Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

We still have time to mess this up!

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

I really should read my own blog.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Everybody saw this coming.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

The revolution will be supervised.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

No Justins, No Peace

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Happy Easter Weekend

Reader Interactions

137Comments

  2. 2.

    WaterGirl

    Happy Easter to all.

    Cole, are you starting to miss Lovey already? Am I right in thinking she goes to geg6 tomorrow?

  3. 3.

    Brachiator

    Unfortunately I’m working during a chunk of Easter weekend. But I had forgot for a second that the Easter Ronnie had shipped weapons to Iran. This gives me a smile.

  6. 6.

    max

    Shouldn’t that be, ‘Back in my day, we only pretended to want to go to war with Iran’?

    max
    [‘”Not like these crazy Southern Democr…. uh, Republicans.’]

  7. 7.

    WaterGirl

    The picture reminds me of the Halloween card I have.

    Front of card: Picture of Reagan on the front, with “president of the united states” on the little nameplate.
    Inside: “this was the scariest card I could find”.

  10. 10.

    Howard Beale IV

    The truth hurts, eh, Bibi?

    Take THAT and stick it where the sun don’t shine, you schmuck.

  12. 12.

    eemom

    Awesome sauce.

    It ain’t Easter until next weekend for we Greek Orthodoxes. This sucked when I was a kid.

  13. 13.

    Gravenstone

    Ah yes, Iran Contra. That lovely bit of quid pro quo with Iran that caused the scales to fall from my eyes and lead me to ask why did I consider myself a Republican?

  14. 14.

    Pogonip

    Oh grave, where is thy victory? Oh death, where is thy sting?

    Oh Cole, where is thy pupdate?

  15. 15.

    MomSense

    @eemom:

    Yes, but the cooking starts this week.

    Christos anesti.

    @John Cole

    Bonus points for Reagan wearing a tan suit.

  16. 16.

    jl

    Ah, good times, back then, when our great leaders were perfect in all ways.

    One lesson of the Reagan years that we need to remember when the neocons spew their swill today is that every time Reagan committed some criminal and murderous nonsense like Iran-Contra, they thought he was just the mostest greatest perfectest leader ever in the history of the multiverse.

    And on those rare occasions when he did wise things, like negotiate with the Soviets under Gorbachev or pursue nuclear arms reductions talks, they screamed treason and disaster, screamed like stuck pigs.

    Reagan is gone, but the neocons are still here. And the GOPers running for president are probably worse than Reagan.

    So, on that cheery thought, Happy Easter!

  17. 17.

    Turgidson

    In a sane world, Bibi and all these GOP bootlickers and sick warmongering neocon fucks should be asked, repeatedly, “what in bloody fucking hell are you talking about?” every time they drag ol’ Neville Chamberlain’s corpse up for another skullfcking and say that an agreement that orders Iran to dismantle 70% of its nuclear program and nearly all of its potential weapon capability makes it easier for them to get a bomb than now, when experts estimate they’re a few months away.

    And then when these sick fucks are cornered into admitting that this is all a bunch of cynical bullshit and what they really want is a war against Iran, they should have to fucking explain how that conceivably achieves anything positive or dissuades Iran from rushing to get a bomb as a deterrent.

    The fact that these miserable pieces of shit can go in front of cameras any time they want and say such stupid, contradictory, irresponsible shit and never get called to explain or square any of it makes me hope the meteor is closer than we think.

    But then I remember that, in spite of itself, this country somehow twice elected Barack Obama, who has infinitely more sense than his political adversaries and with solid friends like John Kerry, is doing what he can to keep these drooling idiots from destroying us all. And that gives me just a little bit of hope.

  18. 18.

    geg6

    @WaterGirl:

    Next Saturday. Too much going on during a holiday weekend to deal with a new puppy. Family obligations will take us away from home too long.

  19. 19.

    Baud

    Why do I have a feeling that this will be the last post on this blog until Monday morning?

