http://t.co/bmRqs6pv44 <—- a very serious, thoughtful, argument that has never been made in such detail or with such care.
— John Whitehouse (@existentialfish) November 19, 2014
When you’re reduced to Neil Cavuto calling on the Doughy Pantload to defend climate-change denialism, you’re fighting a losing battle. From Media Matters, “On Fox, Pundit From Oil-Funded Group Says Climate Scientists Are The Profiteers“:
Fox News provided American Enterprise Institute (AEI) fellow Jonah Goldberg a platform to attack climate scientists as profiteers who are “financially incentivized” to advocate climate change action, without disclosing AEI’s own financial incentive to undercut action on climate change. AEI has taken over $3 million from ExxonMobil, and once offered money to scientists to write articles criticizing a UN climate change report…
Though host Neil Cavuto did disclose that Goldberg is a fellow at AEI, he did not mention AEI’s ties to the oil industry or its history of offering money to climate scientists to write articles undermining a climate change report. In 2013, The Union of Concerned Scientists reported that AEI received $3.04 million from ExxonMobil between 2001 and 2011. According to ExxonMobil’s website, in 2012 the company also donated $260,000 to AEI…
Video at the link, if you choose to watch it. I’m just amazed the combined Backpfeifengesich didn’t melt the monitor.
Baud
Big Climate will be the death of us all.
Morzer
@Baud:
Jonah Goldberg – the Not So Great White Wail.
I wonder when Freddie de Boer will weigh in to explain the One True Liberal point of view.
schrodinger's cat
@Morzer: After he is done watching the latest episode of Girls.
ranchandsyrup
Even if he were right about the financial incentives (he’s not) what happened to “greed is good”? Damn free market
Cacti
Okay, this may not be the most popular opinion these days, but I’m getting a little troubled about the lynch mob mentality that seems to be taking shape re: Bill Cosby.
Today, you have the otherwise liberal Raw Story posting a piece that starts out:
Bill Cosby wasn’t nice to me in an interview 22 years ago…
So he must be a rapist.
dance around in your bones
Are we talking about the Goldberg Variations AGAIN??!!
Fuck that shit. I’m listening to Leonard Cohen and He’s My Man. Well, at least until hookup dude comes back from Portland :)
Morzer
@Cacti:
You think 14 women accusing him of rape (so far) plus people saying that they find it credible on the basis of their own dealings with Cosby is a.. lynch mob?
That is an astoundingly clueless and offensive thing to say. Lynch mobs, in case you hadn’t realized this yet, killed black people, sometimes castrated black men before hanging them, occasionally burned them to death.
Now, maybe I have missed the latest developments, but so far Bill Cosby is alive and well and has made a fortune from his career. I don’t see anything remotely like a lynch mob in women trying to get justice, of some sort, for his abuse of them, much less in people saying they find it credible.
kindness
When Jonah published his book claiming liberals are the real fascists and the MSM didn’t deride him with every mention, I knew the whole game was rigged.
Figured it was before that but that cemented it.
Mike E
Sen Angus King was interviewed on ATC earlier today about the president’s impending EO on immigration status as well as his ‘no’ vote on Keystone XL…I liked that he focused like a laser on climate change (and the military’s dire assessment) and kept hammering on how dirty and pointless the whole tar sands operation is. However, he gave some lip service to the red cape/provocation angle of not waiting for
Godotcongress to enact some remedy to undocumented people, which is crappy.I like this politician though.
Baud
@efgoldman:
Jonah Goldberg would say they are “financially incentivized” to advocate against Cosby.
Morzer
@efgoldman:
Further to your point, some of them, at least, reported Cosby to the police shortly after it (allegedly) happened, in different locations across the country, in the days before the internet got going. These allegations weren’t reported in the papers or on the TV. There’s no way that there could have been any conspiracy, unless one is willing to believe that these women had somehow found each other telepathically and decided that Bill Cosby must be brought down for no particular reason.
