Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

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

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

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

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

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

Books are my comfort food!

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

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

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

When we show up, we win.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

This fight is for everything.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Let me file that under fuck it.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

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Thursday Morning Open Thread

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Addressing a wingnut-on-wingnut kerfluffle involving an ousted Scott Walker PAC staffer, the future reverend Erick Erickson scolds fellow Christian conservatives for their lack of Christian charity and grace, accuses them of “overwrought outrage” and then concludes that they should all die in a fire.

Jesus himself couldn’t have said it better. Open thread.

Reader Interactions

121Comments

  1. 1.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    I learned from Morning Hoe this morning that the fine people of New Hampshire don’t care much for Jeb!.

  3. 3.

    Betty Cracker

    @BillinGlendaleCA: I keep thinking he’ll end up being the nominee because he seems like the most plausible candidate they’ve got (not a high bar, admittedly). But yeah, he might have to deport his own wife and anchor babies to sew up the primary.

  4. 4.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    Nothing says Christian Love quite like DIAF. I did like his dig at Left. Pushing to get a staff worker fired for making ugly comments about teenagers is equivalent to

  7. 7.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Betty Cracker: If he can’t win in Iowa and can’t win in New Hampshire, how can he get enough delegates to get the nom? Will he try the Rudy strategy and put all his effort into Florida?

  8. 8.

    Schlemazel

    There has been a lot of glee over the sudden realization that 80% of the conservative movement is made up of con artists and thieves. Keeping true to my nature that scares me. What if the tru-be-livers ran that 80% off? THink of all the money now wasted on snake oil going to electing actual morans to office!

    I still have a hard time imagining JEB as the candidate, too many of the knuckle-draggers see him as too liberal which would help him in the general but kill him with the base. But then I don’t see any of the lesser clowns taking the title as Bozo coming out of the car right now.

  9. 9.

    Betty Cracker

    @BillinGlendaleCA: I don’t know how that would work. I think Bill Clinton won the nomination after losing both Iowa and New Hampshire, but I can’t recall anyone else pulling that off…

  11. 11.

    ThresherK

    After years of happily owning and using a bread machine, I stepped outside the box last night and made dinner rolls with yeast. First time I ever used the dough hook on my KitchenAid, and that’s been in my kitchen for 20 years.

    The results were good. Too good, as neither my doctor nor my wife’s has asked us “Are you sure you’re getting enough flour?”

    The next step is to see what kind of whole wheat and rye and other less refined things I can swap in before we develop too much of a taste for dinner rolls from scratch on a weeknight.

  12. 12.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @BillinGlendaleCA: For most candidates, if they lose Iowa and NH, it’s not the delegate math that gets difficult, it’s the money-math that gets harder. Something tells me JEB doesn’t have to worry about the money so much, as long as he shows well there (strong 2nd or 3rd). SC is the real prize in the GOP and he is well positioned for that one.

    ETA SC is the real EARLY prize in the GOP.

  13. 13.

    Baud

    Kay and others here have said that Dems should campaign on the economic security. Meanwhile, Jeb! has said the federal minimum wage should be repealed and the House GOP have passed a budget that repeals the ACA and guts Medicaid and other programs. We’ll see his this shakes out.

  14. 14.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    SC is the real prize in the GOP and he is well positioned for that one.

    I agree on your take about the importance of South Carolina; however, I’m not convinced of Jeb!’s strength there. The issues that will hurt him in Iowa and New Hampshire(Immigration and Common Core) won’t make the SC folk happy either.

  15. 15.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    Yesterday’s thread about the crazy lady at the Santorum event in SC isn’t an isolated incident. Read a piece in the Concord Monitor (NH) about a Ted Cruz event in NH. A guy from MA drove over 100 miles just to be there. He was wanted to hear Cruz speak in person. He said Cruz was the ONLY person telling the truth about Obama and that even Fox News was hiding things about how bad Obama was …

  16. 16.

    WereBear

    @The Ancient Randonneur: When you live in an imaginary world, you can be persuaded to believe anything.