  20. 20.

    jl

    @Turgidson:

    I heard the vile Cotton say again today that he would accept no deal that does not ensure Iran’s ‘nuclear disarmament’.
    WTH is that supposed to mean?
    I think it means that Cotton is trying to mislead people into thinking that Iran currently has a nuclear weapon. Which it does not.

    What is worse, I have heard Cotton spew that several times, and not once have I heard any of our ace corporate hack news actors challenge him on it.

    Disgusting.

  21. 21.

    Howard Beale IV

    And as far as Easter goes, no one quite puts it the way The Rude Pundit does:

    Serious Christians are celebrating this week for the gruesome death of their savior. Some are positively jizzing in their Easter baskets over Christ’s crucifixion. Even if you’re like the Rude Pundit and think the whole thing is ghoulish and bizarre, you have to admire one thing about the biblical Jesus: motherfucker was brave. His story is about a man who said what he meant and meant what he said. He didn’t hide behind legal trickery. He fucked up people with his actual beliefs.

  22. 22.

    Michael Bersin

    @WaterGirl:

    I sent that card for Halloween at the time it came out to my (now ex) brother-in-law who I thought in those days was a republican with a sense of humor. My sister called me shortly after they received it and asked me to not ever do something like that again. Heh. That’s when I found my true calling.

  23. 23.

    Corner Stone

    @Baud:

    Why do I have a feeling that this will be the last post on this blog until Monday morning?

    Ah, Cole is useless for on point threads around here.
    I know B Crack won’t let me down tomorrow for NCAA threads, even though she has no love for roundball.
    But since we’re having our Easter here tomorrow afternoon it may not actually matter anyway.
    Blargh!

  24. 24.

    fuckwit

    @Gravenstone: Me too. Though the religious right forcing the drinking age up to 21 was another, and the religous right being religous in general yet another, and warmongering and stupid Cold War brinkmanship yet another, the PMRC still another, and letting Wall Street run amok in the 80s still another, and then watching Silicon Valley VC’s run amok in the late 90s finally turned me against capitalism. By the time Iran Contra and PMRC were in the news I was a Libertarian, and by 2000 I was still nominally Libertarian but I wasn’t sure what I was anymore. I was horrifid by the PATRIOT Act and against the Afghanistan war, and was out on the streets and working with the anarchists starting October 2002 against the Iraq War. But it took Shrub to finally push me (and Howard Dean’s campaign to pull me) over to the Democrats. I think I was ahead of Cole by maybe only a year or so.

  25. 25.

    ThresherK

    There will be bonus points awarded to anyone who finds a network news report talking about the Hinckley assassination attempt on Reagan which mentions his ad lib “Honey, I forgot to duck” was fake, and how much much more severe his condition was than reported.

    (I’m not even holding out that we’ll get anything about Iran Contra in a “This day in hsitory, 1981” story.)

  26. 26.

    Corner Stone

    @jl:

    I heard the vile Cotton say again today that he would accept no deal that does not ensure Iran’s ‘nuclear disarmament’.

    Done and Done!
    So we’re good here, Sen Cotton.

  28. 28.

    Roger Moore

    @jl:

    WTH is that supposed to mean?

    I don’t know what it’s supposed to mean, but what it actually means is that Sen. Cotton is talking out of his ass. ETA: which he apparently can’t tell from a hole in the ground.

  29. 29.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud:

    Dear Pessimist Baud,

    I long for the return of Optimist Baud, do you know when he might be expected to return?

    Most sincerely,

    WaterGirl

  30. 30.

    WaterGirl

    @Michael Bersin: Clearly they had no sense of humor! Did you persist in disobeying the order never to do that again? (sounds like you did not!) I liked the card so much that I bought two – one to give away and one to keep.

  31. 31.

    Turgidson

    @jl:

    You’d think I’d be used to the GOP’s leading lights spouting total nonsense with impunity, but on the Iran deal it’s bothering me a lot more than usual. They’re just saying totally fucking ridiculous, dangerous, things, unchallenged, nonstop and keep being given a platform to do it all over again. And it’s so many of the same lollygaggers who were wrong about Iraq, which makes it even more heinous. No professional penalty for pushing us into that decade-long atrocity whatsoever. Not even a polite “no thanks, I don’t need the opinion of a warmongering lunatic who’s wrong about everything” from the news orgs.

