From the genius responsible for both Leverage and the Crazification Factor:
1) A quick thread on what we, in TV writing, call the Idiot Ball. This is a term used to describe when one character, in order to make the show work, has to behave, uncharacteristically, like a complete idiot. It is usually a different character each week. https://t.co/UVAmmxcJpj
— John Rogers (@jonrog1) March 8, 2021
This term was coined, I heard, by actor Hank Azaria, who was complaining about a show he was on and asked “who’s carrying the idiot ball this week?” The modern conservative intellectual movement is now reduced to passing around the idiot ball.
Dr. Seuss is this week’s idiot ball, and in order to be part of the show, you have to carry it. You have to make bad faith or stupid arguments to be part of the show. The difference is, now, *everybody* has to pass the idiot ball around, all episode.
Freedom Fries. Antifa. Dr. Seuss. Millions of missing ballots. Neanderthals. Ordinarily smart people have to pretend to be earnestly dumb and make idiotic arguments about each of these, or be tossed from the show.
Ross absolutely knows that this was a decision by the rights holder to pull books with illustrations which are racist by even lax standards. This is their right, and is actually just smart capitalism. But he has to carry the Idiot Ball.
So now, you have the shorthand. Whenever you hear some ridiculous fake scandal or outrage, you can just chalk it up to “Oh, it’s this week’s Idiot Ball” and it says everything you need to know about both the subject, and the person carrying it.
But remember, the ball’s just the ball. The person carrying it’s the idiot.
So… who’s carrying the Idiot Ball, today? Or battling for possession of same?
mellowjohn
Ross, Cardinal Douthat seems to be ball hogging with every column.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Ⅱ
Jim, Foolish Literalist
maybe I haven’t read enough of his columns to make a fair judgment, but base on the half dozen or so I have tried to make my way through, Douthat is among other things a pretty bad writer
does he know he’s an affirmative action hire?
Roger Moore
All of them, Katie.
zhena gogolia
I saw that headline and my eyes just bounced off it. I haven’t read a word he’s written for many years, but man.
(written from my house stuffed with books)
dr. bloor
Hah. I saw the Idiot Ball thread when it popped up, but I hadn’t connected him to the Crazification Factor.
I want to be John Rogers when I grow up.
Cathie from Canada
@mellowjohn: (face emoji laughing so hard its crying) X 3
Baud
Now I’m concerned I’m this blog’s idiot ball.
JMG
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: He is not a very good writer on his best days, but he has approximately 95 percent less malicious bad faith as the average conservative op-ed guy, which makes him the best of the lot.
Steeplejack
One of Randy Rainbow’s best: “Mr. Biden (Bring My Vaccine).”
Roger Moore
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
No, he does not. No conservative will ever admit to themself that they got where they are because of who they are rather than because of their own hard work. That’s something that only happens to Those People.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack:
Yes, I forgot to post that. I’m so glad to see he’s still so funny in the post-Trump era.
I worry that JL Cauvin (though still funny) has not really found a good path forward. Mitch McConnell rap battles are not everyone’s cup of tea.
zhena gogolia
@Roger Moore:
Case in point, the brilliant journalist Mr. Peter Doocy.
debbie
@mellowjohn:
He’s never not been an idiot.
Steeplejack
@Baud:
C’mon, you’re likeable enough, Baud!
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack:
My husband always says that to me. He loved that Obama moment.
Cheryl Rofer
@Baud: If you look around and don’t see the idiot ball, you’ve probably got it.
zhena gogolia
By the way, Kay showed up last night! I hope she starts appearing more frequently.
Salty Sam
OT? I got my first Covid vaccine shot today! Here on a tiny out-island in PR- they had shots yesterday for pre-registered native residents, and released the leftovers today. In and out in an hour, registration, shot, observation. Next one (Moderna) scheduled for 28 days!
I’m more excited about this than I thought I would be!
dmsilev
Here’s some fun schadenfreude. Marc Thiessen thought that Joe Manchin was his buddy, his bosom bipartisan pal. They’ve had a falling out.
(Republicans, especially the social-conservative pundit types, sure are big on that “jammed it down people’s throats” thing. )
Anyway, if Joe Manchin can get worthless jackasses like Thiessen so upset, maybe we should be a bit more appreciative of him.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Link?
