Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

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

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Republicans in disarray!

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

So very ready.

Consistently wrong since 2002

… gradually, and then suddenly.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

T R E 4 5 O N

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

You are here: Home / Organizing & Resistance / Fables Of The Reconstruction / Open Thread: Steve “Pig Muck” King, on Evangelical Outreach

Open Thread: Steve “Pig Muck” King, on Evangelical Outreach

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While the cream of America’s Leet Meeja is busy pimping for The Scarlet Whore’s frontman, Iowa’s Voice does his best to represent the True Heartland Muricans(tm). From the TPM article (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/steve-king-ben-carson):

Steve King: A Muslim ‘Cannot Seriously Give An Oath’ To The Constitution

… “I wouldn’t expect those remarks would hurt Dr. Carson in Iowa. I think they help him,” King said, according to The Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/shrill-rhetoric-in-the-gop-primary-race-could-come-back-to-haunt-the-party/2015/09/22/f879cc90-6151-11e5-8e9e-dce8a2a2a679_story.html). “The people on our side who pay any attention to this at all understand sharia is incompatible with the Constitution and that a sincerely devout Muslim — I might say, a devout Islamist — cannot seriously give an oath to support the Constitution, because it’s incompatible with his faith….

“I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation,” Carson said. “I absolutely would not agree with that.”

Of course, within living memory (the 1930s), my Catholic father’s Irish cousins were welcomed to Louisiana by having crosses burned on their property, so it’s not really surprising the Repubs are lunging for another time-honored tune on the tribalist dogwhistle. And it’s not just the Cat-liks takin’ notes here. Mormon reporter McKay Coppins:

As Mr. Pierce would say, One despairs of the rebranding.

**********
Posting update: I’m still accessing Balloon-Juice through a proxy, which is why the links have gone ugly. I’m hand-typing in simple < > commands (bold, italic, blockquote) but I don’t have the “buttons” shortcut to embed links properly (or to put stuff below the fold).

If you copy & paste the article links, you should get the full documents. The links inside the tweets I can’t even *see* on my screen — they’re code-shorthand, and when I click on them, the proxy boots me. So you’ll have to treat them as objects, and search Twitter directly if you want to authenticate a particular tweet.

We’re supposed to go away for a few days over the weekend, so either I’ll disappear completely (again) or I’ll be able to verify that the problem is/is-not in my laptop. (And if it’s not my machine, our router will need to be rebooted/replaced.)

Any experts have suggestions for getting around this problem, leave me a comment below, or send me an email — annelaurie at verizon dot net. (Everything else — email, other websites — is working fine for me; I just can’t get to Balloon-Juice, because “the link between the router and the server times out”.)

Reader Interactions

195Comments

  3. 3.

    sharl

    Hey Anne, the links in your post seem to all go to a 2010 Tim F. B-J post:

    https://balloon-juice.com/2010/01/28/status-quo/

    Though sometimes/often/always (?) with some added numeric stuff, e.g.:

    https://balloon-juice.com/2010/01/28/status-quo/646145524488343552/

    I know I saw at least one commenter already note this in a previous post of yours, but I thought I’d bring it up again, in case you didn’t see that.

  5. 5.

    mclaren

    Since Carson was the kook who proposed killing Mexican immigrants with drone strikes, do we really need to go any further?

  7. 7.

    Gimlet

    commercialappeal.com/news/scs-schools/justice-scalia-at-rhodes-dont-mess-with-the-constitution-1ff48…

    United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s speech at Rhodes College Tuesday night can be summed up with one line: “Don’t mess with the Constitution.”

    “Do you really want your judges to rewrite the Constitution?” he asked, adding that the current bench is made up of a group of lawyers “terribly unrepresentative of our country.”

    He called the recent cases the “furthest imaginable extension of the Supreme Court doing whatever it wants.”

    “I worry about a court that’s headed in that direction,” he said.

    Scalia said arguments for keeping the Constitution a “living document” that changes with the times usually center around the idea of adding freedom, noting, “I don’t know why you think it’s always good, unless you’re an anarchist,” to add freedoms.

    “I thought the trick was to balance freedom with order,” he said.

    The cases that Scalia called “structural,” which define the backbone of the country, he said, are “what I fall on my sword for.”

    On specific issues, Scalia waded into the death penalty, saying he “wouldn’t be surprised” if his court ruled it unconstitutional, despite his belief that the Constitution allows for it with the establishment of protections like a fair trial.