    I just can’t deal with it right now. This is pissing me off even more than the Mittens/Granny Starver 2012 campaign’s months-long hail of nonstop, escalating lies, which nearly drove me batty.

    I need to stop caring about this shit for a while.

  32. 32.

    NotMax

    The all-purpose “it’s a holiday” episode of Car 54, Where Are You?

          Part 1 – Part 2

    Al Lewis steals the show. You will laugh.

  34. 34.

    Steve

    Good point. Better to sell weapons to gain release of hostages than to give up 5 jihadists for a traitor….

  35. 35.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @eemom:

    The guy who has cut my hair for thirty years is Greek Orthodox. I remember how absolutely stunned (and pleased) he was the first time I greeted him for my April shearing with a hearty Χριστός ἀνέστη!

  36. 36.

    RSA

    @jl:

    And on those rare occasions when he did wise things, like negotiate with the Soviets under Gorbachev or pursue nuclear arms reductions talks, they screamed treason and disaster, screamed like stuck pigs.

    And today some conservatives (at least those friends of friends I see on Facebook) are dismissing Obama’s efforts as being too similar to Carter and the SALT talks. Completely ignoring that when Reagan introduced new strategic arms limitations talks, he called them SALT-III. WTF? It’s like Reagan’s having raised taxes. That just didn’t happen.

  37. 37.

    JPL

    @Steve: That’s true because then they can use to weapons to kill the christians and stuff.

    edit, steve is being a jerk and I’m being sarcastic

  38. 38.

    WaterGirl

    @fuckwit: After voting for reagan in my first election (1972) I soon turned democrat when all the watergate stuff came out.

    But my naive belief that not everything was partisan was ripped from me when the “states rights” supreme court went against everything they formerly believed in and installed shrub as president.

    Yesterday I voted for the hapless democrat for mayor of our city, the one with the totally screwed up personal life, the one who personally screwed a friend of mine (literally, politically and professionally), who abuses the power of his office and who I really didn’t want to vote for as mayor. Why?

    Because the alternatives were two republican women that I loathe politically and one PRETEND Independent who hasn’t voted in a democratic primary in 27 years, who got invited to the republican-sponsored candidate forum where only the democratic candidate was not invited, where he has a pact with the 2 republican candidates for the 3 of them not say anything bad about one another, only to say bad stuff about the democratic incumbent mayor. The pretend independent thinks our new vile governor in Illinois is great and he’s totally behind all the cuts to the University of Illinois and all the city governments in Illinois. What a total fucking liar he is to be presenting himself as independent.

    If It sounds like I’m angry, that’s because I am.

  40. 40.

    Zinsky

    Ronnie also helped arm and train a fine chap named Usama bin Laden and his assholish successor helped to arm a lovely guy named Saddam Hussein, including selling him the Bell helicopters and crop-dusting equipment and chemicals to gas his own people. Just sayin….

  41. 41.

    JPL

    @WaterGirl: If allowed.. change the name to Nixon. I actually voted for McGovern and the state where I voted, McGovern carried.

    i assume you mean Nixon in the Presidential election.

  43. 43.

    Woodrowfan

    actually, the “October Surprise” was different from Iran-Contra. The October 1980 deal with Iran was if they waited until after the inauguration to release the hostages then there would be no military retaliation by the US against Iran for taking them in the first place. The arms deal came several years later…

  44. 44.

    Gravenstone

    @Steve: Poor, poor stupid troll. Don’t you know that St. Ronaldus Magnus the First (PBUH) sold those weapons to make divine cash in order to spread freedom and democracy through Nicaraguan terrorists, er rebels and freedom fighters?