Steeplejack
@zhena gogolia:
I have similar concerns about Brent Terhune. But Blaire Erskine seems to be doing okay.
Baud
@Steeplejack:
I’m going to refer to it as Idiot Balls so it feels more masculine.
zhena gogolia
@Salty Sam:
It’s amazing what a viscerally happy feeling it is.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Not every day! We rotate the responsibility, just like the rules say. :-)
Benw
Disagree that the current pile of idiot ball handlers are “ordinarily smart”
debbie
@Baud:
Here.
Baud
@dmsilev:
Manchin’s grandstanding for minor changes was annoying was fuck, but a Democratic Senator from West Virginia is definitely something worth appreciating.
I’m liking his noises about filibuster reform.
Jeffro
Marc Thiessen is carrying the idiot ball today.
Baud
@debbie:
Thank you!
Benw
@Salty Sam: nice!
p.a.
Predictable that the political party that plays Calvinball also owns the idiotball.
Baud
@Salty Sam: ?
Jeffro
@dmsilev: I posted about this in the previous thread a bit ago…that’ll teach me not to keep up! ;)
Yes, Thiessen…too bad, so sad (the fucking hack)
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: Good one.
dr. bloor
@Jeffro: It arguably should be named the “Thiessen Ball,” or for our football-loving friends perhaps “The Idiot Ball Presented by Marc Thiessen.”
JPL
@Salty Sam: It’s a feeling of euphoria when you realize that you are going to be protected from Covid.
Congrats
WaterGirl
@Baud: It’s the plane of today!
dmsilev
So some of my minions had scheduled vaccine appointments cancelled because, and I swear I am not making this up, a bunch of soap opera production staffers and other Hollywood types tried to jump the line in such numbers that the city had to cancel the whole drive-through event.
People who are legitimately eligible are being rescheduled for next week, so not the end of the world, but still a major annoyance. Basic problem is that the state’s reservation system doesn’t allow limiting based on ZIP code or anything else, so all you need is one person to forward an email with a link to a ‘limited’ appointment and the opportunity will, shall we say, go viral. Follow up phone calls to screen works in small numbers, but doesn’t scale.
germy
WaterGirl
@germy: I’ll believe that when I see it.
edit: written before your second tweet was added.
dmsilev
@Baud: Thiessen was whining about that as well.
I hope (but doubt) that he reads the WaPo comments to his columns. The commentariat there is every bit as hostile to him as we are, though because of the moderators they’re not quite as vulgar sadly.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@dmsilev:
I mean, isn’t that what he already did by listening to that laughable $600 billion dollar proposal by a few “moderate” GOP Sens? Murkowski even got her (pretty good) amendment added to the package and she still voted against the ARA
Uncle Cosmo
@Steeplejack: Brilliant…if ever-so-slightly lewd.
@Roger Moore: Deformative action, in Douchehat’s case.
PJ
@Baud:
If you look around the comments section and can’t tell who the idiot ball is, you’re it.
ETA: Cheryl got there first, and more pithily.
CliosFanBoy
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
what was the amendment?
germy
Headline:
Woman Who Thought She Was Sad Actually Fine After Eating Prosciutto
PJ
@Jeffro: Every day is Marc Thiessen Carries the Idiot Ball Day, this is why we don’t have to celebrate it.
Baud
@CliosFanBoy: Money for homeless children.
Ken
@WaterGirl: Dare I hope that once in a while, Jennifer Psaki will ask a reporter “Have you read John Rogers’ comments on TV writing?”
PJ
@germy: Prosciutto does tend to make everything better.
Uncle Cosmo
Can we lash Theissen, Douchehat and a half-dozen other RWNJ “poundits” to a sled & send them to Alaska to run the Idiotarod? With any luck they’d be found board-stiff in a snowbank next spring.
Roger Moore
@zhena gogolia:
For me it’s not so much happiness as relief. I don’t feel exactly relaxed about COVID, but I’m not nearly as stressed out about it as I did. I can go to the store or take the train to work and not tense up if someone isn’t wearing their mask right. It’s not just the light at the end of the tunnel, but actually seeing enough of the tunnel to know how far away the exit is.
Patricia Kayden
Patricia Kayden
@Uncle Cosmo: As long as no poor dogs are involved, I’m good.
germy
(Megan McArdle)
THE McARDLING CONTINUES.
