Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

In my day, never was longer.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

We are aware of all internet traditions.

“But what about the lurkers?”

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

The revolution will be supervised.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

You are here: Home / Splitting Hairs as a Full Time Job

Splitting Hairs as a Full Time Job

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This post is in: 

This actually happened:

The same “liberal” media that let Bush and company lie us into war and get away with torture is now arguing that an act of terror is not terrorism. Personally, I hope Obama notices and trolls them for a while until someone asks him straight up and he can then unload on them.

Reader Interactions

181Comments

  2. 2.

    Mnemosyne

    Both Josh and the writer of that story clearly failed reading comprehension in middle school if they can’t figure out that “an act of terror” means “terrorism.”

  3. 3.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    This is pretty typical for Kraashauer, from what I’ve seen. Obnoxious junior neocon.

    Old Man McCain at one point tried to stick up for Willard, after the “Please proceed, Governor”, by saying that “act of terror” and “terrorism” are hugely different. That was before the scandal was the talking points, which was before the scandal was Hillary’s email.

  5. 5.

    GoBlue72

    For all those on yesterday’s threads about the SB shootings who couldn’t possibly understand how TWO people could actually snap together and who weren’t “troubled teens” – including Perfesser Silverman – might I remind folks of a mass shooting by husband & wife that happened JUST LAST YEAR:

    Las Vegas 2014

    Crazies will get crazied by lots of things. We can’t stop that. That’s a fool’s errand. But we can get rid of guns.

  6. 6.

    scav

    Somebody must have said “Merry Christmas” in a dubious kerning. Cue the keening about unparalleled oppression and dangerously weak outright tyranny.

  8. 8.

    bystander

    @Althea: I don’t see any liberal meltdown. I think the few liberals who have heard of Erickson just think of him as a bloated fringe nut they enjoy making fun of. I know I do.

  9. 9.

    bluehill

    Josh, it’s not unusual because Obama is a muslim and is sending a coded message to his followers.

  11. 11.

    sukabi

    It’s the same retarded thinking that prompted the media break in at the suspects appartment. (Yes, I’m calling it a break in, as they all knew it was wrong and they weren’t actually following a ‘lead’ to uncover evidence of a crime that somehow the police or FBI missed.) They were there because in their hearts they are nothing but vultures picking over the remnants of other people’s lives. Funny though, must have missed the episode where they reported from Roof’s and Dear’s houses picking through their things.

  15. 15.

    BGinCHI

    Media: We are responding to the cue of terror by being terrified. It’s profitable. The American people are bored with shopping and this gives them something to talk about. So, Mr. President, how terrified can we get here?

    Obama: Whatever. You are pathetic. There would be no terrorism without your amplification.

    Media: Can you please answer the question? We have mortgages in Chevy Chase.

  16. 16.

    Bitter Scribe

    I think they’re still howling about this “act of terror” =/= “terrorism” stuff because of the second Romney debate.

  17. 17.

    Srv

    You people love your football, but the half time drill team is throwing rifles about.

    You should rethink your dialectic.

  18. 18.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @sukabi:

    Yes, I’m calling it a break in

    Especially since they had to pry off the plywood that was nailed over the door.

  20. 20.

    Roger Moore

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    If Obama calls it terrorism, do the dead come back to life? Is it a magic incantation?

    No. If Obama calls it terrorism outright, then we dump on him because the FBI is only investigating it as terrorism and hasn’t made a conclusive determination, so he’s jumping ahead of the evidence. Just remember, we’re starting from the conclusion that Obama is as wrong as possible and reasoning back to a set of premises that allow us to reach that conclusion. Everything else is secondary.

  22. 22.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @schrodinger’s cat: and @JPL:
    You miss the point, which is understandable, because they’ve developed their own language based on tribal fears. If Obama calls it terrorism, then he acknowledges that Muslims are evil and must be destroyed and we are in an existential war for survival and white people are the greatest and so on, and so on. Since they’re pretty sure Obama IS a Muslim and is totally on the side of the terrorists, they will police his statements so closely that probably nothing he says will satisfy – but there is an underlying goal and reasoning. It’s just horrible and racist.

  27. 27.