    Where others saw a “crazy lady,” I saw someone who believed everything her leaders told her.

    Yes, this is a Venn diagram with little overlap, but WHY? How long can a major political party sustain such a soap bubble of lies and grift?

    I guess we’ll find out…

  17. 17.

    ThresherK

    @The Ancient Randonneur: A guy from MA drove over 100 miles just to be there.

    Are you from New England?

    I ask because I’m a bit out of touch with the whole NH/MA dynamic as of late and want someone in the BJers community to catch me up.

    I’m old enough to know when “Hamsha” meant one thing, then the 80s boom happened and much of NH’s political weight was thrown to MA emigrants. The demographics changed, as those who went there for the low taxes ended up wanting lots of things that government did anyway.

    The thing is, I realize there’s always been pockets of crazee in states even as small as CT and RI. But I’m wondering what this guy’s story is. How close is this to “He’d have driven five hours straight while wearing an adult diaper” to do this?

  18. 18.

    satby

    OT to crazy people believing nutty political things: in what has been an all too regular occurrence around here lately Maggie dog passed away peacefully last night. The vet appointment to ease her passing was this morning, but my good girl did it her way. The cause was liver failure.

    Maggie never got over the loss of her Biggie boy and it is nice to think they could be together again in some doggie heaven.

  21. 21.

    ThresherK

    @satby: Condolences, even from our cats, to you and yours. I hope there wasn’t much degradation in her quality of life.

  25. 25.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @BillinGlendaleCA: The difference I see, and I may be placing to much importance on it, is his history as a Southern Gov. True, it was a long time ago (in political terms) but he pissed off all the right people during that time. I don’t see immigration as being that big a hurdle (who knows? Not me…) because the money boys loves them some cheap labor and in the end the rubes will vote as they are told.

    When it comes to Common Core… Some things I just don’t understand and the wingnut fear of better (consistent) education standards is among them.

  26. 26.

    satby

    Thanks all, but for Maggie it’s a release so I can’t be too sorry she was able to go that way.

    But it has been a brutal 5 months, losing Biggie, then Shaggy cat, then Maggie one after the other. The risk you take when you rescue the older and chronically ill.

    I still have 9 others to keep me hopping including Biggie’s epileptic sister Rosie, who is the oldest but so far is like the energizer bunny.

  29. 29.

    WereBear

    @satby: The risk you take when you rescue the older and chronically ill.

    Well yes. So in a way it is also a celebration; because you made a being who had all the odds against them so happy. They had a wonderful life!

    This makes the parting, easier.

  37. 37.

    ThresherK

    @debbie: I don’t know how that slogan will fly at the weekly meetings my spouse attends. According to some folks my ability to tie on my apron and whip up something tasty from the oven is making me into an enabler.

  39. 39.

    PsiFighter37

    Went to the doctor yesterday – turns out I likely dislocated my patella tendon in my knee temporarily. Starting physical therapy today with a goal of running a half marathon at full strength in a little over a month…should be interesting.

  41. 41.

    Hal

    So Stephen A. Smith thinks black people should all vote republican next election to show both parties they don’t have a lock on any one group of people. His expertise in history led him to this conclusion.

    From what I’ve read, Barry Goldwater is going against Lyndon B. Johnson. He’s your Republican candidate; he is completely against the civil rights movement. Lyndon B. Johnson was in favor of it — civil rights legislation. What happens is, he wins office, Barry Goldwater loses office, but there was a Senate, a Republican Senate, that pushed the votes to the president’s desk. It was the Democrats who were against civil rights legislation — the southern Dixiecrats. So because President Lyndon B. Johnson was a Democrat, black America assumed the Democrats were for it.

    Conservatives are eating this up of course, pretending Smith hit the nail on the head. Smith and Raven Symone should start a apologist foundation and maybe teach an ap history class together in Oklahoma.

  43. 43.

    Peale

    @Baud: it will cost them nothing and they might as well do it. I have not met a republican who thinks workers could use a pay increase.