That’s before we even consider the humiliation and trauma of talking to the police or, years later, going public and telling everyone what was done to you.
Baud
@efgoldman:
Jonah Goldberg don’t care about such things.
Mnemosyne
To go all Open Thread, my job interview on Monday was canceled due to the hiring manager’s work emergency and it hasn’t been rescheduled yet. When do I panic?
ETA: The other candidates were interviewed last week, as far as I can tell.
Violet
@Mnemosyne: Why panic? Job interview stuff like that happens all the time. Interviewing people for jobs is an extra thing–a necessary thing sometimes, but still extra to the work that must be done. It gets put off when urgent things come along.
Unless you’ve got some reason to think this is more than that, take it at face value. Do, however, make note that the hiring manager, who you might be working with or fore, cancels things due to “work emergencies” and consider how that might affect your job in that group.
Betty Cracker
@Mnemosyne: Doesn’t seem like they’d put you off with a “work emergency” excuse if they’d already hired someone or decided not to hire you for some reason. It’s only Wednesday, and it’s possible a genuine work emergency would take a few days to sort out. No need to panic yet.
Mnemosyne
@Violet:
@Betty Cracker:
I’m only panicking because I heard a fairly reliable rumor that they already have an inside candidate, so I’m paranoid that they’re going to cancel entirely.
And it was a 100 percent genuine work emergency — since I’m in the same division (different department), we were all informed about it because it was a big honkin’ deal. Still, I’m paranoid because of the prospect of the inside candidate.
Violet
@Mnemosyne: Also, is this an in-house Giant Evil Corporation job or one outside? If inside, is there any info you can get on what the emergency is, where the hiring decision stands, etc? Would say that having been part of hiring decisions and knowing people who hire people there often seems to be a lot of hurry up and wait.
Betty Cracker
Random question #1: Is an 18 pound turkey enough to feed 12 people, keeping in mind that two households (2 people in one, 3 in the other) will feel entitled to leftovers?
Random question #2: Has anyone read “Station Eleven”? I’m reading it now. So far it’s intriguing, but I just started reading it earlier this evening.
Kryptik, A Man Without a Country
Much as I want to laugh at such idiocy, I’m far too aware of how stupidly well conservative projection works on the public. And any attempt to correct the public on such shit usually just has them running to feed more on the conservative trough becuase ‘fuck you, mooch.
Gin & Tonic
@Betty Cracker: #1 Barely. Won’t be a lot of leftovers. Rules of thumb are 1 to 1.5 lb/person (larger bird has better meat/bone ratio.)
Howard Beale IV
OMFG. Talk about Nepotistic failing upward.
We are truly screwed.
Violet
@Mnemosyne: Well, panicking isn’t going to help anything, least of all you. It’ll just elevate your cortisol, keep you from sleeping, and likely interfere with other aspects of your life. If they’ve already decided who they want there’s not much you can do about it. Even if you interviewed already, if they want that person they’re going to offer them the job.
Given that it’s a real work emergency, all you can do is give it a day or so until you feel the worst of the emergency is past and make sure you let them know via email or whatever means that you are still interested in the job and would like to reschedule your interview. Doing that in a calm but proactive manner shows you’re a responsible, aware candidate for the job. You didn’t bug them during the work emergency but you made sure to speak up about the interview. Those are good qualities and will reflect well on you, even before you have the interview.
Good luck and keep us posted!
dance around in your bones
Ok, so getting over the Blobby/BIP thing I am listening to Pandora and “People Are Strange” by the Doors just came on…
I remember watching a football game with a young Mexican neighbor (my sister was there, too) and after the game and a few shots of tequila he put on a Doors DVD and we all sang REALLY LOUD to EVERY song on that thing. I think he kinda loved it – the American girls, drunk on tequila, singing every song of The Doors.Standing up and dancing and everything,
Carlos was cool – I kept telling him he had to have more confidence in himself, because he was quite handsome and a landowner and really fucking funny..I don’t know why he was so self-effacing. His older brother hung himself a couple of years after.