    If the weapons were indeed sold as quid pro quo for keeping the embassy hostages and helping throw our election to Ray-gun, as your post asserts (and frankly as everyone with more than three neurons to rub together knows), then please to explain to all of us how that isn’t basically the textbook definition of treason? And if it is treason, exactly why aren’t we lining up every motherless whoreson still standing from that administration and shooting them, as befits that crime?

  46. 46.

    D58826

    The opening segment on Tweetie tonight ws on the Iran deal. The GOP mouthpiece Ron Christtie started the discussion with a review of Munich and Neville Chamberlain. That does seem to be a hot spot for Tweetie. He proceeded to rip Christie several new ones. According to Christie the Iranians made no concessions. David Axelrod then listed some of the terms of the agreement. When Tweetie asked for a response from Christie it was back to 1938. Tweetie did get Christie to admit that the GOP war talk is probably ill-advised.

  47. 47.

    Gravenstone

    @JPL: The quality of the paid trolls has certainly fallen off since BiPpy got hisself ban hammered.

  48. 48.

    WaterGirl

    Does anyone have a link to the really funny video/audio related to easter? I first saw it here a few years ago.

    The guy is in some language class, maybe french? And various classmates and the teacher are talking about Easter. Something about a bell?

    They’re talking about bunnies and Jesus on the cross and all sorts of craziness. Does anyone have any idea of what I am talking about?

  50. 50.

    D58826

    @Steve: Except of course as one set of hostages was released, the hostage takers in Lebanon just went out and kidnapped a few more. It was a never ending cycle.

  51. 51.

    WaterGirl

    @JPL: Yes, you are so right! I never voted for Reagan. I lost my mind for a second there, thanks for catching it.

  54. 54.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: Yes! The bunny of easter, he shall be (something). Do you have any search words that might help me find the video?

    Edit: The Rabbit of Easter, He Bring of the Chocolate.

  55. 55.

    Gene108

    @fuckwit:

    I would lay the drink age age to 21 on the feet of the folks, who worked that the drinking age at 21 led to fewer teenagers crashing their card and dying.

    I believe that was the impetus to attaching Federal highway funds to states with a drinking age of 21.

    Plenty of states in the Bible Belt had a drinking age of 18 into the 1980’s.

  57. 57.

    Cacti

    At times like these, I stop and ask myself: What would Reagan do?

    Then I remember: Have Oliver North take a cake to the Supreme Ayatollah.

  61. 61.

    Mike in NC

    In my experience, if one were to sit four or more random white senior citizens down at a table and produce a picture of the Gipper, they’d get all misty-eyed while recalling the great things he never actually did, while conveniently forgetting the stupid shit that happened on his watch.

    Also how much cheaper a gallon of gas was 30 years ago.

  63. 63.

    Pogonip

    Since this a religious weekend (I think it’s also a Jewish holiday, isn’t it?) I have a theological question.

    All the major religions preach kindness to one’s fellow man. This being the case: if Cole joined a religion, would he still put up I-hate-you-all posts? An I-love-you-all post, or even I-tolerate-you-all post, just wouldn’t have quite the same zest.

  65. 65.

    Gravenstone

    @Mike in NC:

    Also how much cheaper a gallon of gas was 30 years ago.

    I pumped gas for a living 35 years ago. We sold it for $0.859/gallon. Just for shits and giggles I decided to check an inflation calculator, and that’d be $2.149 today. So yeah, gas currently isn’t that far from the “good old days”.

  67. 67.

    Roger Moore

    @Pogonip:

    All the major religions preach kindness to one’s fellow man. This being the case: if Cole joined a religion, would he still put up I-hate-you-all posts?

    You may or may not have noticed, but there tends to be a large gap between what religion teaches and what believers actually do. The gap is certainly big enough for plenty of misanthropic Cole posts, even if he were religious.

  69. 69.

    trollhattan

    Just returned to town from the Cali central coast after Spring Break vacay with the offspring, with the governor’s new drought emergency declaration being “advertised” on the many CalTrans freeway info signs along the way. Also noticeable along I-5, especially in Stanislaus County, I saw hundreds of acres of…wait for it…new orchards.