    Democratic voters do not respond to economic populism.

  44. 44.

    ThresherK

    @Hal: The “Stephen A. Smith” on ESPN?

    What, he’s tired of being called “the smart one” while appearing alongside Skip Bayless?

  48. 48.

    debbie

    @ThresherK:

    I lived in NH in the mid-70s, while Simon Loeb was alive and blasting anything he didn’t consider the good old U.S.A. At the time, he was a tiny blip in the state. Lots of hippies running around then, so the lunacy ran well below the surface. If you didn’t read newspapers (which I didn’t), you’d hardly have known there were conservative elements in the state.

    I probably should have known something evil was lurking because they used cole slaw instead of sauerkraut in their Reubens. Sacrilege.

  49. 49.

    Baud

    @Hal:

    So Stephen A. Smith thinks black people should all vote republican next election to show both parties they don’t have a lock on any one group of people.

    And all Republican voters should vote for Democrats for the same reason, of course. Let’s make this a Sadie Hawkins election.

  50. 50.

    scav

    @ThresherK: Better class of weekly meetings required. Admiration and thanks for the reminder — I forgot to get my cherished enabler’s (a.k.a. mother’s) latest recipe for bread. It’s one of the cook in iron pot ones (basically flour salt and water) and the ctust is that perfect Italian. Ooh for more enablers of your caliber!

  51. 51.

    Baud

    @Peale:

    Democratic voters do not respond to economic populism.

    That’s the big question, right? Liberal blogs are committed to the notion that they do.

  53. 53.

    MattF

    Erick ibn Erick has aspirations that are, apparently, in conflict with his current career. And, apparently, he has friends. I can’t actually object to either of those things– though imagining the Rev telling his flock to DIAF is amusing.

  54. 54.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud: I wonder, though.

    A lot of economic uncertainty out there. Middle class getting squeezed; anxiety about what kind of jobs will our kids get, with all the outsourcing and technology replacing workers?

    I think economic security could be big. A little uphill, cuz I am astonished how much people tell pollsters Republicans are better with the economy. Where’s the evidence for that?

  55. 55.

    ThresherK

    @scav: Actually, I’m thinking of that kind of loaf next. Going from my cobalt blue KitchenAid to my cobalt blue Lodge Enamel Dutch oven. And I won’t have to worry about shaping it, unlike the rather amoebaish blobs I pulled out of the pan last night.

    (If you’re wondering, yes, my first quesiton before buying a kitchen implement is “Does it come in blue?” And I’ve long since progressed–or deteriorated–into the sort who doesn’t trust anyone to buy anything for my kitchen.)

  60. 60.

    scav

    @ThresherK: I’ve had some fine blobby loves so could go any way. As I’ve not been around for most of my enablers experimental trials, all I can pass along is careful if you use one of the icecube-using versions (she cracked the oven window — luckily reparable), she seemed most happy with the version that seriously preheated the pot beforehand.

    Mine’s black, but sends best greetings to the tribe of blue.

  63. 63.

    satby

    @WereBear: it does, thanks. Almost every one of my rescues I took on the day they were scheduled to be euthanized by overcrowded shelters. So even if we don’t get the full average lifespan, we all got longer than we would have otherwise.

  65. 65.

    Peale

    @OzarkHillbilly: shortly after Hiroshima, the city experienced a boom in construction activity unprecedented in that city’s 500 year history. Which is why I’m shocked that they don’t thank us more often.

  67. 67.

    ThresherK

    @scav: I don’t know what the Ice Cube method is, but will take heed. We are leasing the condo, so repairing our landlords’ appliances isn’t on the wanna-do list.

    And now that I’m shopping for a grown-up peppermill, instead of some junky plastic one which will break in a year, I congratulate you on choosing basic black. It goes with everything and everyone makes one. The selection in blue is not so wide-ranging.

    (I will confess to buying a Staub enameled cast-iron frying pan, on a great sale, in a “color clearance” of all forest green Staubs at Williams-Sonoma. It’s the one outlier in my arsenal.)