Patricia Kayden
Baud
@germy:
I’m disappointed Biden didn’t give us Lamborghinis.
rikyrah
Something to make you ??
And ??
https://twitter.com/JessicaShaw/status/1369287139368767488?s=20
Ken
@germy: Does McArdle have any opinions on spending a few hundred million renting golf carts for the Secret Service?
zhena gogolia
@germy:
fuck her
WaterGirl
@Ken: She is so on-message that will never happen. But you can dream!
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah:
So sweet.
rikyrah
???
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Patricia Kayden:
Also, from the replies in that thread:
West of the Rockies
A hackey-sack of idiocy then, this idiot ball, only instead of an actual hackey-sack, it’s a big, sticky turd.
burnspbesq
Our governor is hogging the idiot ball worse than James Harden.
WaterGirl
@germy: Privilege.
Tim in SF
I’ve been posting this in response to every time someone bringing up Dr. Seuss.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@rikyrah:
It’s not just Republicans unfortunately. I read that Connecticut is also lifting some restrictions. I think it’s far too soon.
Here’s what the state’s governor said:
dmsilev
(Click through for the photo. The generals are the two who had their promotions delayed last fall because of fears that T**** would screw them over pretty much out of spite)
Baud
@dmsilev: Nice.
germy
Jeffro
@Uncle Cosmo: we need to get some sort of an online leaderboard going, so that irritated libs can vent and bust on these guys, which would move them up and down in the Idiot Ball rankings on a daily/hourly basis.
Wait…no…that’s what they want, the subs. Never mind.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I had this Dr Seuss discussion at my book club this afternoon. I was on the opposite side from most of the elderly, outraged ladies. When I said it was the copyright owners making the choice, they protested that “someone” must be pressuring them. I’m afraid that at that point I said, “Bullshit.”
germy
Jeffro
@Patricia Kayden: it’s almost like…in the aftermath of the trumpov maladministration…we’re no longer a 50-50 country anymore.
look into THAT why don’t you, snooze media? 55-57% ain’t huge until you look at how closely this country has been divided for the past couple of decades.
And that’s even before you get into how many more folks OUR Senators represent than THEIR Senators, etc etc etc
germy
Biden. Biden made a phone call.
Jeffro
@germy: ok that’s it, she’s going up on the wingnut leaderboard, stat.
Nowhere near as high as Thiessen and Abernathy, but still.
Yes, McMegan: ensuring people have food and can pay their rent is JUST LIKE leaving Lambos at intersections, with keys in the ignition. It’s absolutely just like that.
J R in WV
The comments below Joe Biden’s tweet are amazingly stupid, nasty, ignorant, and incoherent. Oh, wait, Republicans. Not amazing after all, just typical.
I don’t suggest you read them, same, same as always… “stupid, nasty, ignorant, and incoherent.”
Dorothy A. Winsor
@germy: LOL. When I told Mr DAW about it, he laughed and said I make friends everywhere
germy
Jeffro
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): this is it, this is it, this is IT!
When you can get those kinds of numbers, that’s how you know you are now the center-center party in American politics. Too bad, so sad, GQP, thanks for playing!
MagdaInBlack
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Good for you ?
quakerinabasement
That’s interesting. Now, what’s the term for when a show’s goofiest, most incompetent character suddenly is revealed to be a savant in some unexpected domain of knowledge? Happens a lot on sitcoms that last more than one season.
PsiFighter37
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Lamont has been a disappointment. From what I have gathered, even pre-pandemic, he pissed off a lot of stakeholders on various things. Opening things up to full capacity in 2 weeks’ time is just plain stupid. I think he would’ve done a fine job as a senator had he beaten Holy Joe, but as an executive, the fact that he ran a small-time telecommunications company is really starting to show…running a state like Connecticut, which is densely populated and heavily reliant on the 2 urban centers it sits between (NYC, but also Boston for the eastern part of the state), means you need someone who can swing it. I would not be surprised if Republicans figure out to regain a governorship they held for 20+ years before 2010, but the local party has atrophied so much that even fairly unpopular candidates like Dan Malloy and now Lamont have still gotten elected on the strength of pure urban machine GOTV.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
You can take the girl out of Balloon Juice…
Ken
Excellent. The magician has them looking at the hand that’s making the sweeping gestures….
Mary G
My favorite John Rogers quote, which he said the other day would probably be engraved on his headstone:
Jeffro
@germy: rolling ’em up!