    Redshift

    @schrodinger’s cat: Hard to say; depends on your judgment of how hopeless it is and how strong a stomach you have for dealing with it. If you do, if recommend looking up “The Debunker’s Handbook,” because a lot of tactics you’d think would be effective probably aren’t.

  28. 28.

    Pogonip

    Fish stock = dashi. Which has nothing to do with terrorism, but I had to get up and go look in the cupboard, and then FYWP wouldn’t let me back in the thread, and then the phone rang, and then…

    Anyway, now you know. Sorry about the senior moment.

  33. 33.

    Liberal

    @GoBlue72: big difference. The guy in that case had a clear history.

    I don’t disagree about your solution, though (focusing on guns).

  35. 35.

    Suzanne

    Kind of funny:

    There was a gun show in Phoenix today, not far from where I work. They do not allow loaded weapons there, as loaded weapons present danger. Someone had a loaded weapon there, and someone got shot.

  37. 37.

    Brachiator

    I don’t know this Josh Kraashauer from a pile of crap or who he writes for. Nor do I much care. There is a lot of stupidity coming from the press. Some good work as well. Now, what?

    The same “liberal” media that let Bush and company lie us into war and get away with torture is now arguing that an act of terror is not terrorism.

    And I guess it is the same liberal media that put an editorial calling for an end to guns on its front page, for the first time since 1920. And underscored the point with a great story on How a Conservative-Led Australia Ended Mass Killings.
    The Obama haters, war mongers, and others are a literary genre all by themselves. Not much anyone can do about it but point and laugh when their crap is spread.

  39. 39.

    debbie

    In a turn of events that has stunned the worldwide medical community, local infant Nathan Jameson, born just six days ago, has become the youngest person ever to permanently and irrevocably lose all faith in humanity.…

    hough he has not yet developed the capacity for speech, extensive cognitive testing has definitively shown that the shockingly perceptive 6-day-old fully understands and accepts that human beings cannot be trusted, that they remain far too ignorant for their opinions to be reliable, that a lack of self-awareness about their own destructive tendencies pervades the species as a whole, and that most are too ineffectual to successfully pursue even the shallow self-interested agendas that rule their lives.

    http://www.theonion.com/article/newborn-loses-faith-in-humanity-after-record-6-day-29588

  40. 40.

    p.a.

    @schrodinger’s cat: Do drones get to comment? If so: I’d do withdrawal trending to only occasional contact (if possible). This allows you to see if the bad psychology reverses. If not, cutoff contact. I’m in this process with some family members.

  41. 41.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Althea:

    Serious question: Would someone do this who had any confidence in his own powers of persuasion? I mean, yeah, it’s about what I would expect from the guy who wanted to send bags of salt to Sen. Olympia Snowe, but really? His best and only rebuttal o the NYT editorial is to put bullets in a physical copy of the newspaper?

  42. 42.

    Felanius Kootea

    What are these people going to do with themselves once Obama leaves office? Hating everything he does as president is like a full-time job. Hillary better provide similar reasons for outrage or I don’t know what will happen.

  43. 43.

    Brachiator

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    I need advice from the hive mind. If you have a friend who is descending into depths of political paranoia, what would you do, cut them off or engage with them?

    If the person really is a friend, and you value the friendship, trying to engage couldn’t hurt. I don’t know the best way to engage, maybe just look for an opening where you can point out another way of looking at things.

    A friend of mine vehemently insisted early on that the political game is totally rigged, and that Jeb! had already been picked to win the GOP nomination and to go on to win the presidency. He doesn’t insist on it so much anymore.

  45. 45.

    Mark B.

    Is there some sort of mental impediment that right wing commenters have in understanding plain English when it’s spoken by a Black person? Because they don’t seem to understand a word that Obama says.

  47. 47.

    Mark B.

    @schrodinger’s cat: Honestly, I’d give it a shot trying to reason with him, but don’t invest a lot of time or energy. I was able to steer my next door neighbor away from chemtrails conspiracy theories (they’re contrails, made of ice crystals, left behind by airplanes under the right weather conditions), but that took some doing. It was worthwhile, but he still has some pretty weird opinions that I have no interest is changing. He’s actually a good buy and been very helpful to me, so I really don’t mind talking to him. But if it gets scary or threatening, yeah, disengage. With extreme prejudice.