  68. 68.

    Brendan in NC

    @OzarkHillbilly: Re: Common Core. Better (more consistent) education standards are bad for the republicans because they lead to a better educated populace. Which means:

    1) They see through the Republican BS easier
    2) They’ll want to own the factory, not just run the machines
    3) They’re a threat to those currently atop the Grifter Ponzi Pyramid

  70. 70.

    ThresherK

    @Baud: At some point getting in “the short line” of “black conservative” means this. I’ll leave it to smarter people than I when exactly that tide turned.

  73. 73.

    Peale

    @Hal: I agree with Smith. If there’s one thing the a republicans want, it’s to accommodate black people. It’s what they’re all about and why they’re working so hard to get more black people to the polls, in the hopes that one day those ungrateful people of color will return to their true GOP home.

  74. 74.

    MattF

    @Baud: Lying through your teeth is part of the drill for ‘conservatives’. Why should AA conservatives get a pass?

  76. 76.

    SFAW

    @WereBear:

    How long can a major political party sustain such a soap bubble of lies and grift?

    35 years and counting, no end in sight. Oh, right, “demographics” means all their supporters will die off in the next 2-3 years.

    Well, all their supporters except for the ones who are given new “reasons” why the bottom 20 percent are the source of all their (i.e., Rethug supporters) problems.

  77. 77.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @Elizabelle: I love the GEICO chicken commercial. The scene in the diner with the fried eggs is brief and poignant. And the farmer keeps getting selfies.

    The camel is amusing. Lately, they’ve been doing two camels in a zoo, being mocked by people who want them to do the “hump day” voice.

  81. 81.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @Elizabelle: I actually like the Progressive commercials where Flo endures her dysfunctional (and sometimes abusive) family for the holidays. Stephanie Courtney (Flo) played all the parts. Her chirpy mother saves money on some discount ham, and the grandfather yells “I’ve got the meat sweats!”

  82. 82.

    Matt McIrvin

    @ThresherK: I live right on the border of MA and NH, just on the MA side. I know a lot of people in southern NH.

    The southern reaches of NH have become Boston suburbs, but because they are far-flung suburbs, they’re not necessarily all that liberal. The area of Rockingham County just over the border from me was deep, deep Romney territory in 2012. For that matter, my own neighborhood on the Massachusetts side is, I suspect, majority-Republican; northern Mass. is more racially mixed than southern NH, but white non-Hispanic voters here skew fairly conservative.

    New Hampshire has pretty much become a blue state in presidential elections, but it’s not the bluest of blue states; the Democratic vote is concentrated in the larger towns.

  85. 85.

    gene108

    The sad thing about the Crazy Lady (Virginia, I think is her name) ranting at the Santorum rally is I feel like I can guarantee she will be at the polls, on a Tuesday in April to vote for the school board, dog catcher and county commissioners, as well as at the polls in November for the mid-term and Presidential elections.

    She maybe nuts, but she’s a reliable Republican voter, which is better for Republicans than more grounded 20-something hipster would-be Democratic voters.

  86. 86.

    NonyNony

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    When it comes to Common Core… Some things I just don’t understand and the wingnut fear of better (consistent) education standards is among them.

    The attacks on Common Core from the right are pure synthetic right-wing ideology – Common Core is a “big government mandate”
    and Common Core affects public education, which is “Godless government brainwashing” anyway.

    However it taps into something a bit more widespread, which is a general unease that most people have with change. “Common Core is a different teaching standard than what we had when we were young. We turned out fine, so why are you messing with my kid’s future by mucking around with his/her education?”