    But on the issue of drone strikes killing Americans abroad — likely with no due process — Scalia said he had no fundamental issue with it. “I think, if that person has taken up arms against the United States, what’s the difference between allowing our soldiers to shoot him dead and allowing a drone to kill him?” he said.

    The drone issue came up during a question-and-answer session at the end, along with one about removing Alexander Hamilton from the $10 bill. While the debate nationally has centered on the addition of a woman to currency, Scalia commented only on the removal of Hamilton and said he opposes it because Hamilton is one of his heroes. He added, “If you remove him from the 10, put him on the 50.”

  8. 8.

    Mary G

    AL., your links are still borked. The ones in the tweets all go to Balloon Juice 404 (file not found) and the dates at the ends still go to Tim F.’s 2010 post about calling Congress to get healthcare passed. Still cool that happened.

  11. 11.

    benw

    I don’t know what the fuck these assholes are talking about. Our Muslim’s been doing just fine since 2008.

  12. 12.

    boatboy_srq

    Steve King: A Muslim ‘Cannot Seriously Give An Oath’ To The Constitution

    King and the rest keep getting confused and forget that public officials don’t swear on the Constitution to uphold the Bibie.

  14. 14.

    Baud

    I’ve gone to a couple of campaign websites recently — Sanders and Chris Christie — and I’m a little surprised how thin they are on content. Maybe not so much for Christie, but the Sanders website seems like it should be more detailed than it is. Maybe it’s still early, or maybe campaigns don’t really put their stuff up on their websites nowadays.

    Still, I find it odd.

  16. 16.

    Jeffro

    I’ll be interested to see where these Carson supporters go, whether he withdraws in February or after a brokered convention. No idea who he will endorse, but I’m sure both Cruz and Rubio are each hoping it’s him.

    Cruz’s strategy is getting to be a little underpants-gnomish (since he has alienated so much of the elected Rs and the Establishment)
    – shut down the government with the help of the GOP congress, then campaign against…the GOP congress
    – wait for Trump to flame out and grab all those angry people
    – wait for Carson to flame out and grab all those religious nuts
    – Gilmore endorsment? (j/k)
    – …
    – profit! And White House to boot!

    What a coalition for non-fiction’s Greg Stillson to ride to power, eh?

  17. 17.

    gelfling545

    It’s incompatible with the Christian faith too as the Bible forbids taking oaths. Matthew 5:34

    But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all,

  22. 22.

    Baud

    @Morzer: Well, I haven’t visited Clinton’s website yet, so it may be just as content-poor.

    Doesn’t mean I won’t be denounced.

    Maybe it’s all on Facebook, which I don’t use.

  26. 26.

    NobodySpecial

    “The people on our side who pay any attention to this at all understand sharia is incompatible with the Constitution and that a sincerely devout Muslim — I might say, a devout Islamist — cannot seriously give an oath to support the Constitution, because it’s incompatible with his faith

    I had no idea Kim Davis was Muslim.

  27. 27.

    Gimlet

    In a press conference in Columbia, South Carolina on Wednesday, Trump sharply criticized the former hedge fund manager who has become known as the “Pharma bro,” telling ThinkProgress the man is a “disgrace” and a “spoiled brat.”

    “This young guy raised the price to a level that’s absolutely ridiculous and he looks like a spoiled brat doing it,” he told ThinkProgress. “You want to know the truth? He looks like a spoiled brat. And he’s a hedge fund guy — as you know, the only one who I’m raising taxes for. They’re going to be paying up. But I thought it was a disgusting thing what he did.”

    “It’s terrible,” he said when ThinkProgress asked him what he would do to combat rising drug prices. “But particularly there’s something about that one — the way he raised it and to that extent. And then he sat back smug, like he was hot stuff. That guy is nothing. He is zero. He is nothing.”

  28. 28.

    Morzer

    @Baud:

    Now you’ve got yourself into anti-Clinton pro-o’Malley, doubleplus ungood traitorhood with a scoop of vanilla sourced directly from Mitt Romney’s own refrigeration device.

  32. 32.

    Chris

    Since it’s an open thread again –

    Any of you colonoscopy veterans from the other day ever come out of it with a mild fever and runny nose, and how long does it take for the symptoms to fade?

    I know, they say contact your doctor if you have anything that might feel like they pierced the colon during the operation… but I don’t have any abdominal pain or bloody stool, so I’m pretty sure it’s not that. Just the body alternating between a fever and a runny nose (when one arrives, the other goes).

  36. 36.