  51. 51.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @schrodinger’s cat: It’s very hard to change political paranoia because there’s such emotional investment in it. You could maybe make them feel your continued friendship, but my experience is you mostly have to disengage and wait to see if they get better.

  53. 53.

    Adam L Silverman

    @JPL: @schrodinger’s cat: @Bitter Scribe: @Roger Moore: @Frankensteinbeck: @Penus: The GOP candidates and politicians, and the conservative commentaters and pundits that hammer this are actually working from the Objectivist playbook. As many of you are aware/know Ayn Rand had this almost ancient notion of the power of words – the power to control a thing is to be able to name it properly. That’s where the whole A must equal A crap comes from. So there’s this pervasive undercurrent that things have to be properly named and defined. Otherwise there’s a problem.

  54. 54.

    Mark B.

    @Adam L Silverman: And that kind of language fuckery is exactly what they accuse the proponents of ‘political correctness’ of purveying. It’s always fucking projection, isn’t it?

  55. 55.

    Mnemosyne

    @efgoldman:

    In California, your landlord can’t come wandering into your apartment whenever s/he feels like it. They’re required by law to give you 24 hours written notice for any work that needs to be done, unless it’s an emergency (like a burst pipe). This brief article seems to indicate that a landlord can’t enter a deceased tenant’s apartment unless the family notifies the landlord in writing.

    The news media giving a landlord $1000 bucks to let them in doesn’t change the law. And even if the landlord avoids criminal charges, the family can sue the hell out of him for letting strangers into the apartment without their written permission.

  57. 57.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Suzanne: I like to go to them to people watch. Also, at the one’s in Harrisburg they’d have someone selling handmade fudge, as well as a vendor that sold hand made pickles of a number of varieties, and another vendor that was a livestock farm and butchery that sold great sausages (beef and/or pork), sausage sticks, bacon, etc. I never bought a gun, just a lot of organically grown and/or locally sourced food and fudge!

  58. 58.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Althea: And he’s a terrible shot. That grouping is all over the place. Either he’s got one of those NYPD 12 lbs GLOCK triggers, needs his eyesight checked, or he can’t hit the broad side of the barn while standing on it.

  59. 59.

    Josie

    @schrodinger’s cat: I honestly don’t think you can talk people out of these visceral beliefs. It’s like trying to argue about religion. Usually, you have two choices: argue and lose the friend or keep the friend and avoid political discussions. My son’s in-laws are big Ted Cruz supporters. In many other ways, they are very nice, generous people, but these political stances are not up for change. I have to be around them quite a bit, so, in the interest of family harmony, I avoid talking politics. For the most part they do the same and we are making it work. It’s a shame that people are having to split up friends and family groups over politics. I don’t remember it ever being this bad before.

  61. 61.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    I do like that Bernie’s campaign seems to be able to learn and adjust when they get push-back about issues, especially race. That’s a good sign.

    Also, I’m hoping to watch our DVR’d version of “The Wiz” this weekend. I’ve heard that DVR is the best way to watch it, because the long commercial breaks were REALLY annoying for people who watched it live. It’s definitely the best-reviewed of all of the NBC musicals so far.

  62. 62.

    PurpleGirl

    Movie Alert: NBC is showing A Wonderful Life at 8 pm est.

    TCM is showing Sunset Boulevard at 8 pm.

  63. 63.

    Mnemosyne

    @Josie:

    I really think Fox News and other right-wing media has made things 100 times worse. My dad and I always disagreed politically, but he didn’t get belligerent about it until he started watching Fox News and listening to Rush Limbaugh.

  65. 65.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mark B.: What was interesting, is before everyone started revising the history of political correctness, I remember back in the early 90s reading that it actually originated not with American (and other) socialists, but actually with Father Coughlin’s crypto-fascists. Apparently they were telling each other that when talking to someone who was not a member of the movement that they had to be politically correct until they could determine if they were dealing with someone sympathetic and persuadable or an opponent.

  68. 68.

    J R in WV

    @Mark B.:

    There you go!