    I have heard far, far too many parents express concern about Common Core when they know nothing at all about Common Core. I’ve also heard teachers express concerns about Common Core and they vary from good concerns (“I think it over-emphasizes non-fiction reading over fiction reading, and I’m worried that it’s going to stall some kids out on their reading advancement”) to lousy ones (most of which boil down to “it’s different and I don’t understand it and therefore I hate and fear it”). As with fear of terrorism and fear of black people, Republicans are really, really good at tapping into fear to get votes. Cynically I presume that they’re playing on the standard parental fears and ramping them up to 11, throwing in some Bircher nonsense about public education being big government run amok, and stirring. I think that’s most of what the Republican outrage about Common Core is about.

  87. 87.

    low-tech cyclist

    Erick:

    Leftwing activists recently ganged up on Elizabeth Lauten. She was a staffer no one knew who worked for a Congressman no one knew. The left drove her from her job and ruined her career because on her personal Facebook page she made comments critical of the President’s daughters.

    I call bullshit on this one. Name names, Erick. Tell us who on the left demanded that she be fired. C’mon, dude. Because I think you’re bearing false witness, which is one of the Big Ten No-Nos.

  91. 91.

    Matt McIrvin

    @NonyNony: The single most common complaint I hear from parents is just that they can’t understand their kids’ math homework. It’s the same thing as the uproar over the New Math in the Sixties.

    There are two different things going on. First of all, there are a lot of genuinely crappy, badly-writtten math worksheets out there that have the words “Common Core” printed on them, whether or not they bear any relation to the standards. This is just good old textbook-publisher grifting.

    The other thing is that, frankly, many parents have a shaky grasp of mathematics. What they can do is mechanically crank out the precise algorithms they learned in school, and the more conceptual stuff designed to build intuitive “number sense” just comes off as crazy moon language. They can’t deal with it, and I think they take that as a threat to their authority as parents.

  92. 92.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Kay and others here have said that Dems should campaign on the economic security. Meanwhile, Jeb! has said the federal minimum wage should be repealed and the House GOP have passed a budget that repeals the ACA and guts Medicaid and other programs. We’ll see his this shakes out.

    Sporadic voters don’t care what happens in the House which is why Democrats do so poorly when they’re running on Congress.

    They do care about the President, and I would argue they would care about governors, if Democrats focused energy and resources on governors.

    Should Clinton run against Bush on economic security? Absolutely. She probably can’t rely on people who care about the minimum wage though, because poor people vote at such low rates. I’m all for an increase in the minimum wage, but that can’t function as a stand-in for a real economic security platform. It’s just not big enough.

  93. 93.

    Cervantes

    @Betty Cracker:

    I think Bill Clinton won the nomination after losing both Iowa and New Hampshire

    True, but Harkin was running and, naturally, took Iowa; and Tsongas was running and, naturally, took New Hampshire. In both cases, any other result would have been surprising.

  94. 94.

    Elizabelle

    @Germy Shoemangler: Can’t think of any GEICO ads I haven’t liked. The cavemen, dogs riding in cars … like Flo too. She’s a good spokesperson.

    “Sprinkles are for winners.”

  95. 95.

    grandpa john

    @Hal: A prime example of Pope’s”“Essay on Criticism” warning about shallow knowledge

    A little learning is a dangerous thing
    Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring
    There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
    And drinking largely sobers us again.

  96. 96.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Economic security also fits Hillary Clinton’s strengths. She ran in Ohio as someone we know and trust who is practical. I was an Obama supporter and I thought she was quite strong there-seemed authentic. Voters did too- she beat Obama soundly.

    I think it’s an absolute natural for her.

    They can’t just run on a Dem version of the GOP “opportunity” platform. They’ll be worse at it. It’ll be like a wonkier, more boring version of “opportunity”.

  97. 97.

    SFAW

    @debbie:

    Too many years since, I guess.

    Or, not enough. (That is, not enough since he passed on to the Great Republican Shill “Newspaper” Gig in the Sky). The guy was a festering boil on the body politic. Strangely/unfortunately, he’d seem moderate today, compared to the current RWTMs controlling the discourse.

  98. 98.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay: I think we should have 4-year Congressional terms, concurrent with presidential elections — get rid of the 2-year, because it just means more frequent campaigning and even more money to be raised.