    PaulW

    Speak of the Mormons, I can remember how Mitt Romney kept getting treated as an unwashed heathen by the very same Republican party that wanted him to lay waste to Obama.

    How can anyone of a faith different than the Baptist Evangelical respect this Republican party that shows such disdain for those not of “their” tribe? How many people have to get kicked out of that Big Tent of St. Ronnie’s before most Americans wake up to how soulless this 700 Club GOP has become?

  40. 40.

    Chris

    @benw:

    I don’t know what the fuck these assholes are talking about. Our Muslim’s been doing just fine since 2008.

    LOOOOOOOOL.

  41. 41.

    Splitting Image

    King is right, in a manner of speaking. A Muslim who thinks the way Kim Davis does will sooner or later find his or her oath of office incompatible with his or her version of Islam, for the same reason that Davis found her oath of office incompatible with her version of Christianity. Electing such a Muslim will cause at least as much trouble as Davis has been causing lately.

    One assumes this is the problem to which King is referring. Fortunately, most Muslims are not nearly as stubborn about their religion as Davis.

    I’ve noticed that lots of Mormons—including right-wingers & Carson fans—are very uncomfortable w/ his Muslim remark

    I’ve said it before, but the Mormon community is almost certain to break away from the Republican coalition sometime in the near future. The more the xenophobia that drives the Republican base bubbles to the top, the sooner the base will make it clear that the LDS isn’t any more welcome than any other foreign religion. As hard as it is to imagine Utah voting Democratic, that’s almost the only protest the Mormon community can make. A Trump/Carson ticket might just do it.

    Mouthing off about Pope Frankie isn’t going to do them any good with the Catholic rank and file, either.

  45. 45.

    Chris

    @JPL:

    Yesterday afternoon. Runny nose was pretty much right out of the hospital. Fever around 9 or 10 when I went to bed.

    From what I’ve gleaned from the Internets (as reliable as that is), sounds like it might be a reaction to the anaesthetic, not the colonoscopy itself.

  47. 47.

    Mike J

    @Roger Moore:

    I assume “the scarlet whore” is the Catholic Church, and Leet Meeja is a deliberate misspelling of Elite Media.

    Leet Meeja came from TV Go Home and was spread by the worldwide tentacles of london.pm

  48. 48.

    kc

    I thought Jesus instructed His followers not to swear oaths, but most of themseem to have disregarded that.

  49. 49.

    Baud

    @Debbie: Maybe not. I just checked out Hillary’s, and it’s a little more detailed than Sanders, but not as much as I was anticipating. But I’ve not visited too many campaign websites in the past, so maybe my expectations are unrealistic.

  51. 51.

    Morzer

    @Chris:

    It might just be that you picked up a touch of flu or a cold from someone you encountered at the hospital. Ever get sinusitis? Allergies?

  56. 56.

    Tokyokie

    If the GOP had gotten so screwy that it’s scaring away Mormons, it really has gone over the cliff.

  59. 59.

    Morzer

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    It’s a reference to the Book of Revelation, 17.3-6,

    17:3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
    17:4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
    17:5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH..
    17:6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

    Protestants saw this as a reference to the Catholic church.

  63. 63.

    Chris

    @Splitting Image:

    RTR’s link to that Ann Coulter twitter screed was interesting that way, because she doesn’t just go after the Pope, she tears the entire Catholic Church and culture a new one, with all of the old screeds about how Catholic societies are inferior, less developed, more primitive, than Protestant ones. Catholic right wingers who would be happy to tolerate an insult to the Pope are not simply going to let that slide.

    Of course, it’s just Ann Coulter. I mostly still think that the right wing as a whole has enough sense not to piss off the Catholic vote irretrievably – that’s a fuckton of support right there. But the way they just keep going out of their way to alienate more and more people, you never know.

    (And there is, after all, a certain segment of the religious right that’s still considers Catholics as bad as Muslims, pagans and atheists, even if they mostly have enough sense not to say it on a national platform).

  64. 64.

    Debbie

    @Baud:

    I generally check sites for local candidates, and their statements are never any more specific than Paul Ryan’s tax plan.

  65. 65.

    Baud

    @Debbie:

    I’ll amend my comment. Spent a little more time noodling around Clinton’s website, and it’s not too bad given that it’s still early in the campaign. Maybe I just can’t find it, but I don’t see much on Bernie’s website about his policy proposals.

  67. 67.

    Gimlet

    @JPL:

    Fever is not an allergy symptom. Any reaction to medication would be gone the next day as it clears out of your system.

