that Republicans will likely vote on some really crazy shit (outright privatization of Medicare and SS, personhood bills, etc.), and the tide will wash those fuckers out in 2016. But I would really prefer not to endure that.
Howard Beale IV
@chopper: He wouldn’t have been partnered with a menagerie called Abdul now would he?
BTW, did you get your fish license?
barbequebob
@Mike in NC:
perhaps many, but if eagles ate all the ducklings, ducks would have gone extinct. In general and on average, if predators wiped out their prey, there would be no predator either.
Violet
@raven: A managing partner at an investment firm uses cocaine? Shocker.
Elizabelle
@PsiFighter37:
It will be your first two years of married life. Can focus on that, and tune out the political circus more.
Ernst quizzed on abortion issues: she worked the word “life” in about 30 times. And was fuzzy and not challenged. She’s backed away from banning contraception; pulled the “I’m a mother with 3 daughters” card.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Elizabelle: Obama’s lack of leadership is responsible for the fact that today is the first hearing on ebola. Okay.
Rand Paul is pitching conspiracies– the nurses who contracted ebola were fully gowned and masked.
JPL
@Elizabelle: I left you a note above in the new post. .
srv
@raven: What did Hunter think board members of the largest private gas producer in the Ukraine did?
I blame Putin, Obama AND Hodor.
lamh36
This is what happens when people spread misinformation and fear. When it comes to stuff like this, I try my best not to pass along misinformation. .
Majority of Americans believe Ebola spreads through air: poll
shelley
Must be a day of the week that ends with ‘y’
raven
@lamh36: Nicole Wallace and Mika were screaming about the movie “Outbreak” and how this is just like that. The virus in Outbreak was airborne. Coinkidink that the dumbasses think what they think?
chopper
@Howard Beale IV:
I’ve never seen so many bleedin’ aerials!
Elizabelle
Braley: I’ve never seen a corporation sitting next to me in church.
Zing!
Elizabelle
@raven:
Nicole Wallace is a huge reason not to watch Morning Joe. Gag.
Howard Beale IV
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Rand Paul? A non-practicing opthamologist talking about how infectious diseases should be managed?
I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a colonscopy that they would find his cranium during the procedure.
Violet
@Mnemosyne: I missed that post. Thanks for highlighting it. That ad is excellent. Should be playing everywhere.
Elizabelle
$20 million in political ads in the Iowa race.
It’s a scandal. Think what that money could fund, spent to do something other than libel and polarize.
Public campaign financing, please. Get rid of Citizens United and go with UK-type elections. We are not served well by the permanent campaign.
Elizabelle
Ernst does not like negative ads, but says money is political free speech and a citizen’s right. Gave Braley opening for his excellent answer about anonymous donors.
Not Adding Much to the Community
@srv: @srv: Eating armadillo? You might want to rethink that. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/health/28leprosy.html
Not Adding Much to the Community
Test
Craig
@srv: Watch out, the local bats just are not gonna be carrying ebola, but there is a connection between handling armadillos or armadillo corpses and Hansen’s Disease (Leprosy). Really! I’d stick with bats for dinner…..
Not Adding Much to the Community
@srv: @srv: Eating armadillo? You might want to rethink that.
Howard Beale IV
@chopper: Purring cats are such a dead giveaway. Still, the sixty quid was on the high side.
trollhattan
@Elizabelle:
And here I was thinking the markets crashing was our October Surprise. Silly me.
But, how ’bout them Obama gas prices?
Bill Arnold
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik:
Carried by Ebolians, from Ebolia. (“”We fight the Ebolians over there, so we don’t have to fight them here.””)
(Plus some peoples’ minds might conflate it a very small amount with ebonics.)
kindness
I’ll be damned. The Giants won.