    Do 4-year, so Congresscritters are beholden to a larger electorate that turns out for federal elections. Process is so gerrymandered that Congress does not reflect the will of the people. Congresscritters are hardly as replaceable as the Founding Fathers supposed. I don’t think they expected multi-decade careers, and political dynasties replacing aristocratic ones. What they wanted to avoid, actually.

    Senators get 6-year terms.

  99. 99.

    Elizabelle

    @Matt McIrvin: I wonder if schools should put out a “how to help your kids with homework” program — maybe on paper (on request), maybe online.

    Could help parents brush up their skills, and allow kids more help with learning math concepts.

    And, if parents can’t understand the instructions or examples at all, that tells the educators something.

  101. 101.

    Kay

    @Elizabelle:

    People just don’t like Congress. I know political reporters always say “except their own member!” but I don’t even think that’s true. I don’t think Democrats are ever going to get their less reliable voters out for Congress because their less reliable voters believe Congress is irrelevant to their lives.

    I once went door to door for Sherrod Brown/Obama. The list was Democratic donors, which is a tiny subset of Democratic voters. It was also in a nice residential area. Maybe half didn’t know who Sherrod Brown was. Several of them said “who is she?”

  102. 102.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay: What do you think about the 4-year term vs. 2-year?

    I think it solves a lot of practical issues, like Congress choosing its own electorate. (I want citizens commissions to draw up congressional districts too, not political parties — either one. Make the districts more contiguous and competitive.)

    Looking for NYTimes op ed about 4-year terms now. Ran a few months ago; I thought it raised some great points.

  103. 103.

    CaseyL

    @satby: So sorry to hear this. Condolences.

    The risk you take when you rescue the older and chronically ill.

    And bless you for doing that, giving oldsters love and security in their waning years!

  104. 104.

    Elizabelle

    Duke Public Policy prof David Schanzer and junior Jay Sullivan, op ed in NYTimes from last November.

    Cancel the Midterms.

    … at a time when Americans’ confidence in the ability of their government to address pressing concerns is at a record low, two-year House terms no longer make any sense. We should get rid of federal midterm elections entirely.

    … the two-year cycle isn’t just unnecessary; it’s harmful to American politics.

    The main impact of the midterm election in the modern era has been to weaken the president, the only government official (other than the powerless vice president) elected by the entire nation.

    … The realities of the modern election cycle are that we spend almost two years selecting a president with a well-developed agenda, but then, less than two years after the inauguration, the midterm election cripples that same president’s ability to advance that agenda.

    These effects are compounded by our grotesque campaign finance system.

    … Another quirk is that, during midterm elections, the electorate has been whiter, wealthier, older and more educated than during presidential elections. Biennial elections require our representatives to take this into account, appealing to one set of voters for two years, then a very different electorate two years later.

    There’s an obvious, simple fix, though. The government should, through a constitutional amendment, extend the term of House members to four years and adjust the term of senators to either four or eight years, so that all elected federal officials would be chosen during presidential election years.

    I think this is a brilliant suggestion. Campaigns as currently run benefit professional campaign staff and fatten up media companies, and don’t benefit the voter. Plus, election season is too long. Shorten it.

  107. 107.

    Kay

    @Elizabelle:

    I think it would be great. Jeb Bush is acting really aggressively to define issues and Clinton would do well to get going. The next thing that comes up in Ohio is whether Obama gets the trade deal he wants. It isn’t a huge issue all over the country but it is huge here, because people are still horribly bitter about NAFTA and if there IS a trade deal that will follow Clinton to Ohio.

    Clinton and Obama had a huge (sort of phony) debate over NAFTA and trade in 2008. They both came out against NAFTA, but Obama used it against Clinton. Now the tables will have turned, but either way it isn’t good news for Hillary Clinton that she will either have to attack or defend Obama’s trade deal (if Obama gets one).