    Dollars to donuts they’re destined to be “prop” orchards that will die due to the “Congress-created drought” that Hannity will report from later this summer.

    Numbskulls.

  73. 73.

    Mandalay

    @jl:

    not once have I heard any of our ace corporate hack news actors challenge him on it

    But our Villagers are just as bad, if not worse. On Diane Rehm’s International Show today some dimwit (James Kitfield of National Journal) stated “we have a long history of animosity between us and the Islamic Republic of Iran, starting with their taking our hostages in ’79 when it was birthed“.

    None of his fellow “experts” on the panel corrected him. So when you have the media spouting such nonsense, regardless of whether they are just ignorant, or maliciously lying about the facts, it’s hardly surprising that Cotton gets a free pass.

  75. 75.

    ThresherK

    @efgoldman: Hey, you’ll have to tell them whippersnappers that “pumped gas” used to a thing done for money. As part of a job. While wearing a nametag (sometimes).

    They may otherwise think it was the action of some weird freelancer who stood there next to the squeegee bucket because he liked it.

    (Disclaimer: I don’t miss people pumping my gas. Anyone who has a motorcycle doesn’t, I’d guess, either.)

  76. 76.

    Mike J

    @Mandalay:

    “we have a long history of animosity between us and the Islamic Republic of Iran, starting with their taking our hostages in ’79 when it was birthed“.

    That’s when our animosity towards them started. Americans held no ill will towards Iranians after we staged the coup in the 50s, but a fair number of Iranians understandably weren’t crazy about us.

    To Americans, only our fee-fees matter, nobody else’s.

  78. 78.

    NotMax

    @MikeJ

    One Shell station here still does it (gas is same price as everywhere else). And they wash your windshield and will check oil and water.

    They do have one island of self-serve pumps for those in a rush.

  80. 80.

    jl

    @Pogonip:

    ” if Cole joined a religion, would he still put up I-hate-you-all posts? An I-love-you-all post, or even I-tolerate-you-all post, just wouldn’t have quite the same zest. ”

    There is always a way. Does WV have some goofy religious freedom law that allows Cole to get away with something? Then he might start his own religion. The cannabis church of Indiana could provide inspiration.

    Then make a punch in the neck for your sins one of the sacraments (or the sacrament).

    “I grant you all a punch in the neck, my BJ hordes of flying rabid weasels ”
    That would almost as good as an ‘I hate you all’ post.

  81. 81.

    Mandalay

    @Mike J:

    To Americans, only our fee-fees matter, nobody else’s.

    Exactly. The clue that the “expert” had an agenda and was lying (rather than simply ignorant) was when he referred to Iran as “the Islamic Republic of Iran”.

    Just as you automatically know nobody is going to say anything nice when they refer to “Barack Hussein Obama”, you automatically know they are not going to say anything nice when they refer to “the Islamic Republic of Iran”. The problem is that this skewed view is not coming from a Republican politician, but from an “expert” on the ostensibly fair-and-reasonable Diane Rehm Show, so the gullible layman will just swallow the bullshit they are being fed.

  83. 83.

    WaterGirl

    @Mike in NC: There are lots of BJ commenters that fit that age group, but I don’t think any of them liked the Gipper then or like him now.

  85. 85.

    Roger Moore

    @ThresherK:

    Hey, you’ll have to tell them whippersnappers that “pumped gas” used to a thing done for money.

    Believe it or not, there are still full service stations, even in states that don’t require them. There’s a station that offers full service not too far from where I live, and I always wonder who is still paying to get their gas pumped these days.

  87. 87.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @efgoldman:

    My ex and I bought our cars at the same time from the same dealer, so the plates were just one digit off from each other. Can’t remember now which of us had odd and which had even but I do remember that if one of us really needed gas on the “wrong” day, Ken would just switch out the plates for however long it took to drive to the service station and sit in line for many hours, then switch them back upon returning home.

    It sounds bizarre now, but at the time it seemed totally normal.