    They make absurd stuff up and pretend it is was what the president said.

    They’ve been doing it for years now, and it’s repulsive to watch them trying to mock the President. Pretending that they’re smarter than President Obama, one of the most intelligent men to ever hold the office. Sad games they play. Just sad, that’s all.

  69. 69.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    Looking at our host’s twitter feed(what a nice addition); he seems to be getting used to his progressive bifocals. Hang in there Cole, it’ll take a few days to a week to get used to them. In the meantime, wrapping yourself in bubble-wrap sounds like a good precaution.

  72. 72.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Omnes Omnibus: After using/training on the lose as all get out M9 I was issued, which is too big for my hands (6’0, 265, 18 inch neck, bench press over 225, squat over 300 – so don’t judge my delicate and shapely hands…), I started training with a GLOCK 19. I had a major pull to the left – too much trigger finger. I’m not even sure that before that was corrected I could group that badly.

  74. 74.

    Trentrunner

    Trump called out the SB shooter’s sister as being in on the attack.

    He could tell because he saw her interviewed on TV, and she was wearing the headscarf and she wasn’t nearly upset enough, according to Trump.

    The audience went wild.

    I haven’t seen the video but the transcript was absolutely chilling, moreso than his previous speeches.

  78. 78.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @efgoldman: Heh, I love my progressive bifocals. I really want them in contacts form(I don’t wear my glasses out in public, vanity).

  79. 79.

    pat

    Re: progressive lenses vs. bifocals/trifocals.

    I tried the progressives. Hated them. With my trifocals I can do anything, computer, read, drive….. with progressives there was only one tiny “sweet spot” for reading. Hated them. I guess it might depend on your level of astigmatism and how much correction you need.

  82. 82.

    redshirt

    @Mnemosyne: Agreed. My father has always been conservative, and its only and always been about taxes. But in the past ten years he started watching Fox and I could pick out direct quotes he would say that came from Fox. He cancelled Christmas in 2012 because that one won.

    Good news is that he’s seemingly mellowed after that embarrassment, and I think all agree not to discuss politics. It helps that he’s the only Republican left in the family besides his brother.

  84. 84.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @efgoldman: Ugh, the Trees are wearing black unis. I hate the black unis.

    ETA: Especially when UCLA or UW wears them. I was a nice novelty once, should have left it at that.

  86. 86.

    redshirt

    I wish we could get a liberal version of Donald Trump, and by that I mean a politician who’s not beholden to certain interests and can speak the truth. For example, I’d love to see a Democrat absolutely and relentlessly mock Republicans for being afraid of everything, and then say “This is America, home of the Brave! Not home of the scared, not the land of the fearful”. Really drive this point home. I think it would be a killer, but no Dem even comes close to the sentiments.
    And I can’t think of anyone who could pull off a liberal Trump role – as in, also invulnerable when it comes to the media.

  87. 87.

    jl

    @Trentrunner: I heard some of it on radio. It was pretty chilling. Trump says he just knows that they had to know because they were relatives. Chilling to hear him conclude with simpler assertion “They KNEW! They KNEW!”

    But this is an old demagogic act with Trujmp. Years ago, after the kids accused of raping a woman in Central Park were conclusively cleared of the crime, Trump kept insisting that they were involved.

    Maybe the family members knew or should have known, but I’ve seen no evidence at all that they did or should have, so probably they didn’t. But Trump knows for sure and he is yelling it all around.

    Maybe the family needs some protection, given how ‘enthusiastic’ Trump supporters can be.

  89. 89.

    Davebo

    And I can’t think of anyone who could pull off a liberal Trump role – as in, also invulnerable when it comes to the media.

    Your problem isn’t with the candidates, it’s with left leaning voters.

    If you’re trying to sell stupid, you’ve got to pick the right market. That’s why you see “buy gold and silver” ads on Fox and hear “all natural erectile dysfunction cures” on AM radio.

  91. 91.

    Ohio Mom

    @schrodinger’s cat: I usually first try to empathize with the paranoid right wing nuts in my orbit, for example, agreeing with them that they do indeed pay too much in taxes. That always stops them for a moment because they know I am “liberal” with a capital L, so I must be for tax rates as high as possible.