    Given the nose symptom sounds like a sinus infection. Wait and see if it clears if you’re not too sick. If it persists or it makes you feel real bad see someone.

  69. 69.

    Chris

    @Morzer:

    No allergies except occasionally to dust. But I’ve never been anasthesized before (or at least not in twenty years or so), so you never know, maybe allergic to that.

    I do catch colds very easily, so it might just be that simple.

  70. 70.

    Morzer

    @Gimlet:

    It’s possible he has both an allergy and a fever caused by something else. The runny nose might be allergy or sinus-related.

  73. 73.

    Comrade Dread

    I might say, a devout Islamist — cannot seriously give an oath to support the Constitution, because it’s incompatible with his faith….

    I might say a devout Christian or Jew cannot seriously give an oath to support the Constitution.

    Anyone arrogant enough to reject the verdict of the judge or of the priest who represents the LORD your God must be put to death. Such evil must be purged from Israel. (Deuteronomy 17:12 NLT)

    If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife, both the man and the woman must be put to death. (Leviticus 20:10 NLT)

    Whoever sacrifices to any god, except the Lord alone, shall be doomed. (Exodus 22:19 NAB)

    They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul; and everyone who would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. (2 Chronicles 15:12-13 NAB)

    Suppose you hear in one of the towns the LORD your God is giving you that some worthless rabble among you have led their fellow citizens astray by encouraging them to worship foreign gods. In such cases, you must examine the facts carefully. If you find it is true and can prove that such a detestable act has occurred among you, you must attack that town and completely destroy all its inhabitants, as well as all the livestock. Then you must pile all the plunder in the middle of the street and burn it. Put the entire town to the torch as a burnt offering to the LORD your God. That town must remain a ruin forever; it may never be rebuilt. Keep none of the plunder that has been set apart for destruction. Then the LORD will turn from his fierce anger and be merciful to you. He will have compassion on you and make you a great nation, just as he solemnly promised your ancestors. “The LORD your God will be merciful only if you obey him and keep all the commands I am giving you today, doing what is pleasing to him.” (Deuteronomy 13:13-19 NLT)

    But if this charge is true (that she wasn’t a virgin on her wedding night), and evidence of the girls virginity is not found, they shall bring the girl to the entrance of her fathers house and there her townsman shall stone her to death, because she committed a crime against Israel by her unchasteness in her father’s house. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst. (Deuteronomy 22:20-21 NAB)

    If your own full brother, or your son or daughter, or your beloved wife, or you intimate friend, entices you secretly to serve other gods, whom you and your fathers have not known, gods of any other nations, near at hand or far away, from one end of the earth to the other: do not yield to him or listen to him, nor look with pity upon him, to spare or shield him, but kill him. Your hand shall be the first raised to slay him; the rest of the people shall join in with you. You shall stone him to death, because he sought to lead you astray from the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. And all Israel, hearing of this, shall fear and never do such evil as this in your midst. (Deuteronomy 13:7-12 NAB)

    Suppose a man or woman among you, in one of your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, has done evil in the sight of the LORD your God and has violated the covenant by serving other gods or by worshiping the sun, the moon, or any of the forces of heaven, which I have strictly forbidden. When you hear about it, investigate the matter thoroughly. If it is true that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, then that man or woman must be taken to the gates of the town and stoned to death. (Deuteronomy 17:2-5 NLT)

    The LORD then gave these further instructions to Moses: ‘Tell the people of Israel to keep my Sabbath day, for the Sabbath is a sign of the covenant between me and you forever. It helps you to remember that I am the LORD, who makes you holy. Yes, keep the Sabbath day, for it is holy. Anyone who desecrates it must die; anyone who works on that day will be cut off from the community. Work six days only, but the seventh day must be a day of total rest. I repeat: Because the LORD considers it a holy day, anyone who works on the Sabbath must be put to death.’ (Exodus 31:12-15 NLT)

    “But no one actually believes we should do such things!”

    Yeah… then why disqualify others because of the barbaric things their holy books say?

    h/t Evil Bible

  76. 76.

    Schlemazel

    @Splitting Image:
    it was only 30 years ago that I was at a men’s club at a progressive Methodist suburban church. Several guys in their 20s and 30s went off on how Mormons were not Christian. I was a bit stunned.

    Yeah If the American Taliban continues to fly it’s freak flag Mormons could move to the light side

  78. 78.