  88. 88.

    Mike J

    @Pogonip:

    Why not? I miss it when it’s cold, rainy, or both.

    I would gladly pay an extra $1.50 for a tank of gas to not have to stand in the snow or rain. Once a week, it’s a pretty small splurge.

  89. 89.

    muddy

    @Roger Moore: In my town there are 3 gas stations, 2 have a minimart and 1 doesn’t. That one pumps your gas and it doesn’t cost any more than the places where you do it yourself. I don’t have much use for minimarts and would rather not pump my gas, so my choice is easy. On Tuesdays they put out a sandwich board saying GAS SALE and it’s 5 cents less a gallon. Oh, and they are very liberal with the dog treats.

  90. 90.

    ThresherK

    @NotMax: Okay, now I’m flashing back to the movie “Pleasantville”.

    And @Mike J: The places around me all have those roofs now. When I was a kid, not so.

    I’m figuring that has a lot to do with the laws requiring the fire safety systems overhead. (Is that a Federal thing, or are there some states where I have the freedom to not be saved from a fire at a gas pump?)

  91. 91.

    NotMax

    @ThresherK

    Hawaii’s basic tax on gasoline starts at 17¢ per gallon (there’s also a couple of pennies for other fees). But there’s also the 4% excise tax on the total sale included, so the gas tax is itself also taxed.

  94. 94.

    Pogonip

    @Mandalay: I think that’s why Americans lose wars. They’ve forgotten how to look at things from the other side’s viewpoint.

  95. 95.

    mainmata

    @ThresherK: And Reagan’s survival was largely due to the excellent skills of the GWU trauma staff who had lots of practice in the drug wars in the District. If he had been shot in Podunk, probably would not have made it.

  96. 96.

    NotMax

    @Omnes Omnibus

    Used to own and operate a small business here (very small) until the economy tanked.

    Businesses collect the excise tax on each sale, and then at the end of the month pay the state 4% excise tax on gross income, so are sending the state money which includes a tax on the tax money they’ve charged the customer.

    Which is why business are permitted to charge customers up to 4.17% tax instead of a straight 4% (if they choose to).

    And if 4% state excise tax sounds small to some readers here, keep in mind that it applies to everything – including food, including rent. Exceptions grudgingly carved out for newspapers, items paid via food stamps, and artificial limbs. (Places like USPS are also exempt as it is a wholly federal transaction.)

  97. 97.

    Peale

    @Mandalay: Salon had a post up from a expert the other day, talking about ISIS. His basic idea was a political settlement with them and wait for them to collapse on their own. The real concern was with removing Assad (who’s inability to govern is apparently to blame for ISIS) and weakening Iran. In other words, Israel’s foreign policy. Argle bargle. Our experts are very confusing on a number of issues, but I think the common thread here is that we default to Iran as the problem as often as we possibly can. I think Iran is the reason that Castro is still alive and Bob Menendez makes such poor friends. Also, I think they are behind permissive parenting.

  107. 107.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Omnes Omnibus: Agreed. Some of the things he mastered isn’t in my wheelhouse, but I always appreciate good recording and good engineering.

  108. 108.

    Mandalay

    The gofundme web site is no longer accepting donations for the pizzeria owners in Indiana. Although the target total was $200,000 they didn’t stop accepting donations until the total had reached $842,387 (in less than two days).

    That doesn’t smell quite right, since the stated purpose of the fundraising was “To relieve the financial loss endured by the proprietors’ stand for faith”, but I’m sure gofundme are thrilled. If you read the small print on their web site it states: “GoFundMe’s fee is 5% from each donation you receive“.

    So for the past two days that web site has been skimming about a thousand dollars an hour off the top, just for hosting the donation process. Also too, “WePay’s fee is 2.9% + $0.30 per donation”.

    There’s more than one grifter working this scam.

  109. 109.

    Tenar Darell

    @Mike in NC: Not just seniors. There’s a segment of the 40’s with a bit of money that vaguely remember him as President from when they were young teenagers that confuse the hagiography, particularly from the funeral, and think he was great. (Yeah, this is based on a real conversation. I mildly pointed out that there’s been a continuous campaign to remember him as a “beloved”).