Go FBI go.
Cheryl Rofer
@dmsilev: I’m posting that whole tweet because I love the photo so much. One more good thing about Biden is that he stands in front of the desk with his visitors.
germy
@Jeffro:
She uses the same logic as people who say “Oh, you want to raise the minimum wage? Why not make it a hundred dollars an hour, then? Or two hundred dollars an hour? Huh?”
danielx
Too many to count.
Baud
@germy:
I’m disappointed Biden hasn’t gotten us a $100/hour minimum wage.
Brachiator
@Roger Moore:
I haven’t had the second shot yet, so I still don’t want people breathing on me. But I also feel relief.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@MagdaInBlack: @Baud: I appreciate the moral support1
Jeffro
@germy: exactly.
“Where does it end? WHERE DOES IT END???”
“Um…it ends around approximately where we suggested, because we PUT IN THE WORK to figure out what a sensible minimum wage should be? Does that register with you, like, at all? Isn’t jumping to strange ‘$100/hour!’ paranoia strike you as a way to avoid actually engaging with the argument, and coming to a sensible conclusion?”
They’re so lost in weird-world Randian Land that they have no idea how things actually work here on Earth. Which is why I like to tease the Randians…so much low-hanging fruit!
Mary G
@dmsilev: They still haven’t fixed that? A bunch of rich Hollywood and private school donors were passing around the code to get inoculations at the Cal State LA site a couple of weeks ago.
At least down here both times I went they were very strict about checking ID and proof of eligibility. So they could have turned the interlopers away, but that would’ve caused a riot when there were so many.
MagdaInBlack
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I appreciate that you’re not afraid to call BS ?
gwangung
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Make ’em name names.
It’s never “someone” who pressures a publisher; it’s a specific organization.
I know most of the organizations on the Asian side who might do that; none of them ever had it on their agenda.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Next time, tell them to skull fuck a kitten.
Baud
@gwangung:
The Psaki way.
Mo Salad
My favorite piece of Rogers’ wisdom, even ahead of the 27%:
There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.
Catherine D.
NYS has opened vaccine eligibility to 60+, so I registered with the county board of health. Fingers crossed!
danielx
@germy:
Like David Brooks and a host of others, she knows what her audience wants.
Cameron
Bro spent four years believing that the thing they carried around for him was the “nuclear football.” Who’s gonna break the news to him?
Mary G
Not guilty, your Honor:
germy
@Jeffro:
There’s a local blog I read sometimes. The blogger wrote one post about police reform efforts in the city.
Of course, a dude named “Cato” had to use the comments section to express his displeasure with the reform:
When another commenter replied to say his comments sounded bigoted, “Cato” said this:
Somehow, I assume he’s an Ayn Rand fan.
laura
@Baud: Never change ?
Frank McCormick
Something I’ve been saying for years: if someone hands you a bucket of shit, please, don’t try to pass it on. Just drop it.
PsiFighter37
@Mary G: Crazy that that could happen. NYC is very strict – if you don’t match the criteria, you cannot get it. I signed up for Dr. B on a flyer, just in case something comes through, but realistically I am not expecting to get the vaccine until it is broadly available, whenever the hell that is. I know Biden is making optimistic noises, but I am so used to governmental ineptitude over the previous 4 years that I will be thrilled if I have it by the end of the summer. Any earlier is gravy.
Jeffro
Yeah, um, wow. Yes, he most definitely is that. Holy cow. We are all Illyrians now, LOL.
MisterForkbeard
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): There’s a huge difference between “lifting some restrictions” and “100% open, and mask mandates are now illegal”.
I see various Republican sources trying to both sides this. And there’s really no comparison, but it’s telling that whenever it’s brought up Dems and Liberals still say that Connecticut is jumping the gun here.
It’s just not news, because they’re jumping a gun and not a shark.
Roger Moore
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
There’s a huge difference between lifting some restrictions and throwing the state wide open. Connecticut is allowing most businesses to open without capacity limits, but it is continuing to require masks and physical distancing there. It’s also continuing to restrict theaters and other large gatherings.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@Baud: I can’t believe Biden hasn’t rotated my tires. He sold us out!
Brachiator
@germy:
You wonder how someone could be so stupid and be able to get a job as a pundit. I also enjoy the glaring inconsistency at play here.