    Chris

    @Morzer:

    What’s really weird is having the nose and fever alternating so perfectly. It goes up, the nose dries up. It goes down, the nose starts running again. Never had that before.

  81. 81.

    Schlemazel

    @kc:
    Matthew 5 is the sermon on the mount, perhaps some have heard of it. Verse 34, in red text(real Christians recognize the significance of red text)
    I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

  85. 85.

    Chris

    @Morzer:

    Headaches, not… really? Aches, yes, but mostly in my joints, coming and going. Eye pressure – well, when the nose runs, the eyes water easily.

  86. 86.

    Gimlet

    I did not know this.

    articulated by Rev. Billy Graham’s daughter on a TV documentary late one night. It goes something approximately like this—so listen up all you Muslims out in Texas—and learn what the American Christian fundamentalist and conservative evangelical perspective is on Islam. It goes something like this:

    “The entity called Allah in the Koran is not the same as the God of Abraham that is presented in the Christian Bible and Jewish Torah. That is a false claim. The one called “Allah” in the Koran is actually Satan himself masquerading as the true God of Abraham.

    Allah Satan appeared to a man named Mohammed circa A.D. 700 and lied to him about being the God of Abraham. Therefore, Mohammed was never a prophet of God. Mohammed is a prophet of Satan. Allah Satan duped Mohammed into being an evil Anti-Christ figure and a prophet of numerous falsehoods presented to the Arab peoples of the Middle East.

    Not only was Mohammed a false prophet of Satan, the Koran itself is a huge lie that Allah Satan further duped Mohammed into giving to the Arab peoples to deceive them even more. The entire Koran and everything in it is one enormous lie perpetrated by Allah Satan. It is a tool of the Anti-Christ. The whole Koran is an offense to God, and it deserves to be destroyed so it can no longer deceive mankind. The Christian fundamentalist and conservative evangelical faith is the only true faith approved for the entire Earth by the one true God of Abraham—who is not Satan Allah.”

  87. 87.

    Jake the anti so shul soshulist

    I thought the Catholic Church was the Whore of Babylon. I get confused. Maybe it is the Scarlet Whore of Babylon. But I have a treat addicted cat that I call the Treat Whore of Babylon.

    Speaking of Catholics and Pope Frank, did anyone see George Will’s latest senescent ramblings. I thought it was quite rich that he called the Pope a reactionary.

  88. 88.

    Morzer

    @Chris:

    Well the joints sound like part of a stand-issue fever. If you don’t have headaches or eye-pressure, that probably rules out sinusitis. My best guess would be an annoying cold/flu.

  90. 90.

    Mike J

    @Gimlet: I thought they were still going with the moon demon story.

    Either way, it makes their christian god look puny,weak, and stupid. Hundreds of millions of people are attempting to pray to the same god Christians and Jews worship, yet a demon/fallen angel is able to intercept those prayers and keep all their mana/juju/spiritual energy for himself.

  93. 93.

    mainmata

    Does it even need to be said that not even the religion-extremist GOP would nominate an “Islamist” (presumably meaning Salafist-leaning) candidate nor would such a person ever even try running for President. A modern, moderate Muslim would be perfectly acceptable because those people generally accept a separation of religion and state, especially those born and raised here.

  94. 94.

    Chris

    @Gimlet:

    You know, back when I actually still spent time thinking about these things, it did occur to me – if you think the devil invented another religion in order to draw people away from the true ones, how do you know he didn’t do it to YOUR religion? QED.

    (As far as pop theology goes, I always liked C. S. Lewis’ from the Narnia books – that the god-character in the stories was such that no service that was evil could be done to him, and no service that wasn’t evil could be done for the devil-character. Basically, if you do good, it doesn’t matter why you’re doing it and God will recognize you for it no matter what name you call him by).

  98. 98.

    El Caganer

    @Chris: My colonoscopy was somewhat different; it revealed a number of content-rich candidate websites. What the content was, I’d rather not go into.

  102. 102.

    Anne Laurie

    Jeffro :

    I’ll be interested to see where these Carson supporters go, whether he withdraws in February or after a brokered convention.

    Best thing for ALL of us, IMO, they go home & nurse their grievances rather than voting.

    I just can’t hate on Dr. Carson like I would the other Repub candidates — he doesn’t seem hateful (hate-filled) to me, just grossly outside of his skill set & probably suffering a complicated grief reaction to his beloved mother’s long decline & death. Kinda hoping he drops out before the convention, because as the herd on the dais thins, the rest of them will stop saying “We’re not racists, we have a Black friend candidate” and start saying “Who let That Guy up on Our Stage?!?”