Ok, THAT was fucking depressing.
Mike E
@Betty Cracker: I think a 20 lb turkey feeds 12.
Hint: sides!
Violet
@Betty Cracker: @Mike E: Also depends on the age of people. Older people tend to eat less. The very young kids won’t eat that much. If a lot of your crew is 16-35 then they’ll have bigger appetites.
Mnemosyne
@dance around in your bones:
Speaking of The Doors (among many, many other bands), I just found out who played the bass on most of their studio recordings, including “Light My Fire.” Scroll down to #4 on this list and be prepared to be (at least a little) amazed.
Let’s just say, it’s not the person you picture in your head when you hear, say, the bass line on the theme from “Shaft.”
Mnemosyne
@Betty Cracker:
@Violet:
The other reason I’m freaking out a bit is that, believe it or not, I haven’t been on an actual job interview for almost 15 years. Seriously. My last three jobs (including the one I’ve had for the past 8 years) were all temp-to-permanent positions, so I got the job by doing it. I don’t think I’ve been on an actual interview since before 9/11.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@Betty Cracker:
Have not – but the reviews look great, so I downloaded it. Just finished “The Other Typist”, which made me a little crazy, thanks to the ending. I think I have it figured out, though, so won’t try to spoil it for new readers. I seem to be in a pattern of reading novels and nonfiction taking place in 1920’s post WWI America – such an interesting era, one whose echoes reverberate now. And now I’m watching ‘Peaky Blinders’ again, so…
RSA
@Howard Beale IV:
Money-wise, probably, but Goldberg strikes me as someone who craves intellectual respectability. I don’t think that’s accrued to think tanks since the 1960s, and AEI is associated, historically, with the dumbest fucking guy on the planet.
dance around in your bones
@Mnemosyne: Ok, officially gob-fucking-smacked.
In a good way, of course :) Danke.
The Fat Kate Middleton
Have no idea how that block quote got up there – meant to be Betty
Cracker’s question about reading ‘Station Eleven’. Sorry.
El Caganer
Just picked up the first in a new crime series, Death Drops A Pantload, A Jonah Goldberg Mystery
Violet
@Mnemosyne: Don’t blame you for being nervous about that! Is there any way you could do some prep for the interview, like role playing some questions? Maybe your husband could ask you questions and you could rehearse answers. Doing something like that might calm you down because you’d be doing actual prep work for it. Plus, saying answers out loud helps to cement the idea in your brain so you can retrieve it better during the actual interview, even if the questions are different. Having answers to typical interview questions is good anyway because you do get asked them sometimes.
Betty Cracker
@Mnemosyne: Understandable. My last job interview was in 2003, so I’d feel nervous too if I were facing one. I do recall that I always seemed to perform well if I’d convinced myself I didn’t really want the job. The last job I interviewed for, I really had talked myself out of and just went to the interview as practice. When they offered me the job, I turned them down at first, but they eventually came up with a substantial addition to the initial salary offer, so I took the job. (It occurs to me that this technique probably only works if your default state is ambivalence.)
@The Fat Kate Middleton: Haha! I was thinking, “Peaky blinders?!? WTF is Peaky blinders?”
Mnemosyne
@Violet:
We did some of that over dinner while we were in Hawaii. (I was so freaked out by the whole notion that I had to talk through it or I would have been a mess for the entire rest of the vacation.) If the interview doesn’t get re-scheduled for Friday, that’s the day I see my ADHD therapist and can talk some of it through with her.
I actually haven’t met or spoken to the person I’m interviewing with yet — it’s all going through a recruiter. I may email the recruiter tomorrow and nudge her to see if there’s a new date yet.