Total freaking idiot.
Jeffro
@germy: also this
…is just wow to the wowth degree. I think it’s the quote marks around ‘groups’ that may have tipped me off ;)
lowtechcyclist
@Mary G:
Damn, I had no idea that he was the author of that quote too! He’s a national treasure, is what he is.
germy
@Jeffro:
Lexis is a local BLM activist.
The comments on that blog are insane. The blogger’s policy is non-interventionist, though. He rarely pushes back.
The last time he bothered was at the beginning of the pandemic, when a commenter called “Just The Facts” called covid a hoax and a way for liberals to control the United States.
But usually the blogger keeps out of reader comments.
TheflipPsyd
OT? Just found out the author of one of my favorite children’s books passed away. I loved The Phantom Tollbooth and have read it too many times to count. I have laughed out loud each time. Introduced it to my kids a number of year’s ago and although they love it as well, it is one of those books that only gets better as you age and can get all the subtle humor. Just wanted to share in case anyone else loved the book as well. Here’s to you Norton Juster – thank you for all the laughter and joy. And for teaching me how to stay out of the Doldrums
dmsilev
@Mary G: The city says they check ID for proof of eligibility (age and or occupation, and you have to either live or work here for the city-run clinics), but they were worried about the practicalities of turning away several hundred people, not to mention the very real possibility that some people would be confrontational. So, cancel the clinic and rebook by phone where you can filter out most of the interlopers. A lot slower though; my minion reports spending most of an hour on hold before she got through.
Edit: when I got my shot, they checked both my driver’s license (proof of residency) and work ID (proof of eligibility).
lowtechcyclist
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
@germy:
Nah, either Soros or Antifa, those Emmanuel Goldsteins of contemporary conservatism.
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
And there was much rejoicing.
Roger Moore
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
There’s a reason the Republicans talking about this always show other Seuss books rather than the ones that are actually going out of print: the books in question are lesser works that nobody really cares about. The publishers feel comfortable stopping publication because the books don’t sell a lot of copies, so it isn’t a great sacrifice to give up on them. It’s the market at work.
cain
????
A Ghost to Most
@Mary G: This quote describes both me (LOTR nerd), and my best friend in the Air Force, and best man.
He turned into the greediest Rand acolyte possible. I recently told him:
“Enjoy the Kingdom of [his surname]. If you ever get back, I’ll be over here in America. AMF.”
Lyrebird
@Salty Sam: Wonderful!!! Good wishes of health and considerate customers to you and your lovely spouse.
JWR
Has anybody here mentioned lately, (and by lately I mean today), that Jake Tapper is, or can be, a huge doofus-head?
He’s being properly slammed on the twitters. Good!
cain
Watching Katie Porter destroy mansplainin oil executive is the kind of energy I’m here for. Love that woman. She’s a goddam gift.
ETA – Love the fact that’s she being labeled as serial killer due to all the murders she’s been committing :-)
danielx
@Jeffro:
Could you help me out and translate that? I don’t speak gibberish.
Roger Moore
@PsiFighter37:
The problem is that the sign-up site just asks people if they’re eligible; it doesn’t have any way to confirm they are. The on-site staff will check for eligibility and turn people away if they aren’t eligible, but by that point an appointment is booked and taken away from someone who should have gotten it. It’s not the end of the world if a few people sign up and get turned away, but in this case more than half the spots were taken by ineligible people.
I think this gets back to what a number of commentators were saying about the advantage of going with a strictly age-based system. Age is much easier to confirm than employment-based eligibility, so it makes it harder for people to try to cheat the system. If you want to give employment-based vaccinations, you probably need to have team that go out and vaccinate eligible people at their workplaces.
dmsilev
@Roger Moore: Look up the editorial cartoons he drew during WWII (collected in the book Dr. Seuss Goes to War). There are a whole bunch of them railing against racism, both Nazi and White->Black in America. There are also some of the most virulently racist anti-Asian cartoons you can imagine, ‘inscrutable Oriental fifth columnists’, that sort of thing. It’s really quite jarring.
karen marie
@Ken: Or the SS having to spend tens of thousands of dollars renting a studio apartment across from Javanka’s because they weren’t allowed to one of the numerous toilets in Javanka’s house?
dmsilev
@Roger Moore: Next week, when the state opens eligibility to people with various pre-existing conditions, is almost certainly going to be a mess. No idea how they’re going to do the screening.
lowtechcyclist
@TheflipPsyd:
He is now in the Lands Beyond. (“Beyond what?” thought Milo.)