    If I were a true partisan Dem, I guess I’d be happy to anticipate watching the GOP drive away even more low-info, non-insane voters… but I can’t quite get that mean, at least not this far in advance of the actual election.

  106. 106.

    Svensker

    AL, I have the same thing on my PC with BJ — I can’t get there on Chrome, have to open Firefox. My laptop is fine to get to BJ from any browser. But the PC will not go there from Chrome. Have you tried other devices and other browsers?

  108. 108.

    JPL

    @Chris: A friend picked me up after my last colonoscopy and we went shopping. I did overhear her call her hubby and say, did I act really goofy after mine. Going home and taking a nap is probably the better alternative.

    Since my ex had colon cancer, it’s been suggested the sons have their first one at forty. When it comes to that, I’ll drag them kicking and screaming but they will have it.

  109. 109.

    sharl

    @FlyingToaster: Thanks for all your work in sussing out the correct links for the OP. I cursor-hovered over the links and tried to extract something sensible from the (malformed) URLs, but to no avail.

    I was particularly grateful for your corrected link to the McKay Coppins Mormons-are-uncomfortable tweet. [I coulda just gone to his twitter TL and scrolled but, y’know, laziness.]

  110. 110.

    Svensker

    @Chris:

    Call the doctor — you got a procedure and then you got a fever. If they’re related, you need to know, stat. If not, just a mild pain in the…toockhus.

  113. 113.

    Heliopause

    Any experts have suggestions for getting around this problem

    Sounds like you’ve got a busted flaturbitator ring. That can be replaced, and I’d be happy to do that for you, but I have to order the part from East Germany so it could take 2-3 weeks.

  115. 115.

    Belafon

    And, yes, I know all the other stuff the Catholic Church has to atone for, and I’m not religious, but I think this is cool:

    twitter.com/panegron/status/646850647514550272?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

    Pope Rejects Lunch with Boehner, Pelosi, McConnell, Reid: He will be Dining with the Homeless

    We now know why the United States Congress absolutely did not want Pope Francis to come to America. He makes them look like the complete as*holes they are. Obviously, Congress thought Pope Francis would be honored to dine with them, and all their pomp and prestige. They were wrong.

    Pope Francis says he didn’t have the time because he already had a date eating with the homeless. In fact, he is not only going to be eating with them, but serving them. The meal will take place at St. Patrick’s Church in Washington, D.C.

  116. 116.

    Schlemazel

    @beltane:
    Technically all Christians follow a radical preacher. The guy was ignored when he said a lot of radical things but ran into a lot of trouble when he went after the money changers and the state

  118. 118.

    NotMax

    Just curious, AL, have you tried using a different browser and/or clearing the cache in the one you are using?

    And did you implement the possible fixes I mentioned for you a day (or maybe two) ago (reinstall and/or update router driver; if using wi-fi, see if a direct wired connection works)?

    Also too, run CCleaner. Had a very similar prob once – turned out not to be the router at all but rather some detritus in (of all obscure places) the font cache that was blocking only some connections. CCleaner will get rid of leftover bits and pieces that can slow or otherwise negatively affect performance. One of my must-have programs. Free version works perfectly well. Safe, fast, free.

  120. 120.

    FlyingToaster

    @sharl: No problem.

    This is the third WP-site I’ve been at today that is replacing twitter with the home site. And since I was trying to check on some breaking news (the effing Fenway was on fire, and was filling Fenway Park with smoke), I’ve had to become somewhat expert at extracting the useful part of the mangled urls.

    FYWP.

  121. 121.

    Mike J

    @Chris:

    He’s Schrodinger’s President. Until you open the box, you don’t know if he’s Muslim or atheist.

    It’s not that you don’t know which he is. He is simultaneously both.

  123. 123.

    Tenar Darell

    @Anne Laurie: Hey Anne Laurie, you’re North Shore based…. Ever been to the Gropius House? Worth the side trip and time if I’m visiting the DeCordova?

    (Yes, yes I do live here, and I’ve never been to the house. I’m thinking of day tripping next week from South Shore).

    (ETA: Yeah, I can do grammar goodly!)

  129. 129.

    kc

    @Schlemazel:

    That’s what I was thinking of. Can’t see the Ted text, but I wouldn’t recognize the significance anyway, not being a real Christian . . .

  130. 130.