    After it looks like that has sunk in, I point out that they are paying too much in taxes because really, really rich people are paying too little. Then I get to see a moment of pure confusion in their face before their crazy belief systems kick back in.

    It is very, very hard to change someone else’s mind. It takes a lot of psychological strength to endure the cognitive dissonance that comes with honestly considering a different point of view. I don’t know if most people have that in them.

    With some of these nutcases, I have declared a moratorium, saying we’ll just have to agree to disagree and I refuse to discuss certain subjects; others I have plain flat-out told them I can’t be their friend anymore.

  92. 92.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    The Governator is doing ads for games? Hey, I got one of them 6th generation Intel processors.

  93. 93.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Obama’s going to give a primetime Oval Office address tomorrow night. There’ll be a high bar for it. If he announces he personally flew to Raqqah and disemboweled al Bagdhadi, McCain and Christie will say he did it fecklessly.

  94. 94.

    Adam L Silverman

    @jl: What was interesting is that he then took it further to include the 9-11 hijackers. Yet only 2 of them were married! The guy really has no idea what he’s saying. Its all just stream of consciousness.

  95. 95.

    lamh36

    @PurpleGirl:

    Dang. they doing this earlier and earlier. It’s A Wonderful Life on NBC now.

    I’ve always had a special place in my heart for the story of It’s A Wonderful Life…not the political or moral part of it, just the idea of looking back at the moments in your life where you may have made choices that seem simple at the time, but instead lead to big changes in your life and others..some good results, some bad..

  96. 96.

    raven

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Pat Lang has inside info that “The rumor is around town that President Obama is not functioning well. His recent behavior in public supports this rumor.” He and his buddies also just love calling Obama a “narcissist” as if everyone that has ever been president doesn’t have those tendencies.

  97. 97.

    ? Martin

    @Ohio Mom: Be sure to mention how much more those wealth people receive in government services as well. I doubt the State Department has bothered to arrange a meeting for you and the President of China and I bet that companies that rely on pacific trade lanes being open benefit far, far more from our military intervention in the South China Sea than you do individually.

  99. 99.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @raven:

    just love calling Obama a “narcissist” as if everyone that has ever been president doesn’t have those tendencies

    I think it’s sort of an unwritten requirement to run for the office.

  102. 102.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @raven: Pat Lang has inside info that “The rumor is around town that

    I’m sure everyone from Richard Cohen to Ron Fournier agrees!

    I haven’t watched it in years, but I have a soft spot for IAWL, if only for “Youth is wasted on the wrong propel!” and “we don’t need no characters coming’ in to give the joint AT-mosphere!”

  104. 104.

    jl

    @Adam L Silverman: Trump assures us that he knows far more than needed about the details of the family to say for sure everyone in the family had to have known, and he has ‘Make America Great Again’ on his cap, and he yells a lot so I guess he is right.

    ” Its all just stream of consciousness. ”

    One joke that sticks in my mind is Larry Wilmore’s line about Trump: he’s the kind of guy who knows something has to be true just because he just said it.

    To some extent, true of all the GOP presidental contestants. I was watching a news clip about Cruz, and his schtick is kind of like a combo revival preacher man and open mike comedy club act. To some extent, true of all the GOP contestants, even supposedly serious people like Jeb?, Graham and Kasich.

    But, heck, they’ve all be wandering around in BS and con for decades, and I hope that it has become obvious enough that 50 percent plus one of the voters in the general can see it for what it is.

  105. 105.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    @shell:

    I liked that movie a lot more once I realized that Joe is an unreliable narrator.

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    That guy with the “AT-mosphere” line? Is legendary TV writer/producer Sheldon Leonard. He was a Columbia graduate, but he realized that his accent and appearance were limiting his acting roles, so he just to writing and then to TV.

  107. 107.

    jl

    @raven: All the regulars at the blog think that Obama is a pathological narcissist.

    Maybe so, I mean, he is a politician. But compared to Bill Clinton and GW Bush? Obama? Really? Obama is low on the scale compared to many others, if he is one.

  109. 109.

    jl

    @raven: My too, Lang has plenty of ‘kinks’, but so what? Everyone has kinks. Read what is reliable over there, maybe cross check it with other reliable sources, and don’t let it bother you.