  111. 111.

    Peale

    Also, I kind of wish that this “Obama at Munich appeasing away” idea would stop. As far as I can tell, if the talks had broken down, we weren’t going to go to war with Iran. We would have continued with what we were doing before. I don’t think we’ve averted anything.

  113. 113.

    Tenar Darell

    @Omnes Omnibus: Me too. I never bought it either. (But that probably has more to do with the fact that some of my first political memories are based around every adult around me being furious about what Nixon had done).

  115. 115.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Tenar Darell:

    (But that probably has more to do with the fact that some of my first political memories are based around every adult around me being furious about what Nixon had done).

    Mine are a little earlier, but they include that memory as well. Sometimes one just needs the right parents.

  116. 116.

    Peale

    @Mandalay: we are a stupid people. Honestly, I doubt that place sold one less pizza because of this. On the other side, why the hell did the Left decide to get its knickers in a twist over this pizza place that it couldn’t do anything about anyway. I think the decline in our absorption of lead from our everyday environment has been grossly overstated. I see signs of the poisoning everywhere.

  117. 117.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Mandalay: The real fun starts once they receive the funds. Hope they have a sharp CPA, otherwise their tax liability will be “interesting”. Perhaps our own burnsie can help these poor misunderstood hypocritical bigots out of the hellhole they dug themselves into.

  121. 121.

    Mandalay

    @Peale: gofundme actually has another person seeking donations over the same issue (i.e. homophobia):

    A Washington court has ruled against Barronelle Stutzman, the lovable grandmother and long-time florist, for acting consistent with her Christian faith. Barronelle referred a longstanding customer to nearby florists because she could not in good conscience create custom arrangements and provide wedding support for his same-sex wedding. This ruling prevents Barronelle’s case from going to trial and makes her personally responsible for paying any damages and attorney’s fees incurred by the same-sex couple and the State of Washington. Everything she’s worked to build, including her home, her family business, and her life savings are now at risk.

    I don’t really wish her ill on a personal level, yet part of me still hopes that she is ruined financially. This nonsense that you can be selective about which laws you will choose to obey based on your conscience needs to end, and if it takes strict enforcement of the law to do that then so be it.

  123. 123.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Mandalay: Since marriage is a state function, it’s only fitting that Jesus’s teaching be quoted:

    Render unto Cesar what is Ceasr’s, and render unto God what is God’s.

    Somehow, that verse seems to get conveniently ignored.

  124. 124.

    Peale

    @Mandalay: at least in that case, which is the Ur-case and only one, there are legal fees and whatnot. For the pizza place, there wasn’t anyone even remotely threatening to sue, no regulator that could out them out of business, and even if the someone somehow managed a national boycott of the place, it wouldn’t make a dent in their sales.

  125. 125.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @efgoldman: My dad played oboe and I know that saxes are woodwinds made of metal, but too much pedantry spoils my point. The brass and woodwinds sit behind the important instruments, so who that matters really knows who is what.

  126. 126.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Omnes Omnibus: Let’s not confuse single reed woodwinds (saxophones, clarinets) with double-reed woodwinds (oboes, bassoons) – each requires different skills to properly master.

  127. 127.

    Mandalay

    @Peale: Agreed. While I don’t have any sympathy for either of them, the florist is objectively a more deserving cause than the pizzeria owner.

    Given the amount of money donated, the pizzeria may never reopen, but they would probably have a booming business if they kept going after all that free publicity.

  129. 129.

    Gin & Tonic

    @efgoldman: I saw Anthony Braxton playing a contrabass saxophone in the old Jazz Workshop on Boylston. Damn thing cleared the ceiling by about two inches.

  130. 130.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Omnes Omnibus: Here’s the thing I don’t get: unless the couple voluntarily discloses that they are a same-sex couple to the service provider (i.e, two males/two females on a wedding cake) what’s the issue here?