    NotMax

    @Flying Toaster

    There are any number of sites running WordPress which neglect to update with the security fixes WP releases and are vulnerable to all sorts of attacks and nastiness.

    Just sayin’.

  131. 131.

    Anne Laurie

    Chris:

    Any of you colonoscopy veterans from the other day ever come out of it with a mild fever and runny nose, and how long does it take for the symptoms to fade?

    I am not a doctor, but it sounds like you’re allergic to something they used during the procedure — possibly the sedative/anti-anxiety drug, or the prep drinks?

    In any case, if you’re not feeling better within 24 hours, I’d at least call your doctor & ask. And next time you see your regular practitioner (as they say) let him/her know that there may need to be a note in your file under ‘allergies’, just in case.

  135. 135.

    Thoughtful Today

    Bernie’s Presidential policies are under his /issues page:

    berniesanders.com/issues

    Note that he has an extensive voting record in Congress as well. For instance on foreign policy, Bernie voted against the Iraq War and for the Afghanistan War.

    Bernie’s Senate floor speech on the Iraq War vote was astonishingly prescient. It’s worth watching if anyone has concerns about his foreign policy acumen.

  136. 136.

    Heliopause

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I didn’t understand your question so I went to Wikipedia and, oh shit, looks like East Germany doesn’t exist anymore. Damn. The only other place I know of that makes flaturbitators is Yugoslavia. Tell Anne that’s 4-6 weeks.

  138. 138.

    mai naem mobile

    I really really like this Pope. He’s just a cool guy. But enough with religion. I don’t want to hear about mormons,seventh day adventists, catholic,shia muslims, sunni muslims, hindus,buddhists,anglicans,,evangelical nutjobs. Enough. Go away. Discuss among yourselves.

  145. 145.

    Anne Laurie

    SvenskerI normally use PaleMoon (FireFox clone); can’t reach this site from PM, FF, or Microsoft IE. Spent too much time talking to three different Verizon tech support guys, the last of whom gave me the proxy-site link that I’m using right now.

    Verizon swears it’s either “the site server” (MisterMix & Cole say no) or my router. Since BettyC and I *both* ran into the same problem at the same time — and my Verizon server bounces through Orlando to reach WV, apparently — I suspect it may be *their* router, but I have no control there. Our router has been rebooted, twice, and turned off for 14 hours, and always reverted to the same ISP, unfortunately. Next step, if it’s not my laptop, is upgrading our router or installing a new one, and that’s a half-day task my home tech support (the Spousal Unit) is avoiding as long as he can.

  147. 147.

    Schlemazel

    @Chris:
    That scene got a huge cheer in the theater when it ran. If you are old enough you remember being pestered by various religious pan handlers, people hated them.

  152. 152.

    Anne Laurie

    NotMax: Thanks! Yes, I did read your most helpful comment (see my last comment above). Not on wi-fi, and I do have CCCleaner on this machine (that’s one of my personal idiot-fixes, glad to have it recommended by someone who knows what they’re doing).

    Looks like it *may* be something on my laptop, but it’s probably a router issue. If it’s Verizon’s router, going away for a long weekend may finally get the local Fios router to assign a different (working) address. If it’s our router, I have to persuade the Spousal Unit to spend half a day replacing/resetting it — I can understand why he’d rather avoid that, if at all possible, since he barely ever reads Balloon Juice!

  154. 154.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Anne Laurie: I sent you an e-mail with some suggestions, most of which probably aren’t applicable. But a couple might be worth checking.

    Whois says the server is in Jacksonville, if it matters.

    You might try Google’s Chrome browser – it works fine for me on Win7, though there are some reports above that it doesn’t – B-J is a fickle beasty at times.

    Good luck.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  156. 156.

    FlyingToaster

    @Anne Laurie: It’s almost certainly not your router.

    If your router allows it, you may want to try setting a different DNS than Verizon’s assigned one.

    When my ISP (RCN) had a several-week long screwup that kept me from reading work mail (at Earthlink), as well as reaching half of my normal hangouts, I set our router to use the OpenDNS servers until the problem got fixed. Slowed everything down enormously, but at least I could eventually get to the sites I was aiming at.

    If your router won’t let you set the DNS, it might be time to get a new one. Sigh. I had to replace our suddenly-fried WAP on Monday, which made me extremely bad tempered.

  157. 157.

    Schlemazel

    @Chris:
    It was particularly bad at airports. The court ruled it was public space so they were free to run their cons. There were also a few wingnut types, pro-nuke, holocaust deniers that sort of thing in some places.