    And you can always turn on Matthews, who will give you a full blast of irritation sooner or later on his show, I think.

    Edit: anyway Sic Semper is pretty low key. I notice some tabloid at the supermarket running repeated headlines that Obama knows about all the terror attacks and is letting them happen, and needs to be tried for treason. Right under headlines like that I noticed last week a panicked headline about Putin ‘taking over’ that was so confused I can’t figure out what it is supposed to mean.

  111. 111.

    Mandalay

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    His best and only rebuttal o the NYT editorial is to put bullets in a physical copy of the newspaper?

    Sadly no. Erickson also offered a written explanation which was even worse.

    This is what the NYT editorial stated:

    Certain kinds of weapons, like the slightly modified combat rifles used in California, and certain kinds of ammunition, must be outlawed for civilian ownership. It is possible to define those guns in a clear and effective way and, yes, it would require Americans who own those kinds of weapons to give them up for the good of their fellow citizens.

    This is what Erickson falsely claims the NYT stated:

    The United States suffered its worst terrorist attacks since September 11 and the New York Times’ response is that all law-abiding citizens need their guns taken away.

    Erickson is not very bright, but he has learned from Trump that if you throw some chum in the water the truth is completely irrelevant.

  112. 112.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @jl: Obummer is such a pathological narcissist, he’s even in the Stanford commercial.

    jl, you left out St. Ronnie of Reagan.

  114. 114.

    David Koch

    Kraushaar is a wingnut propagandist.

    He insisted to the bitter end in 2012 that Mittens would win in a landslide – overwhelming data showing otherwise be damned.

  115. 115.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @jl:

    My too, Lang has plenty of ‘kinks’, but so what? Everyone has kinks.

    Personally, I like The Kinks.

  116. 116.

    Adam L Silverman

    @raven: He’s got an Australian commenter, Walrus, who has been diagnosing public figures’ psychiatric disorders while observing them from down under for as far back as I can remember. The guy’s got a very strange variant of Tourette’s, everything ends with the word narcissism.

  118. 118.

    Adam L Silverman

    @raven: I hadn’t looked over there but once or twice since I started writing here full time. Clean break and all that.

  119. 119.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    @jl:

    You probably have to have some level of narcissism to be a successful politician, because you have to think that you’re going to be better at solving problems than anyone else would be. But I agree that Obama seems pretty low on the scale.

  120. 120.

    jl

    @raven: I take your comments seriously, even the ones that are just cusses, and even though I still remember you are the commenter who used to run herds of flesh eating beetles.

    FLESH EATING BEETLES!

  121. 121.

    dww44

    @raven: The one I hear repeatedly from Republican relatives is that “Obama chooses winners and losers”, spoken in such a way that one must conclude that that is a bad thing. That one, honestly, has never made any sense to me.

    It’s a given that anyone with enough ambition for high public office is also going to have a healthy ego, but narcissism is not a trait that I’ve observed in the President. I’d love examples if anyone has them.

  123. 123.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @raven: “Narcissist” is the pop-psychology translation of “uppity”

    @Mnemosyne (tablet): That guy with the “AT-mosphere” line? Is legendary TV writer/producer Sheldon Leonard.

    I’ll be damned. I love that kind of trivia. I heard today on Marc Maron’s podcast that Don Rickles got his start when Lenny Bruce got fired for calling a club full of Hollywood A-listers “cocksuckers”. The club had an empty late slot to fill, so somebody suggested a young unknown who came in and insulted a room full of different A listers, and his career took off.

  124. 124.

    Adam L Silverman

    @raven: He may be. All I know is he lives in Australia. Or at least that’s what I remember being said by him/about him.

  125. 125.

    raven

    @jl: Well, I caught another big redfish at Topsail this spring and brought the head home. I put it in a fire ant bed and it was picked clean in THREE days. My dermisted beetles experiment was cool but it took months and was really expensive.

  127. 127.

    Adam L Silverman

    @raven: Its not a problem. It is what it is. I respect COL Lang and what he’s done for me and I keep good thoughts for his health.