My copy of The Phantom Tollbooth is practically falling apart from all the times I’ve read it. What a truly wonderful book – not only one of the best children’s books ever, but one that I know I won’t outgrow if I live to be 100.
And Jules Feiffer’s illustrations are perfect for the book, the way Tenniel’s are perfect for Alice, and Axel Scheffler’s are perfect for The Gruffalo and so many other of Julia Donaldson’s books.
Thanks for everything, Norton Juster, and when you arrive at the afterlife, I hope you’re greeted, not by St. Peter, but by the Whether Man.
Roger Moore
@Brachiator:
She isn’t stupid. She’s smart enough to know there will always be work telling the rich and powerful that they deserve their nice stuff, and she’s going to make a comfortable living doing it.
zhena gogolia
@PsiFighter37:
I’ve been very happy with Lamont.
zhena gogolia
@TheflipPsyd:
I loved it as a kid. Haven’t read it since (unlike The Witch of Blackbird Pond, which I just read last year).
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@MisterForkbeard:
@Roger Moore:
That’s true and fair. I still think they’re opening things up too soon. New variants could easily spread again that are resistant to available vaccines
Kent
That is what they are doing at my school district now that teachers and school staff are eligible here in WA. The district is holding it’s own shot clinics on-site and managing the sign-up through the school district’s internal computer systems. The “partner” health care providers just show up and stick arms. The district HR staff do all the administration.
KrackenJack
@Jeffro: Shouldn’t it be a Spartan heritage? Or am I just behind on my in-group messaging?
lowtechcyclist
@rikyrah:
My sentiments exactly.
Sure, the metrics are improving here in Maryland. But they’re still twice as high as they were in late June and early July of last year.
Fuck that worthless shithead with rusty farm implements.
Lyrebird
Makes me so irritated that people like R Douthat and C Cilizza (sp?) still get paid for their hot air and not more people like our front pagers here.
Dahlia
@quakerinabasement: From TvTropes: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GeniusDitz
I think this might be what you mean.
Amir Khalid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I have to partially disagree. Yes, Ross Douthat is a bad writer. No, he’s not pretty.
Lyrebird
@Kent: Hi this is OT, but if you read my reply, let me ask:
I am trying to write an article that relates to standardized testing. I would like to interview you. Zero promises that this will lead to anything big, but if you would be willing, please comment again or send Anne Laurie an email permitting her to share my RL contact information with you.
rikyrah
@Brachiator:
I feel both of you ??
rikyrah
Roger Moore
@dmsilev:
It seems to me that the logical approach would be to turn it over to healthcare providers to handle people with preexisting conditions rather than having them at the big vaccination sites. After all, it’s the providers who know which patients would be eligible in the first place, and most of them are actually interested in helping people. It does potentially leave things open to providers cheating by vaccinating whoever they want, but that would be true if you let them just tell the authorities who should be vaccinated.
Mike in NC
@dmsilev: I once borrowed the book on what Dr Seuss did in WW2 from the Fairfax County Public Library years ago. Crazy stuff by modern standards.
Dorothy A. Winsor
You all make me laugh
Ken
@Mike in NC: Though not half as crazy as what Julia Child and Christopher Lee did.
Roger Moore
@Kent:
The only problem with going on-site for vaccinations is that there are lots of small employers who just don’t have enough people to make it practical. It’s great if you’re a school system vaccinating its teachers, or even a supermarket that wants to vaccinate all employees. But a mom-and-pop restaurant or a family farm, both of which are eligible as food workers, might easily be too small to make it practical to send someone out.
Old Dan and Little Ann
I read The Phantom Tollbooth about 8 times over the years with small reading groups of 4th and 5th graders. Never a complaint. I would occasionally show a YouTube clip from the original movie. The Chroma Conductor scene was quintessential 70s trippy.
Kent
Sure….send me an email to kent dot lind at camas dot wednet dot edu
James E Powell
@lowtechcyclist:
AOC is no longer Republican Enemy #1?
Mo Salad
@Mary G:
Oopsie Doopsie.