  108. 108.

    rikyrah

    @Baud:

    Kay and others here have said that Dems should campaign on the economic security. Meanwhile, Jeb! has said the federal minimum wage should be repealed and the House GOP have passed a budget that repeals the ACA and guts Medicaid and other programs. We’ll see his this shakes out.

    Kay is on the money.

  110. 110.

    ThresherK

    @Matt McIrvin: Do the New New Hamshans (i.e. only there one or two generations) actually put their money where their mouths are in re public spending, or are they hypocrites?

    I’m getting a St. George, Utah vibe: A place where public pensioners go to retire while complaining about what their taxes are like for The Other’s undeserved government largesse.

    I don’t think olde New Hampshire’s “rugged individual” agriculture and extraction grift is anything like it is in the midwest and far west, considering the water, mining, grazing, and other things from MahTaxDollerz those folks are getitng. (Correct me if wrong.)

  111. 111.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @beth: True. Nowadays there’s a lot of shame around being caught driving impaired. And rightly so. Back in the day there was less of a stigma. Maybe the gun control groups can change some minds.

  112. 112.

    opiejeanne

    @ThresherK: I made lots of bread with my first Kitchen Aid, and burned out the motor mid-batch. I had worked my way through the bread recipes in the Julia Child book called “Baking With Julia”, and most of it was glorious. I felt so guilty about it, that I had ruined what was for me a very expensive piece of equipment, and the shipping to have it repaired made the cost add up to the price of a new one. Years later I heard one of the stars of Food TV Network mention how many motors he’d burned out on his Kitchen Aids by using the dough hook.

  113. 113.

    ThresherK

    @opiejeanne: Even though they’re seemingly everywhere, it is a very expensive piece of equipment for me, too. Not sure what the warning signs are, but I have no intention of burning it out.

    If I were a professional, like my nephew, that’d be different. I’ll tread lightly.

  115. 115.

    opiejeanne

    @ThresherK: I hope that works for you. I was in the kitchen with it and it sounded like it was laboring. The housing was so hot that I nearly burned my hand. I turned it off and it never started again. It was only on for about 3 minutes that time.

    I worked at Williams Sonoma at Christmas several years later and got a 40% discount on a new one, so I have one again but I don’t use the dough hook. I knead by hand or make bread by the knead-free method.

  116. 116.

    opiejeanne

    @ThresherK: my first KitchenAid mixer was cobalt blue. The current one is pink, purchased years before we knew that the Susan G. Komen group was teh debbil. It was an extra $50 bucks off, after the 40% employee discount, and another $50 went to the charity, which I used to think was a fine cause. Ugh.

    It’s pink, it sits inside the first appliance garage I’ve ever liked.

  117. 117.

    opiejeanne

    @Matt McIrvin: My mother took a class in New Math so that she could help my younger sister with math. It was a total bust for both of them, and not being able to help Junior with his/her math homework is a big concern for a lot of parents. Mom wasn’t bad at math, but she wasn’t particularly good at it either. Dad should have been helping her but didn’t have the time to take the free class offered by the district.

  118. 118.

    jimmiraybob

    @WereBear:

    “How long can a major political party sustain such a soap bubble of lies and grift?”

    Screw the party, I’m worried about how long the country can sustain a major political party increasingly defined by a soap bubble of lies and grift

  119. 119.

    PurpleGirl

    @Elizabelle: I really like the Geico ad with the guy who asks the Djinn for a million bucks and the look on the Djinn’s face as he grants the wish.

  120. 120.

    The Moar You Know

    Democratic voters do not respond to economic populism.

    @Peale: Understatement of the year. Fortunately for them (and for the GOP) the poor don’t vote, so it all works out.

    PROTIP: if one of our fine parties can get the rapidly shrinking middle class on board and out of their XboX chairs long enough to fill in a bubble on a ballot, the nation is yours for a good long time.

  121. 121.

    Tree With Water

    The Ericson episode (as described, won’t click) reminds me of the scene in Catch 22 when a fellow pilot yells to a crowd, “I’ll kill you all”, and Yossarian remarks that he’d be a great leader of men..

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