  130. 130.

    jl

    @raven: I’ve heard Brenner speak. A lot of what he says makes sense, some doesn’t. But his speaking style is the very definition of ‘orotund’. Or maybe ‘orotund and ’round about’ would be better.

    Gotta look through Shakespeare and figure out which character he reminds me of.

  131. 131.

    Adam L Silverman

    @raven: Or he could be a US vet who retired there. Either way he doesn’t seem a bad guy, but he has this bug regarding politicians and narcissism.

  132. 132.

    David Koch

    Obama can’t be a narcissist – he’s too low key, as in No-drama-Obama.

    A narcissist is Trump.

  133. 133.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    @raven:

    He could be both — Australia sent a lot of their guys to fight in Vietnam, and they had protests against it that were similar to ours. I learned about it in an Australian film class I took.

  135. 135.

    jl

    @raven: Thanks for the warning. To be honest, ever since you described your experiment with beetles, I’ve kept them in the back of my mind, just in case they might come in handy some day for some chore I might have.

    Haven’t thought of one yet, though. Though, maybe for the sake of the country, I should carry a sack of them around and unleash them if a GOPer pres contestant crosses my path over the next year.

  136. 136.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: What you missed was farther down in the comments where a 25th Amendment remedy was discussed. If we allowed an at best, aging brained and at worst full onset Alzheimers, President Reagan to make it through, I cannot imagine what a seemingly healthy 54 year old, in apparent excellent physical condition would be doing that would require being removed for health issues.

  138. 138.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Adam L Silverman: Good lord.

    I am a bit surprised there hasn’t been a (fairly) serious attempt to impeach Obama. I sometimes think what’s left of the GOP establishment must be using what little power it has left to keep that demon in the box.

  140. 140.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Could be a family history thing — I’ve been hanging out on message boards for people whose parents/caregivers were narcissists, and some of those people start to see it in everyone they disagree with.

    (I was not raised by narcissists, but my nieces have one for a mother and it’s a mess, so I’m trying to gather information on how to help them.)

  142. 142.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m honestly more surprised that someone hasn’t managed to get a shot off at him. I’ve also thought that more likely than impeachment. Not that some House member wouldn’t file the paperwork, but that they would bottle it up in committee as long as possible. If I’m recalling correctly the House lawsuits against the President were supposed to keep the impeachment genie in the bottle.

  144. 144.

    Ruckus

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Its all just stream of consciousness.
    Consciousness. That would imply that he has a concept of what he is doing. That would imply that he really is a racist/misogynist/asshole.
    There it is, Adam has it, tRump is a loud mouthed racist/misogynist/asshole and his whole candidate persona is just him being himself.

  149. 149.

    jl

    @efgoldman: They are acting like they believe that Romney lost because the last presidential election because so many millions of discouraged reactionaries and fundamentalist Xtians stayed home due to lack of a real true conservative last time. They keep drumming every crazy BS issue that riles up their base, any other consideration (like how many general election voters may still remember next Fall that they are nuts) be damned.

  150. 150.

    PurpleGirl

    @Mnemosyne (tablet): TCM recently showed Guys and Dolls in which Sheldon Leonard had a part. I remember him not just as a TV writer but also a producer. He had good feel for what people would like.

  154. 154.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    Also, too, to the whole “Obama is a narcissist!” charge, here’s a Kos diary from 2014 about what Obama did at Newtown. Have Kleenex handy.

    You know what a narcissist does in response to a horrific shooting? Start ranting about how unfair it is that they want to take away his toys just because other people are irresponsible.

  156. 156.

    raven

    It’s popular to whine and bitch about cops and the south here so chew on this one:

    A Muslim family’s interaction with Gwinnett police officers on Thanksgiving weekend has gone viral.

    In a Facebook post, Georgia resident Zanub Rizvi wrote that she was driving her daughter and mother-in-law to a religious gathering when she was rear-ended.

    All the police officers and paramedics that responded to the accident were white males, she said.

    She said it was “obvious” from their dress that they were a Muslim family, but she was “surprised” by how they treated to hI don’t want to be disrespectful,” a white male Gwinnett cop told Rozvi’s mother-in-law, according to Rizvi. “Ma’am, is it ok if I check your neck?”