    And who the fuck would order pizza for a formal wedding?

  131. 131.

    Howard Beale IV

    @efgoldman: Yeah, I can see massive variations when it comes to weddings. But still, I find the the pizza-slingers response out of the norm unless the requestors stated that they were providing a service to a same-sex wedding.

  132. 132.

    Tenar Darell

    @Omnes Omnibus: There’s one or two specific memories a bit earlier. I definitely remember the Vietnam peace talks being announced. I sorta kinda remember the 1972 campaign. I do remember the feeling of only Massachusetts going for McGovern. But Watergate was the one that stuck because the adults were talking, and emoting, about it for a long time.

    @efgoldman: WETA put out a documentary for the 10 year anniversary of the hearings in 1983, and I remember being riveted watching it with my classmates my Freshman year. It was bizarre to watch the clips of the hearings as a semi-adult. Phrases that I remembered vaguely suddenly had clarity, and things I’d never really understood, made sense. Even minor facts sank into this mess of out of context memories. One was that “The Watergate” was an actual hotel; by the time I heard that name, it was already so firmly attached to the scandal that no one ever really spoke about it as a hotel anymore.

  133. 133.

    Cervantes

    @Mandalay:

    This nonsense that you can be selective about which laws you will choose to obey based on your conscience needs to end

    Are you quoting Gandhi? Dr. King? Rosa Parks?

  134. 134.

    sparrow

    @eemom: But the party is so much better! I am really really looking forward to the αρνἰ, I have to say. We have a big group of about 50 people, starting at 10 AM and going pretty late.

  135. 135.

    NonyNony

    @efgoldman:

    I don’t think there were actual customers involved, it was just a case of RWNJ bigots making a point, and maybe knowing how good the grift was.

    Fox News Syndrome in action – right-wing business owners watch only Fox News and are sure that the majority of people think the same way they do about things. So when a reporter shows up to ask them as a business owner what they think about the issue, they squawk out the truth because they’re sure that everyone thinks the same way they do. Then they’re shocked to discover that they’re actually in the minority on this and everyone around them thinks they’re hateful bigots.

    I’ve seen it happen quite a lot – it’s why I try to make sure I’m not getting myself into my own information bubble and mistake how I think the world should work with the way the world actually does work. These clowns were probably sure that everyone in Indiana except for a few “liberals” – a scary bogeyman representing a class of people that they have never had any knowing interaction with – supported them and think the same way as them. They were probably shocked by the backlash because they’ve been consistently told that people in “Real America” where they live think the same way they do.

    They’d probably be shocked to find out that many of their long-time customers are actually pretty liberal – even in the sticks of Indiana there is a sizeable minority of people who empathize with other people and think going around being an asshole isn’t the way to live your life. But the idjits who have allowed Fox News to proscribe how they think and what they know won’t even recognize that the nice guy who has been eating at their place for decades is actually a solid Democratic voter who puts up with their political ramblings in quiet because he’s polite enough to not discuss politics in public. Which used to be something that we were taught when I grew up in the West/Midwest but apparently it’s fallen by the wayside.

  136. 136.

    Chris

    @Gravenstone:
    @fuckwit:

    For me, it was a combination of 1) watching the Iraq war disaster unfold, which pretty much shattered any preconception that they were the party to trust when there was a war to be fought, 2) taking enough high schools economics to understand that no, economics ISN’T a binary equation where you either agree with Ayn Rand or SlipperySlope into Soviet Russia, and 3) discovering the world of right wing blogs, getting exposed to the full blast of What The Conservative Base Really Means when it’s not pretending to be Compassionate and realizing that yep, the DFHs who say they’re racist, genocidal, hate poor people and wev are completely right.

    But the earliest warning sign was actually the 2002 elections, played out again later in 2004, where they not only defended the record of draft-dodgers like George Bush and Saxby Chambliss, but dumped all over real Vietnam veterans – the first clue I picked up on that yes, their “support the troops!” “support the veterans!” act was all a charade.

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