Mnemosyne
@Betty Cracker:
I do want the job, but I’m trying to think of it as me interviewing them to see if it’s a good fit and if I think I would get along with their group. Honestly, if it’s just on the basis of my qualifications/work experience and there is no internal candidate, I’m a shoo-in (except possibly my age, which technically is illegal for them to think about but they may think about anyway). But I’m feeling like if I don’t click with the interviewer, I wouldn’t want the job.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Have you ever considered developing some STAR stories? It works. Most of the time interviewers are asking questions to see if you have a particular skill or experience, so if you can identify the skill they are looking for with the question and then give a STAT story as a response, it can be very effective.
Omnes Omnibus
@Omnes Omnibus: STAR, not STAT, duh.
ChrisH
For anyone who is curious how that whole GamerGate thing is working out, it’s officially a brain worm ideology, rotting people’s minds away. GGer’s now have nice things to say about Jack Thompson because he insulted someone they don’t like. That would be the Jack Thompson who spent his entire legal career trying to ban Grand Theft Auto.
https://storify.com/a_man_in_black/gamergate-supports-jack-thompson
This is the gamer equivalent of Benjamin Netanyahu praising the American Nazi Party because they criticized Palestinians.
I worry that when we come out of the other side of this, a small number of GGers will have been so afflicted by the brain rot that comes with gravitating towards literally anyone who says they agree with you that they’ll become trapped in the Fox bubble and will never be saved.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Interesting! I’ve downloaded it to read tomorrow. Being me, the typos on the first page made me cringe a little, but the guy who wrote it seems to be much better at spoken communication than I am, so I’m going to tell my inner copyeditor to be quiet while I read.
We were doing a bit of that when we were talking things through — G manages a small department and has some experience interviewing other people, so it was helpful to have that perspective. I’ve already had to develop a STAR-type story to explain why I’m leaving my current job since I’ve been in it for 8 years.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: It was just a website ont he topic grabbed at random. There probably are better ones out there. IN my career field, there are only so many types of things that they could be looking for with a question, so I have a set of stories that may cover a couple of types of issues and duplicates in case I accidentally used the best leadership story for a teamwork question. Having them at hand means you don’t have to ad lib.
Kryptik, A Man Without a Country
@ChrisH:
Sounds like far too many issues I’ve seen these days, honestly, far as people just swinging so suddenly and forcefully to the right that they’re unreachable on everything.
Taiko
Jumping in late (and de-lurking for a moment) to note former Reaganaut, cum former democratic Virginia Senator Jim Webb will be running for presnit ’cause both sides are to blame, or something. I know this because I got an email saying he’s “forming an exploratory committee” to judge whether such a candidacy is necessary. (Spoiler alert, to no one, it will be.)
Sm*t Cl*de
@RSA:
And I crave world domination and a working pair of lungs. Good luck!
Anne Laurie’s point, I think, is that this vapid flop-sweating invertebrate-prosed doofus, who requires a seeing-eye intern to write his regular column, is the best they could do. HA HA HA.
Mustang Bobby
As my brother noted about Mr. Goldberg’s claim, “that must explain why I see all the climate scientists driving Bentleys and the oil company execs driving 20-year old Volvos.”
kindness
@Betty Cracker: Yea an 18 lb. bird could feed 12 people but you should get a small ham to go with it. Thanksgiving and all. Leftovers are a good thing in my house.
dance around in your bones
@Sm*t Cl*de: That’s funny, but do you really not have a working pair of lungs? Honey, how do you breathe?
Or is my snarkometer needijng to be adjusted? I always iike yer comments, and I haven’t had my tea uet, so you might just want to ignore me for a bit ::)
Don’t you have that great blog in AUS that makes me crack the fuck up whenever I read it?
Or am I insane??!! Redshirt asked me that last night, and honestly……I COULD be………better go make that tea before I embarrass meself any more.
dahlin……….
sm*t cl*de
That’s funny, but do you really not have a working pair of lungs? Honey, how do you breathe?
Let’s just say that they don’t function at full capacity. Climbing Everest is not for me.