    After some tranlsation, the mother-in-law lifted her scarf so the police officer could survey her injuries.

    Rozvi wrote that the paramedics that arrived later were equally respectful.

  157. 157.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @jl: I gather part of Lindsey Graham’s rant the other day was that Cruz and Rubio are too extreme on abortion for a general election. I’d add in gay marriage, which I believe Rubio is noisier about than Cruz– not that I think Li’l Marco would stick to any position he’s advised against once he had the nomination. I’d love to see a GOP ticket that runs on the Ryan budget, SS privatization and Pat Robertson’s values. Not holding my breath.

  159. 159.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @raven:

    I am both pleased and surprised that it was a good experience for the Rizvi* family. As a Gwinnetian, I have to say I didn’t expect this.

    *Edit: The article goes back and forth equally between “Rizvi” and “Rozvi.” Not sure which is correct spelling. No disrespect intended if I got it wrong.

  162. 162.

    Heliopause

    Speaking of acts of terror, compare and contrast.

    In the UK, terrorist armed with a knife, injures three, is apprehended alive.

    In the US, terrorists armed with multiple firearms and thousands of rounds of ammo kill 14, wound 21, are shot dead by police.

    There’s a lesson there. Somewhere.

  163. 163.

    JPL

    @raven: Actually I wanted to read the comments about the Colquitt coach head butting his player who had missed an extra point. At least they didn’t blame Obama.

  168. 168.

    JPL

    @raven: No head butting though. .. Shame.

    One of the commenters said that Richt wouldn’t have been fired if he treated his players the same way this coach does.

  173. 173.

    Debbie

    @efgoldman:

    From your lips…

    I wish they would try and start impeachment proceedings. They’ll work themselves into a real frenzy when Obama, like always, doesn’t let them bully him. That’s what drives them the most nuts.

  174. 174.

    Jeffro

    @David Koch: Obama should simply announce that he is going to order flags lowered to half staff at federal office buildings monuments and parks for a week every time there is a mass shooting… And then inevitably with more shootings happen and flag stay lowered pretty much year-round hopefully people will get the point

  175. 175.

    sukabi

    @pat: might give them another try. They’re making them with a wider to almost full width field of view for all visual corrections, depending on price point. I’ve got mid range priced ones, don’t have any problems… reading, computer, driving…

  177. 177.

    xenos

    When I was in my early 20s I talked a friend out iof getting involved with Dianetics. Now he is a Carson supporter, posts on Facebook about guns and how Obama is a secret Muslim. Maybe he would be better off if he had stayed with the cultists.

    I look on the bright side, he is aware enough to not follow Trump, so there is some capacity for reasoning left. I just find it amazing how people can be the exact same person at 50 that they were at 25.

  178. 178.

    FortGeek

    @Mnemosyne (tablet):

    You know what a narcissist does in response to a horrific shooting? Start ranting about how unfair it is that they want to take away his toys just because other people are irresponsible.

    It’s getting to be a toss-up between Obama and Carter for which one I’ve got more respect for.

    I got stuck in the hospital the day after Newtown; my nurse for the first day griped that Obama was going to use it as an excuse to take her gunz. Utterly reprehensible. I still tear up 3 years later thinking of those kids and that gomer–A NURSE!!–is more worried about her farking killing toys.

  179. 179.

    redshirt

    @FortGeek: Obama will have accomplished more and left the country in a better spot than Carter. That said, Carter’s post Presidency work has been basically Saintly and is hard to vote against.

    Barack will have to keep his game up post-presidency. As if there’s any doubt – he’s the greatest of all time. Maybe. Maybe Teddy or FDR was better. Probably FDR was better just because of scoreboard. But think about how literally unbelievable it is a black man named Barack Hussein Obama got elected President of this country. Twice!

  181. 181.

    leeleeFL

    @Mark B.: that’s a hold-over from childhood. It’s clinical name is dyslexia of the ears. They do not hear what a person actually says, instead they rearrange the word salad and hear what they want to. Think Charlie Brown’s wahwahwah sounds. Or, telling your kid to do or not do something and watching them do the EXACT opposite thing! When ppl do not mature out of childhood…This is what you get

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