Didn’t see yours before I also posted it about 20 down.
kindness
Douthat made his name writing a book saying the Nazi’s were liberals because the Nazi party had the word socialist in it’s title. He wrote a whole book that did nothing but tried to link modern liberals with the Nazi party.
I am not giving Ross any benefit of the doubt regarding this idiot ball. Ross Douthat is a real idiot. He says things that he has to know are complete fabrications. Yet he repeats them earnestly. Conservatism now days requires bad faith arguments as a basis. Bill Buckley would be both horrified and proud of them from what ever firey pit of hell he now exists in.
Amir Khalid
@James E Powell:
Soros is the permanent enemy. AOC is more like Eastasia/Oceania, the enemy we are at war with today.
TheflipPsyd
@lowtechcyclist: Rainn Wilson narrates the story on audible. It’s one of my go-tos for nights I can’t fall asleep. He does an excellent job bringing all the characters to life.
Glad to see there are others who enjoyed the book. I borrowed the movie from the library a few years ago. Chuck Jones’ work is very recognizable and well done.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@James E Powell:
Hell, I thought that was Pelosi. McCarthy wore that stupid “Pelosi Payoffs” button when the House passed the ARA so it could go on to the Senate
Ruckus
@Salty Sam:
It is a great feeling, after a year of worry, never going anywhere other than work and groceries, and many don’t haven’t even done that. As I’ve said here before, can’t do machine shop by zoom.
dmsilev
@rikyrah: See above about how some of my coworkers had their appointments canceled. They were caught up in that situation. The city public health department is in process of rebooking all of the legit appointments, first getting in touch with people by phone to confirm their eligibility. Which is tedious, which is why they didn’t do that initially.
Amir Khalid
@kindness:
Are you sure you’re not thinking of Jonah Goldberg?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Roger Moore: I was thinking the same thing, either the provider or pharmacy via prescription.
lowtechcyclist
@James E Powell:
What Amir Khalid said. Also, the things they attack AOC about at least have some relation to things she’s actually said or done. Soros and Antifa, though they actually exist, might as well be as fictional in our world as Emmanuel Goldstein was in the world of 1984, given the near-absence of any connection between what they actually do, and what the wingnuts claim they do.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Amir Khalid:
It’s ironic that Goldberg ended up being a Never Trumper
Gin & Tonic
@TheflipPsyd: Ooh, such a shame. That was also my favorite book for many years, which I also introduced to my own children. A couple of years ago I bought a brand-new, commemorative (50th anniversary?) edition.
Death Panel Truck
Probably Herman’s Head. Both he and Yeardley Smith were on that idiotic show.
Wolvesvalley
@TheflipPsyd: Oh, no! I am so sorry to know this.
I first encountered Juster’s work in college, when an art teacher had my design class read that small masterpiece, The Dot and the Line. I did not discover the wonders of The Phantom Tollbooth till several years later. I will have to get them both out and read them again.
“To the vector belong the spoils.” Always.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
After my first shot I was about 2% relieved.
After my second I got to about 95% relieved after 2 weeks. Was probably about 50% in 3 days, mainly because I felt like crap on toast for the first 2. I’m sleeping better, thinking slightly clearer and beginning to feel like there might be something to this retirement thing.
It feels more like life, rather than just existence.
ArchTeryx
@TheflipPsyd: Off to the Land Beyond Imagination to fight the Demons of Ignorance, I suppose. We could use all the help we can get there.
dr. luba
@Dorothy A. Winsor: That happened to me at a Bible study meeting (in India) when someone started talking about Obama, the ACA and the Mark of the Beast…..
I don’t think I’ll be invited back….
Miss Bianca
@Baud:
And here, Dear Reader, is where I lost it
@TheflipPsyd: Oh, noes! Phantom Tollbooth is one of my favorites, too. I’ll never forget my sixth-grade English teacher reading it out loud to us.
Omnes Omnibus
@germy:
I have no prosciutto.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud:
I am not really a fan of Lambos. They are a bit trop.
Sebastian
I would pay cash money if Psaki instead of “oh so this is the airplane of today” quipped “oh so you are carrying the ball today”
JustRuss
@TheflipPsyd: Loved The Phantom Tollbooth when I was a kid. Time to read it again.
WaterGirl
I have given The Phantom Tollbooth to more kids than I can count. What a treasure.
SWMBO
@WaterGirl: I just bought a copy for myself. And sent a copy to the great nephews…