  159. 159.

    MomSense

    @Baud:

    And hopefully some autoplay videos of your speeches.

    ETA Lest you think I’d gone macabre, my phone does not like the word autoplay and prefers more gruesome videos.

  161. 161.

    Steeplejack

    @Anne Laurie:

    Here’s a little template you can use to handcraft your links:


    <a href="URL">TEXT</a>

    The URL has to be in quotes, and FYWP wants it to be “complete”: http://www. + [whatever]. The TEXT part is not in quotes (unless of course you want quotation marks in it).

  162. 162.

    FlyingToaster

    @NotMax: Yeesh.

    So glad I’m not playing website IT admin, even on the side of what used to be my day job in programming. I’m in no way current with todays malware targeting, but it looks like someone has decided to go after WP. Those graphs are fairly alarming.

    I survived one of the “attack all PHP boards” rounds, so this too will pass, but holy fuck, just how bored are the script kiddies right now?

  163. 163.

    Mandalay

    Laurence O’Donnell just did a piece on his show on Trump’s thin skin, tantrums, and fallout with FoxNews.

    The first worthless male pundit likens his behavior to teenage girls.

    After that the second worthless male pundit likens his behavior to women.

    The female pundit called them both on their bullshit, but it’s disappointing (if unsurprising) to see a tired stereotype continuing to get pushed by our godawful punditariat. We still have a long way to go.

  165. 165.

    Tenar Darell

    @Anne Laurie: Did you try taking your laptop to a library or a coffee shop and using the internet there?

    (Seriously, try a change of venue, it would bypass Verizon giving you the “it must be your machine” runaround, though you may want to verify the “new venue’s” internet provider, just in case! ;-)

  166. 166.

    redshirt

    AL,

    This might accomplish nothing but could you create a new user profile on your computer, and then try accessing the site from the new account?

    That would prove, I think, whether it’s something wrong with your settings, or the router.

    Also yes change DNS servers if you can.

    Use 8888

  170. 170.

    okay, then

    Your Catholic Irish cousins must have had the misfortune to wind up in north Louisiana for that to happen; much, if not most, of south Louisiana was Catholic too then.

  171. 171.

    PurpleGirl

    @Comrade Dread: Especially when that holy book — the Qu’ran — also contains text from the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Qu’ran also contains a lot more about Mary, who is also revered. No one goes broke underestimating the stupidity of Americans.

  172. 172.

    MomSense

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    it must be all the time I’ve spent in the Pentagon basement dreaming up new ways to infiltrate and destroy liberal sites. Finally cooked up a good one.

  175. 175.

    andy

    @Chris: It wouldn’t hurt to contact the Doc- your fever might be incidental to the procedure, but you totally should run it by them anyway.

    I actually felt pretty great after I got mine- the put me on a hypnotic, and I didn’t even notice what was going on back there even as I was watching Luke Skywalker zoom up Beggar’s Canyon for a few minutes.

  177. 177.

    J R in WV

    I love this place. Madness, crazy talk, common sense, politics, health care, travel, news. Pets!!

    You guys are great! Thanks for being a social life online !!

    And Thanks to John Cole, master of all he sees !!! Watch out for that bucket!!!

  180. 180.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Gimlet:

    Again, could you please provide a link? I know I’m not the first commenter to note that you almost never credit your sources for what are often interesting articles. Please consider providing this information in the future.

  186. 186.

    trollhattan

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    Many years ago I visited friends who lived in the Boise suburbs–town called Eagle. The local teevee news trixie had a nice story about Eagle’s new “Main Street fa-kade.”

    Good times.

  189. 189.

    Anne Laurie

    Omnes Omnibus :

    @trollhattan: I once dated a young woman from Versales, Ohio. It was spelled Versailles – she corrected my pronunciation.

    Michigan’s got a boatload of those aspirational towns, pronounced as spelled. I though the best of them was Peery (spelled “Pierre”)… until someone reminded me about that French-Jesuit outpost that was christened Day-twah.

  190. 190.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Anne Laurie: Look, I saw the word and I pronounced it as I saw it. Sorry, I learned French.

    ETA: They are no more aspirational towns than Boston of Cambridge are.

  192. 192.

    Anne Laurie

    Omnes Omnibus: Oh, sure. The Boston English couldn’t even pronounce the English names properly — local towns get called KWIN-zee and WOO-bin (Woburn) and BILL-ricka (Billerikay), with much harsher stresses than the originals.

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